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How to write a Reflection on Group Work Essay

Here are the exact steps you need to follow for a reflection on group work essay.

  • Explain what Reflection Is
  • Explore the benefits of group work
  • Explore the challenges group
  • Give examples of the benefits and challenges your group faced
  • Discuss how your group handled your challenges
  • Discuss what you will do differently next time

Do you have to reflect on how your group work project went?

This is a super common essay that teachers assign. So, let’s have a look at how you can go about writing a superb reflection on your group work project that should get great grades.

The essay structure I outline below takes the funnel approach to essay writing: it starts broad and general, then zooms in on your specific group’s situation.

how to write a reflection on group work essay

Disclaimer: Make sure you check with your teacher to see if this is a good style to use for your essay. Take a draft to your teacher to get their feedback on whether it’s what they’re looking for!

This is a 6-step essay (the 7 th step is editing!). Here’s a general rule for how much depth to go into depending on your word count:

  • 1500 word essay – one paragraph for each step, plus a paragraph each for the introduction and conclusion ;
  • 3000 word essay – two paragraphs for each step, plus a paragraph each for the introduction and conclusion;
  • 300 – 500 word essay – one or two sentences for each step.

Adjust this essay plan depending on your teacher’s requirements and remember to always ask your teacher, a classmate or a professional tutor to review the piece before submitting.

Here’s the steps I’ll outline for you in this advice article:

diagram showing the 6 step funnel approach to essays

Step 1. Explain what ‘Reflection’ Is

You might have heard that you need to define your terms in essays. Well, the most important term in this essay is ‘reflection’.

So, let’s have a look at what reflection is…

Reflection is the process of:

  • Pausing and looking back at what has just happened; then
  • Thinking about how you can get better next time.

Reflection is encouraged in most professions because it’s believed that reflection helps you to become better at your job – we could say ‘reflection makes you a better practitioner’.

Think about it: let’s say you did a speech in front of a crowd. Then, you looked at video footage of that speech and realised you said ‘um’ and ‘ah’ too many times. Next time, you’re going to focus on not saying ‘um’ so that you’ll do a better job next time, right?

Well, that’s reflection: thinking about what happened and how you can do better next time.

It’s really important that you do both of the above two points in your essay. You can’t just say what happened. You need to say how you will do better next time in order to get a top grade on this group work reflection essay.

Scholarly Sources to Cite for Step 1

Okay, so you have a good general idea of what reflection is. Now, what scholarly sources should you use when explaining reflection? Below, I’m going to give you two basic sources that would usually be enough for an undergraduate essay. I’ll also suggest two more sources for further reading if you really want to shine!

I recommend these two sources to cite when explaining what reflective practice is and how it occurs. They are two of the central sources on reflective practice:

  • Describe what happened during the group work process
  • Explain how you felt during the group work process
  • Look at the good and bad aspects of the group work process
  • What were some of the things that got in the way of success? What were some things that helped you succeed?
  • What could you have done differently to improve the situation?
  • Action plan. What are you going to do next time to make the group work process better?
  • What? Explain what happened
  • So What? Explain what you learned
  • Now What? What can I do next time to make the group work process better?

Possible Sources:

Bassot, B. (2015).  The reflective practice guide: An interdisciplinary approach to critical reflection . Routledge.

Brock, A. (2014). What is reflection and reflective practice?. In  The Early Years Reflective Practice Handbook  (pp. 25-39). Routledge.

Gibbs, G. (1988)  Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods . Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Extension Sources for Top Students

Now, if you want to go deeper and really show off your knowledge, have a look at these two scholars:

  • John Dewey – the first major scholar to come up with the idea of reflective practice
  • Donald Schön – technical rationality, reflection in action vs. reflection on action

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Step 2. Explore the general benefits of group work for learning

Once you have given an explanation of what group work is (and hopefully cited Gibbs, Rolfe, Dewey or Schon), I recommend digging into the benefits of group work for your own learning.

The teacher gave you a group work task for a reason: what is that reason?

You’ll need to explain the reasons group work is beneficial for you. This will show your teacher that you understand what group work is supposed to achieve. Here’s some ideas:

  • Multiple Perspectives. Group work helps you to see things from other people’s perspectives. If you did the task on your own, you might not have thought of some of the ideas that your team members contributed to the project.
  • Contribution of Unique Skills. Each team member might have a different set of skills they can bring to the table. You can explain how groups can make the most of different team members’ strengths to make the final contribution as good as it can be. For example, one team member might be good at IT and might be able to put together a strong final presentation, while another member might be a pro at researching using google scholar so they got the task of doing the initial scholarly research.
  • Improved Communication Skills. Group work projects help you to work on your communication skills. Communication skills required in group work projects include speaking in turn, speaking up when you have ideas, actively listening to other team members’ contributions, and crucially making compromises for the good of the team.
  • Learn to Manage Workplace Conflict. Lastly, your teachers often assign you group work tasks so you can learn to manage conflict and disagreement. You’ll come across this a whole lot in the workplace, so your teachers want you to have some experience being professional while handling disagreements.

You might be able to add more ideas to this list, or you might just want to select one or two from that list to write about depending on the length requirements for the essay.

Scholarly Sources for Step 3

Make sure you provide citations for these points above. You might want to use google scholar or google books and type in ‘Benefits of group work’ to find some quality scholarly sources to cite.

Step 3. Explore the general challenges group work can cause

Step 3 is the mirror image of Step 2. For this step, explore the challenges posed by group work.

Students are usually pretty good at this step because you can usually think of some aspects of group work that made you anxious or frustrated. Here are a few common challenges that group work causes:

  • Time Consuming. You need to organize meetups and often can’t move onto the next component of the project until everyone has agree to move on. When working on your own you can just crack on and get it done. So, team work often takes a lot of time and requires significant pre-planning so you don’t miss your submission deadlines!
  • Learning Style Conflicts. Different people learn in different ways. Some of us like to get everything done at the last minute or are not very meticulous in our writing. Others of us are very organized and detailed and get anxious when things don’t go exactly how we expect. This leads to conflict and frustration in a group work setting.
  • Free Loaders. Usually in a group work project there’s people who do more work than others. The issue of free loaders is always going to be a challenge in group work, and you can discuss in this section how ensuring individual accountability to the group is a common group work issue.
  • Communication Breakdown. This is one especially for online students. It’s often the case that you email team members your ideas or to ask them to reply by a deadline and you don’t hear back from them. Regular communication is an important part of group work, yet sometimes your team members will let you down on this part.

As with Step 3, consider adding more points to this list if you need to, or selecting one or two if your essay is only a short one.

8 Pros And Cons Of Group Work At University

You’ll probably find you can cite the same scholarly sources for both steps 2 and 3 because if a source discusses the benefits of group work it’ll probably also discuss the challenges.

Step 4. Explore the specific benefits and challenges your group faced

Step 4 is where you zoom in on your group’s specific challenges. Have a think: what were the issues you really struggled with as a group?

  • Was one team member absent for a few of the group meetings?
  • Did the group have to change some deadlines due to lack of time?
  • Were there any specific disagreements you had to work through?
  • Did a group member drop out of the group part way through?
  • Were there any communication break downs?

Feel free to also mention some things your group did really well. Have a think about these examples:

  • Was one member of the group really good at organizing you all?
  • Did you make some good professional relationships?
  • Did a group member help you to see something from an entirely new perspective?
  • Did working in a group help you to feel like you weren’t lost and alone in the process of completing the group work component of your course?

Here, because you’re talking about your own perspectives, it’s usually okay to use first person language (but check with your teacher). You are also talking about your own point of view so citations might not be quite as necessary, but it’s still a good idea to add in one or two citations – perhaps to the sources you cited in Steps 2 and 3?

Step 5. Discuss how your group managed your challenges

Step 5 is where you can explore how you worked to overcome some of the challenges you mentioned in Step 4.

So, have a think:

  • Did your group make any changes part way through the project to address some challenges you faced?
  • Did you set roles or delegate tasks to help ensure the group work process went smoothly?
  • Did you contact your teacher at any point for advice on how to progress in the group work scenario?
  • Did you use technology such as Google Docs or Facebook Messenger to help you to collaborate more effectively as a team?

In this step, you should be showing how your team was proactive in reflecting on your group work progress and making changes throughout the process to ensure it ran as smoothly as possible. This act of making little changes throughout the group work process is what’s called ‘Reflection in Action’ (Schön, 2017).

Scholarly Source for Step 5

Schön, D. A. (2017).  The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action . Routledge.

Step 6. Conclude by exploring what you will do differently next time

Step 6 is the most important step, and the one far too many students skip. For Step 6, you need to show how you not only reflected on what happened but also are able to use that reflection for personal growth into the future.

This is the heart and soul of your piece: here, you’re tying everything together and showing why reflection is so important!

This is the ‘action plan’ step in Gibbs’ cycle (you might want to cite Gibbs in this section!).

For Step 6, make some suggestions about how (based on your reflection) you now have some takeaway tips that you’ll bring forward to improve your group work skills next time. Here’s some ideas:

  • Will you work harder next time to set deadlines in advance?
  • Will you ensure you set clearer group roles next time to ensure the process runs more smoothly?
  • Will you use a different type of technology (such as Google Docs) to ensure group communication goes more smoothly?
  • Will you make sure you ask for help from your teacher earlier on in the process when you face challenges?
  • Will you try harder to see things from everyone’s perspectives so there’s less conflict?

This step will be personalized based upon your own group work challenges and how you felt about the group work process. Even if you think your group worked really well together, I recommend you still come up with one or two ideas for continual improvement. Your teacher will want to see that you used reflection to strive for continual self-improvement.

Scholarly Source for Step 6

Step 7. edit.

Okay, you’ve got the nuts and bolts of the assessment put together now! Next, all you’ve got to do is write up the introduction and conclusion then edit the piece to make sure you keep growing your grades.

Here’s a few important suggestions for this last point:

  • You should always write your introduction and conclusion last. They will be easier to write now that you’ve completed the main ‘body’ of the essay;
  • Use my 5-step I.N.T.R.O method to write your introduction;
  • Use my 5 C’s Conclusion method to write your conclusion;
  • Use my 5 tips for editing an essay to edit it;
  • Use the ProWritingAid app to get advice on how to improve your grammar and spelling. Make sure to also use the report on sentence length. It finds sentences that are too long and gives you advice on how to shorten them – such a good strategy for improving evaluative essay  quality!
  • Make sure you contact your teacher and ask for a one-to-one tutorial to go through the piece before submitting. This article only gives general advice, and you might need to make changes based upon the specific essay requirements that your teacher has provided.

That’s it! 7 steps to writing a quality group work reflection essay. I hope you found it useful. If you liked this post and want more clear and specific advice on writing great essays, I recommend signing up to my personal tutor mailing list.

Let’s sum up with those 7 steps one last time:

  • Explain what ‘Reflection’ Is
  • Explore the benefits of group work for learning
  • Explore the challenges of group work for learning
  • Explore the specific benefits and challenges your group faced
  • Discuss how your group managed your challenges
  • Conclude by exploring what you will do differently next time

Chris

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

  • Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Top Stakeholders in Education
  • Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ The Six Principles of Andragogy (Malcolm Knowles)
  • Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ What are Pedagogical Skills? - 15 Examples
  • Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 44 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Examples

2 thoughts on “How to write a Reflection on Group Work Essay”

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Great instructions on writing a reflection essay. I would not change anything.

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Thanks so much for your feedback! I really appreciate it. – Chris.

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Home Essay Samples Business Teamwork

My Experience Working in a Group: a Reflection

Table of contents, challenges of group work, benefits and learning opportunities, lessons learned.

  • Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). An educational psychology success story: Social interdependence theory and cooperative learning. Educational researcher, 38(5), 365-379.
  • Belbin, R. M. (2012). Team roles at work. Taylor & Francis.
  • Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-399.
  • Forsyth, D. R. (2014). Group dynamics (6th ed.). Cengage Learning.
  • Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (2015). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.

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Reflection Toolkit

Gibbs' Reflective Cycle

One of the most famous cyclical models of reflection leading you through six stages exploring an experience: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan.

Gibbs' Reflective Cycle was developed by Graham Gibbs in 1988 to give structure to learning from experiences.  It offers a framework for examining experiences, and given its cyclic nature lends itself particularly well to repeated experiences, allowing you to learn and plan from things that either went well or didn’t go well. It covers 6 stages:

  • Description of the experience
  • Feelings and thoughts about the experience
  • Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad
  • Analysis to make sense of the situation
  • Conclusion about what you learned and what you could have done differently
  • Action plan for how you would deal with similar situations in the future, or general changes you might find appropriate.

Below is further information on:

  • The model – each stage is given a fuller description, guiding questions to ask yourself and an example of how this might look in a reflection
  • Different depths of reflection – an example of reflecting more briefly using this model

This is just one model of reflection. Test it out and see how it works for you. If you find that only a few of the questions are helpful for you, focus on those. However, by thinking about each stage you are more likely to engage critically with your learning experience.

A circular diagram showing the 6 stages of Gibbs' Reflective cycle

This model is a good way to work through an experience. This can be either a stand-alone experience or a situation you go through frequently, for example meetings with a team you have to collaborate with. Gibbs originally advocated its use in repeated situations, but the stages and principles apply equally well for single experiences too. If done with a stand-alone experience, the action plan may become more general and look at how you can apply your conclusions in the future.

For each of the stages of the model a number of helpful questions are outlined below. You don’t have to answer all of them but they can guide you about what sort of things make sense to include in that stage. You might have other prompts that work better for you.

Description

Here you have a chance to describe the situation in detail. The main points to include here concern what happened. Your feelings and conclusions will come later.

Helpful questions:

  • What happened?
  • When and where did it happen?
  • Who was present?
  • What did you and the other people do?
  • What was the outcome of the situation?
  • Why were you there?
  • What did you want to happen?

Example of 'Description'

Here you can explore any feelings or thoughts that you had during the experience and how they may have impacted the experience.

  • What were you feeling during the situation?
  • What were you feeling before and after the situation?
  • What do you think other people were feeling about the situation?
  • What do you think other people feel about the situation now?
  • What were you thinking during the situation?
  • What do you think about the situation now?

Example of 'Feelings'

Here you have a chance to evaluate what worked and what didn’t work in the situation. Try to be as objective and honest as possible. To get the most out of your reflection focus on both the positive and the negative aspects of the situation, even if it was primarily one or the other.

  • What was good and bad about the experience?
  • What went well?
  • What didn’t go so well?
  • What did you and other people contribute to the situation (positively or negatively)?

Example of 'Evaluation'

The analysis step is where you have a chance to make sense of what happened. Up until now you have focused on details around what happened in the situation. Now you have a chance to extract meaning from it. You want to target the different aspects that went well or poorly and ask yourself why. If you are looking to include academic literature, this is the natural place to include it.

  • Why did things go well?
  • Why didn’t it go well?
  • What sense can I make of the situation?
  • What knowledge – my own or others (for example academic literature) can help me understand the situation?

Example of 'Analysis'

Conclusions.

In this section you can make conclusions about what happened. This is where you summarise your learning and highlight what changes to your actions could improve the outcome in the future. It should be a natural response to the previous sections.

  • What did I learn from this situation?
  • How could this have been a more positive situation for everyone involved?
  • What skills do I need to develop for me to handle a situation like this better?
  • What else could I have done?

Example of a 'Conclusion'

Action plan.

At this step you plan for what you would do differently in a similar or related situation in the future. It can also be extremely helpful to think about how you will help yourself to act differently – such that you don’t only plan what you will do differently, but also how you will make sure it happens. Sometimes just the realisation is enough, but other times reminders might be helpful.

  • If I had to do the same thing again, what would I do differently?
  • How will I develop the required skills I need?
  • How can I make sure that I can act differently next time?

Example of 'Action Plan'

Different depths of reflection.

Depending on the context you are doing the reflection in, you might want use different levels of details. Here is the same scenario, which was used in the example above, however it is presented much more briefly.

Adapted from

Gibbs G (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit. Oxford Polytechnic: Oxford.

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group work self reflection essay

A Reflection On Our Group Work – Georgia Barker.

Introduction:

In this project we helped the fitness company Vanquish improve on it’s digital marketing campaign by evaluating certain topics in which we, as a group, felt needed developing or improving.

Unfortunately, for many people group work is a negative experience. As I believe everyone is, at the beginning I was very nervous to be told we were expected to produce a group presentation for this module. When working with students who you have never met or spoken to before, it can be very daunting and, in our current circumstances , face to face interaction is long in the past so this made our task a whole lot harder.

See the source image

To begin our project, we began by setting up our own Microsoft teams room where we shared files and constructed our PowerPoint base and Word document for our script. We then went on to assign roles for each participant based on preference of which task we would like to complete. I saw this as chance to enrich my business knowledge so I decided to take on the task of completing and evaluating PESTLE and SWOT analysis’  of the company.

As each of us had different timetables to one another, we found it hard to organise meetings to discuss where we were at with our work. So, we decided to create a snapchat group chat to talk more frequently and also work on the shared documents in Microsoft Teams. As this group project was entirely online, I found it difficult to portray my ideas and suggestions to my team via text. However, the experience from working virtually with my team has really developed my skills in communication which will assist me in my future career paths. It has given me the confidence to perform better in the future. Adding to this, group work has helped me to develop my leadership skills by ensuring that all members of my group are motivated and working towards our common goal. Finally, to complete group work it is essential that organization skills are used and this project has helped me develop this skill. Organization is a vital part of group work. Deciding early what company we wanted to do and how we wanted to present our work was key in ensuring our work was competed to a high standard.

Almost 3 times a week we would talk to each other about our work and how far we have got with each part of the presentation. We would also help each other with questions we had in regards to our work or areas that we needed some support with. For instance I struggled to find certain points for part of my analysis but, through the combined knowledge of my team mates, they helped me develop an idea. We went through components of the GRIP Model to ensure highly effective teamwork by understanding the ‘goal’ in which we wanted to achieve and ensured that our goal to achieve a high grade were aligned with one another. Also, each group members knew exactly what roles they each has to play throughout this presentation and exactly what we were responsible for. Finally,  high levels of quality communication were used throughout the presentation and any conflicts were dealt with to help us make progress.

See the source image

Collaboration and involvement:

I can confidently say that each member of the group was as involved and committed as the other. We all thrive for good grades and our effort into the presentation and group work showed this. I expected my group to work well together to accomplish our shared goals based on the Social independence theory  since we all shared the same goals and wanted the same outcome. One of the primary things my group did well was working together. Each of us brought unique ideas and styles to the group work which all complemented our own presentation styles very well. This also gave each of us knowledge on different techniques that I will be able to use in the future.  We did however have to request an extension on our work because as a small group of 3 we were at a disadvantage to the other groups who had 4/5 members in their team. This effectively slowed us down with our work contributions as we had more tasks to do and we had to ensure a fair amount of tasks were given to each member.

Conclusion:

To conclude, this experience has enhanced various different skills that will be required of me in future careers. Overall, I believe we have done a good job on our presentation and have worked efficiently as a group to complete our project. If I were to do this project again, I would ensure that I communicate more frequently with my group and introduce days of a week where we can have meetings to review what we have done and what we will continue to do to ensure that we are not pushed for a deadline. As they say, practise makes perfect and I feel that next time, to perfect my presentation, I will encourage my group to practise a few more times together to ensure that we get the bet possible grade. I look forward to more group work projects in the future to help me understand further how to work with more team dynamics.

References:

Beckhard, R., 1972. 4.2 Five Models for Understanding Team Dynamics. [Online] Available at: https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/chapter/understandingteamdynamics/ [Accessed 11 February 2021].

Johnson, D. &. J. R., 1995. Social Interdependence Theory by Johnson & Johnson. [Online] Available at: http://www.ceebl.manchester.ac.uk/events/archive/aligningcollaborativelearning/Johnson_Johnson.pdf [Accessed 11 February 2021].

My Learning Essentials, 2019. Essential skills for group work. [Online] Available at: https://medium.com/my-learning-essentials/essential-skills-for-group-work-73a88e0dcee1 [Accessed 11 February 2021].

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Supporting Students to Reflect on their Group Work

To develop group skills, students need to do more than just complete group tasks. Along the way, it's important that they reflect on group processes. Reflection can be informal or formal (built into assessment). Students can reflect individually or in groups.

Students can reflect on both the processes and products of group work. When incorporating reflective activities into group work, it is important that students have the opportunity to apply what they have learnt through their reflections to future tasks to improve their learning. This section outlines a number of ways to build reflection into group tasks and projects.

Helping students monitor their development and reflect on their performance

Reflective activities.

To develop effective group skills, students need to practise using their skills and reflect on what worked and did not work. This helps them form generalised principles based on their experience, which then inform their future actions.

You can use one or more of the following strategies to help your students reflect on their group work skills. Depending on the nature of your group task or project, you might include a reflective activity during the task or at its completion. For example, at the end of the group task, students could submit a collaborative reflective report on group processes, or they could reflect on how to in the future by completing the student exercise: Planning ahead—What can I do better next time? ).

Helping students identify how they can improve

The following exercise helps students to think about their experiences in groups, about the group's functioning and about their individual roles and contributions to the group. Importantly, it also helps students to identify how the group might function more effectively next time. Using the prompts, students can reflect individually, then discuss their responses in groups or as a class.

Student exercise

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Reflecting on Group Presentation with Rolfe’s Reflective Cycle Essay

Over the course of the last decade, reflective practice in the advancement of knowledge in a plethora of areas, including business, education, social work, and healthcare, has been becoming continuously more widespread. Patel and Metersky (2021) state that reflection is considered to improve learning, which is why it is so popular in so many spheres. According to Schwind and Manankil-Rankin (2020), deliberate reflection on any experience gives meaning to people’s three ways: of being, knowing, and doing (or, alternatively, ontology, epistemology, and praxis). When it comes to the most widely used reflective models, Rolfe’s reflective cycle is one of these, and it is deemed applicable in any context due to its clarity and subsequent ease of employment (Galutira, 2018). The following reflective essay uses this model to guide my thinking about teamwork, leadership, and time management in relation to creating a group Powerpoint presentation. The aims of this essay are to evaluate the experience of such a type of work and to describe how the things I have learned can be applied to my future nursing practice.

Rolfe’s reflective cycle is a reflective model created to help people assess their experiences or empirical learning activities. In terms of group and teamwork, Rolfe’s model is an effective tool for each member to evaluate how they can improve their teamwork skills ( Use the ‘What? So what? Now what?’ model, no date). This method’s history dates back to the 1970s when an American schoolteacher Terry Borton wrote a book in which he proposed a reflective practice framework founded on three questions: what? so what? and now what?

Borton’s scheme was adapted for clinical use by John Driscoll, although his version could be implemented in various disciplines. In addition to that, Rolfe et al. took Borton’s model and refined it further for use in a clinical setting and pastoral work ( What? So what? Now what? model of reflection , no date). Rolfe and his colleagues left the structure of Borton’s scheme unchanged but expanded each question to include extra questions to stimulate deeper reflection. As stated by Business Bliss Consultants FZE (2018), this is aimed at increasing self-awareness, analysis skills, and skills of problem-solving. The ‘what?’ phase of Rolfe’s model contains questions to help objectively review what took place. The ‘so what?’ phase is a more subjective study of the consequences. Finally, the ‘now what?’ phase is a look at the way the lessons learned can be beneficial for the future.

I believe that the main reason why my group succeeded in creating a presentation without major quarrels or disagreements was because of our good teamwork, which was due to the strategy we all agreed upon for the working process. This strategy consisted of having each member of the team assigned a specific task in the beginning based on what each person is good at – for instance, finding appropriate references, doing research, or creating presentations. We communicated to check where everyone was with their part of the work every week. However, it would have been harder to do had our group been larger; but since there were five of us, communication was effective, and each person’s voice was always heard. To interact with one another, we created a WhatsApp group chat, and while it proved to be productive, we still felt that a lack of face-to-face meetings was a significant drawback. Moreover, for our work to be more organized, we selected a team leader, Wendy, who was chosen due to her having had experience with working in groups and making presentations before.

In addition to that, one unfortunate circumstance that I found myself facing was my poor time management skills. It seems that I had initially underestimated the amount of work it would take for me to finish my part of the task. As a result, in the final stages of preparation, I worked for hours in the end and felt exhausted when it was done. However, since our group scored an A, I consider it all to have been worth it.

What this experience tells me about myself is that I have to be less confident when approaching such tasks and put more effort into planning how, when, and what exactly to do. This is especially important when working in groups or teams because other people rely on you to do your work efficiently and timely. Academic literature on effective team communication points at the necessity of each member of the team to feel that they are responsible for the final outcome (Harris and Sherblom, 2018). In addition to that, according to Marlow et al. (2018), when it comes to a successful group, it is not the frequency of communication but its quality that matters. It explains why us discussing things in a group chat once a week was more than enough for the eventual success of the project.

Moreover, this experience taught me that for group work to be productive, there must be a leader in a team. As I have mentioned earlier, we appointed Wendy to be our leader, and I believe that had it not been for her, it would have been more difficult for us to make progress. As per Northouse (2021), a true leader is someone who is focused on developing others, leads by example, and ensures that the communication between team members is effective. All of this is about Wendy, who was an inspiration for all of us to aim to work harder and was always there to help anyone who struggled with anything.

I believe that I have learned a lot from working on this project with my peers. First of all, for the sake of not only my mental health but also other people succeeding, I plan to start working on my time management skills. In addition to that, I will ensure that I remember everything that I have learned about group work and apply it to the next team project in which I will participate. In terms of how I can apply the reflections on our work to my future nursing practice, I now have an understanding of how to be an effective team player and a good leader. Both of these qualities are important to deliver safe and high-quality nursing care, which is my, and every other nurse’s, ultimate goal.

In conclusion, reflective practice is essential to improving learning and evaluating one’s skills for future development. One of the most effective and popular reflective models is Rolfe’s reflective cycle, which is based on a person asking themselves three simple questions: what? so what, and now what? When expanded into a series of additional queries, these give one an opportunity to analyze their work and think of ways to enhance it. I applied it in assessing the work of my group on a presentation and found that it is extremely efficient in supplying one with food for thought and identifying benefits and drawbacks. I will use the knowledge that I have gained from working with this reflective model in my future nursing practice to be a great team player and a successful leader.

Reference List

Business Bliss Consultants FZE (2018) Rolfe’s reflective cycle . Web.

Galutira, G.D. (2018) ‘Theory of reflective practice in nursing’, International Journal of Nursing Science , 8(3), pp. 51-56.

Harris, T.E. and Sherblom, J.C. (2018) Small group and team communication . Waveland Press.

Marlow, S.L., Lacerenza, C.N., Paoletti, J., Burke, C.S. and Salas, E. (2018) ‘Does team communication represent a one-size-fits-all approach?: a meta-analysis of team communication and performance’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 144, pp.145-170.

Northouse, P.G. (2021) Leadership: theory and practice . Sage Publications.

Patel, K.M. and Metersky, K. (2021) ‘Reflective practice in nursing: a concept analysis’, International Journal of Nursing Knowledge , 33(3), pp. 180-187.

Schwind, J. K. and Manankil-Rankin, L. (2020) ‘Using narrative reflective process to augment personal and aesthetic ways of knowing to support holistic person-centred relational practice’, Reflective Practice , 21(4), pp. 473–483.

Use the ‘What? So what? Now what?’ model: a great example of reflective questioning (no date). Web.

What? So what? Now what? model of reflection (no date). Web.

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Self Reflection Essay Examples

Example of a self reflection essay, strengths, values and perseverance shape your personality.

Over the years, through the highs and lows life has got me through, I have been fortunate enough to understand my personality as an individual. Now, I am more aware of my strengths that I can thrive on and my weaknesses that need to be

Self Reflection Essay Examples

 worked on. I have a better understanding of how I can learn, unlearn and relearn things. All these factors add up to my overall personality.

As simple as it may sound, a self reflection essay is not as easy as it may seem. When you fully immerse yourself in the thought process, it may seem challenging. Think of self assessment essay as an experiential journey where you impart the experience you have gained and the ideas that you have come up with, over the years. A self reflection essay is a personal piece of writing that narrates your experiences. Let’s have a look at the key elements that make up a English self reflection essay for students.

Strengths, Motivators, Values and Personality

It is key to understand your strengths and make ways to thrive on them. Once you highlight your strong attributes, you get to values, the stable goals that are set in life and the most important factors to an individual.

To me, self-respect is of utmost importance. I am proud of who I am today, irrespective of the poor decisions that I have made in life. I don’t have any regrets, as each of those decisions gave me a life lesson.

Today, as an individual, I exhibit confidence, I am flexible with an open mind, I respect my seniors and am respectful towards my peers and those who are younger than me. I have an optimistic attitude and believe life is too short to be a pessimist.

Besides the positive attitude that i have towards life i wouldn’t say that i have it all figured out, it’s a complex phenomenon. Primarily which is why I have this curiosity that makes me question the surroundings, the good and the bad that happens.

As an individual, I am always punctual. I like to go out but am not very social. I feel socializing makes me anxious, especially when it’s a total stranger on the other end. But whenever I do interact with people, I make sure that I am honest about who I am and try to give the other individual the space he/she needs to feel comfortable communicating.

Talking about positive experiences in life, I have had a chance to get quite a few of them when I graduated from college, when I got my first promotion at work and when I bought myself a home. Such cherishable memories.

My college experience was life altering, I understood my potential and my tolerance threshold that added to my confidence level. I also learned how to handle different social situations and to have an open mind that accepts imperfections in people, everyone has their own special strengths. These are some of the factors that further helped me thrive at my workplace and lead me to getting my first house ever.

As a normal person, I have had my share of challenging moments as well. Recession hit us hard, but it was the hardest when I was laid off and lost a loved one. It was the darkest time of my life where I felt a gush of emotions, sad, angry, lonely and in denial. I was upset at everyone, even God and blamed myself for every single thing that had happened in this time.

I was devastated, but time heals everything. I was lucky enough to get  myself out of this darkness and rediscover myself. However, the experiences shaped me into the person I am today. It was only because of the positive attitude and self belief that I was able to find learning lessons in such difficult times and came out as a better improved version of myself.

My family is very supportive and the driving factor behind my motivation. My parents and siblings encourage me to live life to the fullest and that everyday counts. With my positive attitude, I want to bring positive changes in the society that have a lasting effect. Everyday is an opportunity for me to learn something new and grow simultaneously.

Perseverance is Key to a Content Life

It is my belief that if I keep up the optimistic approach, I will be able to impact society in a positive manner. Also, I want to clarify when I talk about changing the society, it’s not the society as a whole, but in fact impacting few individuals who will be inspired to lead a better life.

Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out – Robert Collier

I believe that success is a journey and not a destination. Success is that realization in the morning that someone somewhere is leading a better life because I was able to make a difference. This satisfying feeling that I get by helping others experience a change is what leads me to my leadership journey.

In my role as a leader, I am able to bring about that change in people that makes people’s lives healthier, more secure and satisfied.

Key Elements that Shape up a Good Leader

Emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence is a key trait in a leader. It helps manage strong emotions such as fear, anger and sadness. These emotions are usually triggered by the loss of a loved one, or a series of difficult events in life. When an individual is emotionally intelligent, he/she is better equipped to manage themselves and the ones around them because they are self-aware. Emotional intelligence fosters empathy, the ability to put oneself in other people’s shoes and understand things from their view point.

Values and Personality

The values of an individual and the kind of personality they have decides if they can be shaped into leaders. If someone aspires to be a leader, that individual ought to have certain traits that are in sync with the organizational structure and the job description. The attributes I bring to my leadership style include self-respect, flexibility, open-mindedness, family values and the ability to move past things make me suitable for the role of a leader.

Conclusion – The Journey Ahead

The bottom line is that the surroundings and experiences of an individual shapes up the personality of an individual. There are different factors that support this phenomenon that include strength, motivational factors and values. If a person is flexible enough, he/she can adapt to the changing environment and thrive in life. In order to do that, one needs to have empathy, a yearning to learn and good social skills. Life has taught me a lot of things so far with different experiences in life, and I look forward to the journey ahead after writing my self-assessment essay

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Critical Self Reflection Essay Example

My journey towards personal growth, introduction.

Writing a Self reflection is a crucial factor of personal development because it helps the individual to highlight their strengths to thrive on and identify weaknesses to mark areas for improvement. One of the key advantages of critical self reflection is that you get

group work self reflection essay

 a very clear understanding of yourself. Very often we hold on to preconceived things about ourselves without ensuring their credibility. When we undergo a critical self evaluation, we get to challenge these assumptions and get a clear perspective on things.

This critical self reflection essay sample will shed light on my journey that led to personal growth. By writing this essay I aim to analyze my experiences and the choices that I made so I can better understand what factors added to the learning process and what steps I took to refine myself and get to the place where I am today.

The Journey Towards Personal Growth

Highlighting areas of improvement.

When I started my self-reflection journey, the first thing that popped up was that I tend to procrastinate. Whether it was about a simple task of completing the assignment or something bigger like achieving personal goals, I had a habit of leaving things to the last day. I realized, whenever I took this approach I not only compromised my ability to perform but also was not able to perform to the best of my potential. I had so much that I could do to add value.

Seeking Personal Growth

Once I highlighted my weakness, I realized this needed to change. I started looking for ways and strategies actively that would help me overcome this tendency to procrastinate. I attended some time-management workshops, read articles and books on how to increase productivity and sought guidance from individuals who overcame this problem successfully. Luckily, all my efforts put to use lead me to develop organizational skills, align task with respect to priority and eventually a more productive me. I am proud of myself.

Taking New Challenges Head On

Further, to support my personal growth, I understood that I am not flexible enough to step out of my comfort zone, that had to change. I purposely sought after challenging tasks academically, personally and professionally. At first the fear of the unknown was overwhelming for me but then I quickly learned to adapt to different situations and was able to solve problems effectively. This practice helped me build resilience.

Developing Self Awareness

Once I developed the sense of self awareness, it altered my life and acted as a key factor towards my personal growth journey. During the critical reflective analysis of my thoughts I was very conscious of my thinking process, the emotions I was feeling and my actions.

It is during this reflective process I noticed that I also have negative emotions such as fear of failure or self doubt. All of which are natural but not normal if I let them persist. When I realized this, I started taking proactive measures to take them head on by addressing them. Since I was now aware of my strengths and weaknesses, I was more regulated and could make decisions in an effective manner that would in turn add value to my personal growth.

Accepting Constructive Criticism Gracefully

The ability to receive feedback and embrace criticism in a positive manner is important for the growth of an individual. At first, I was offended easily and found embracing criticism very challenging, but now that I have learned the importance of criticism and how it helps me improve my personality and refine my skills, I have learned to accept it gracefully and wholeheartedly. Now I pay full attention to the feedback, listen carefully, perform an objective analysis and then implement the changes that are necessary to improve my performance as an individual.

Enhance the Ability to Empathize

During this journey of critical self reflection I learned that it has enhanced my ability to empathize with others. As I engaged myself into questioning my own bias, I paid more attention to how other people feel and think, their perspective mattered to me.

This led me to gain deeper insight into the complex thought process and behavioral patterns of humans and how several factors add to shaping it. This new sense of being empathetic helped me build stronger relationships and communicate as well as collaborate with others. It enabled me to step out of my comfort zone and have a wider view of people’s thought process with diverse perspectives.

Self-Care is of Utmost Importance

Throughout, this critical reflective analysis has been a great learning point for me and made me realize that selfcare is of utmost importance. I need to pay heed to my physical and mental well being only then can I strive for positive personal growth.

To inculcate self-care into my routine, I started practicing mindful techniques, added physical exercise to my routine and made sure I took proper rest so that my body gets to relax.

The effects of adding these to my routine were amazing, not only did my body and mind feel relaxed but also boosted my productivity level and the overall outlook on life.

The Final Say – Conclusion

Lastly, it is important to note that personal growth is not a one time thing. Individuals need to adapt themselves according to their changing environments. By conducting a critical self reflection analysis I have realized that I have set on a transformative journey that will add to my personal growth by making me more productive.

Through this amazing  journey I was able to highlight my strengths, mark my areas of improvement, sought personal growth, challenged myself, became more self aware and accepted constructive criticism which led me to become a better version of myself. I believe success is not a destination but a continuous journey. I look forward to this fruitful and life altering journey where I get a chance to grow in all aspects of life.

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Self Reflection Essay On Group Work Example

Self reflection on a group work can be explained as the voluntary collaboration of members who benefit from cooperative learning that enhances the overall output of the activity in comparison to if it was done individually. As beneficial as it is, working in groups can be quite challenging as well. Each member may have a different perspective and may not agree on the same thing.

Group work is fundamental for professional and academic life. Building connections via collaboration, it promotes different viewpoints and provides opportunities that lead to individual and collective growth. I had the opportunity to take part in a group project for my Sociology course recently where I had a challenging yet enlightening experience.

In this English self reflection essay on group work I will do an analysis of the role i played within the group, how did the dynamics change and what lessons did i get to learn on this valuable journey.

Overview of the Project and Group Composition

We formed a group of four members, each of the members coming from a different background, each exhibiting a different skill set and each of them having a different perspective on things. The project required a research study to be performed on a local social issue and then presenting the project findings to the class.

This project was challenging because it required creativity, critical thinking, effective collaboration and coordination. Moreover, we were able to apply the classroom knowledge in theory to practical use in a hands-on situation.

My Role and Value Additions

It was decided during the early stage of the project that I would be the group leader. This role came with a lot of responsibility where I had to manage meetings, set deadlines and ensure smooth communication among team members. Initially, I was a bit apprehensive about taking on such a big responsibility but then I realized it is a chance for me to learn and would help in my personal growth. I am glad I took the decision to continue because I learned effective communication skills, better time management skills and was also able to devise conflict resolution strategies.

Additionally, while I managed all these responsibilities as a leader, I supported my team by actively participating in conducting research. While I was at it, I enjoyed conducting interviews, data collection and data analysis. It was such a wonderful experience where I got to witness the strength of working in a team and how each of our individual efforts added to the comprehensive understanding of the project.

Dynamics and Challenges of the Group

When different people work together, conflicts and challenges are imminent. Just like any other group working as a team, ours had our own set of challenges. One of the most prominent issues that arose was about the direction of our research, different members have different opinions. While these differences of opinions created some tension in the group we soon realized that our distinctive viewpoints can help add value to our study. Instead of negating the opinions, we strategized and integrated them in our analysis.

Another major challenge for us was to align our variable schedules so that we all can sit together and work on the project. Furthermore, maintaining a balance between coursework, personal commitments and this project was quite overwhelming. In order to overcome this problem we decided to create a shared calendar online where everyone can see the team’s schedule. Also, each team member was considerate and flexible when it came to meeting schedules.

The Learning Experience

While working in the group as a team, I have gained the following experiences and insights:

  • Development as a Leader: In my role as a group leader I learned several skills that helped me develop into a good leader, these include organizing meetings, delegation of work and conflict management. In this role I realized that to become an effective leader I had to juggle between guiding the group and developing a collaborative environment.
  • Diverse Perspectives: I realized if a group leader embraces diversity and respects the different backgrounds then a rich and well curated outcome can be achieved. The best thing about different perspectives was that it forced us to see one thing with several angles, this critical analysis led to a more enhanced, quality oriented research.
  • Effective Communication: In any team or a group, communication is key. Clear, concise, and regular communication helped us in overcoming challenges quickly and effectively. Also, it maintained a sense of unity and harmony in the group.
  • Flexibility: It was essential to adapt to different working styles. Each of the group members exhibited great understanding of the fact that diversity would help reach us more comprehensive solutions.
  • Conflict Management: What caused tension in the beginning soon became our strength where we solved conflicts effectively. We no longer avoided disagreements but welcomed them as they helped improve our decisions.
  • Time Management: Without a doubt, balancing work and individual roles is challenging. I managed tasks by prioritizing them which helped me in timely delivery.

Conclusion / The Last Word

Working as a group has been a great learning experience that has played a vital and pivotal role in my academic journey. This project served as a growth opportunity personally and professionally. Through the process, I also understood how collaboration and adaptability along with effective communication can take your project to a whole new level, in varying circumstances.

Besides the conflicts and the tension created by being diverse members, I learned to appreciate the value of diverse perspectives. Also, I understood that diversity brings in more effective solutions to complex problems. Going forward, these lessons helped boost my confidence which would add value to future group collaborations both academically and professionally.

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Self Reflection Essay

Self reflection essay generator.

group work self reflection essay

What goes through your mind when you have to write a self reflection essay? Do you ponder on your life choices, the actions you take to get where you want to be or where you are now? If you answered yes and yes to both of the questions, you are on the right track and have some idea on what a reflection essay would look like. This article would help give you more ideas on how to write a self reflection essay , how it looks like, what to put in it and some examples for you to use. So what are you waiting for? Check these out now.

10+ Self Reflection Essay Examples

1. self reflection essay template.

Self Reflection Essay Template

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2. Project Self Reflection Essay

Project Self Reflection Essay

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3. Final Self Reflection Essay

Final Self Reflection Essay

4. Internship Self Reflection Essay

Internship Self Reflection Essay

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5. Student Self Reflection Essay

Student Self Reflection Essay

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6. Basic Self Reflection Essay

Basic Self Reflection Essay

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7. College Self Reflection Essay

College Self Reflection Essay

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8. Self Reflection Essay Rubric

Self Reflection Essay Rubric

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9. Standard Self Reflection Essay

Standard Self Reflection Essay

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10. Persuasive Essays Student Self-Reflection

Persuasive Essays Student Self-Reflection

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11. Self Reflection Essay in Higher Education

Self Reflection Essay in Higher Education

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Defining Self

A person’s self that is different from the rest. On occasions it is considered as an object of a person’s view.

Defining Self Reflection

A self reflection is often described as taking a step back to reflect on your life. To take a break and observe how far you have become, the obstacles you have gone through and how they have affected your life, behavior and belief.

Defining Self Reflection Essay

A self- reflection essay is a type of essay that makes you express the experiences you have gone through in life based on a topic you have chosen to write about. It is a personal type of essay that you write about.  It makes you reflect on your life and journey to who you are today. The struggles, the fears, the triumphs and the actions you have taken to arrive at your current situation.

Tips on Writing a Self Reflection Essay

When writing a self reflection essay, there are some guidelines and formats to follow. But I am here to give you some tips to write a very good self reflection essay. These tips are easy to follow and they are not as complicated as some might believe them to be. Let’s begin. To write a good self reflection essay, one must first do:

  • Think : Think about what you want to write. This is true for the title of your essay as well. Thinking about what to write first can save you a lot of time. After this tip, we move on to the next one which is:
  • Drafting : As much as it sounds like a waste of time and effort, drafting what you are preparing to write is helpful. Just like in the first tip, drafting is a good way of writing down what you want and to add or take out what you will be writing later.
  • State the purpose : Why are you writing this essay? State the purpose of the essay . As this is a self reflective essay, your purpose is to reflect on your life, the actions you did to reach this point of your life. The things you did to achieve it as well.
  • Know your audience : Your self reflection essay may also depend on your audience. If you are planning on reading out loud your essay, your essay should fit your audience. If your audience is your team members, use the correct wording.
  • Share your tips: This essay gives you the opportunity to share how you have achieved in life. Write down some tips for those who want to be able to achieve the same opportunity you are in right now.

How long or short can my self reflection essay be?

This depends on you. You may write a short self reflection essay, and you may also write a long one. The important thing there is stating the purpose of you writing your essay.

Writing a self reflection essay, am I allowed to write everything about my life?

The purpose of the self reflection essay is to reflect on a topic you choose and to talk about it.

Is there a limit of words to write this type of essay?

Yes, as much as possible stick to 300-700 words. But even if it may be this short, don’t forget to get creative and true in your essay.

A self reflective essay is a type of essay that people write to reflect on their lives. To reflect on a certain topic of their life and talk about it. Most of the time, this type of essay is short because this is merely to take a step back and watch your life throughout the beginning till the present time. Writing this type of essay may be a bit difficult for some as you have to dive deep into your life and remember the triumphs and the loss. The beauty of this essay though is the fact that you are able to see how far you have reached, how far you have overcome.

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Moving from individual contributions to team achievements in group projects

Putting the emphasis on a deliberate, reflective approach that emphasises clear goals and active engagement is a better way to prepare students for teamwork in their future careers, write William Owen and Leah Chambers

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How students’ genai skills affect assignment instructions, turn individual wins into team achievements in group work, access and equity: two crucial aspects of applied learning, emotions and learning: what role do emotions play in how and why students learn.

Some students thrive in the collaborative environment of group work; others grapple with disparities in contributions and conflicting goals. A 2003  survey by Jane Burdett from the University of South Australia revealed that 36 per cent of students in a final-year business course did not enjoy group work, citing uneven workload and contributions as major concerns. Moreover, Alistair Mutch, of Nottingham Trent University, had earlier  indicated that the dynamics and tensions within academic group settings mirror those in professional teamwork scenarios. These observations suggest a pressing need for educational strategies that better equip students for collaboration in their future workplace.

We have identified several points where group work could be improved: clearer learning outcomes, better communication, and a focus on individual responsibility and active engagement.

Be clear about the goal of group projects 

A lack of clarity regarding learning objectives for group projects can be a key factor in exacerbating group tensions, according to Mutch. For example, suppose one of the learning outcomes was to prepare students for team-based projects in the workforce. In that case, we as educators would need to articulate this and design the project to support that outcome. Instead, many instructors simply infer that team-based outcomes arise from these group interactions. 

Give students individual tasks and responsibilities

Donald R. Bacon of the University of Denver  demonstrated that group projects in business schools might need to be revised to fulfil their educational goals. His 2005 study revealed that students who completed projects individually learned more of the project-related content than those who worked in groups, suggesting a gap between group goals and individual accountability. Bacon’s research underscores the need to rethink the design and implementation of group projects within educational settings. Aligning more closely with principles of collaborative learning will ensure both group engagement and individual responsibility.

Communicate the aims of group work with your students

If we aim to embed learning outcomes that move students from independent contributions to group projects to more collaborative and team-based contributions , we must clearly identify the outcome(s) and communicate how the learners will acquire those skills. We know that effective workplace teams develop over time. B. W. Tuckman’s 1965  stages of group development – forming, storming, norming and performing – provide a theoretical framework for understanding team dynamics. The ability to communicate and coordinate the group project sub-tasks increases as group members move through these stages. However, the constrained timelines of academic schedules, where group projects are often initiated a few weeks into or midway through a semester, limit the natural progression through these stages and make it harder for groups to develop teamwork skills within a semester.

A strategy to give students the skills to work together

To address these challenges, we use pre-project group development tasks in psychology courses to accelerate the “forming and storming” phases of group development and achieve more effective collaborative and cohesive outcomes. Before initiating the group project, we require the learners to engage in self-reflection and share the outcomes with their group. These activities are recorded and submitted as part of the project. Also, during the initial stages of the project, students use their analysis of group strengths to assign roles and tasks for working together as a team on the group project.

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  • Four strategies that rethink whole-group discussions

We have employed this framework for group projects across second-year and fourth-year psychology classes, as well as in subject areas such as psychology of leadership and psycholinguistics. First, students complete a simple self-evaluation of their task versus relational leadership behavioural preferences (adapted from Peter G. Northouse’s 2009  Leadership: Theory and Practice ). We use this questionnaire to help the group project members to recognise their general inclinations towards either task achievement or fostering people-related connections. 

Following a session where they share, discuss and document each other’s leadership strengths, group members collaborate to identify the stages and responsibilities required to achieve the project outcome. For instance, should the team decide to create a podcast exploring whether other primates use language or communication, they may identify essential steps such as content research, production research (for example, how to create an engaging podcast), drafting, rehearsal, in-class delivery and report write-up. After identifying roles and sub-tasks, the group indicates who is responsible for which task and why they are best suited to it. This process fosters a transparent distribution of responsibilities and provides a mechanism for individual and team accountabilities.

A systematic approach to reflection and sharing expedites the progress through the forming and storming stages of group collaboration while fostering stronger team cohesion. This pre-project endeavour significantly influences the evaluation of team synergy and elevates the project’s overall calibre. Student feedback attests to their personal growth in both task-related proficiency and relational strengths, which in turn amplify the team’s cohesion. Moreover, student testimonials reveal a marked improvement in their perception of this group project compared with prior experiences. The process of moving from team formation to effective teamwork was smoothly facilitated and highly appreciated.

Making group work relevant to workplace skills

Enhancing the clarity of learning outcomes, particularly those directly tied to workplace team skills, significantly boosts the relevance of group projects. Additionally, integrating individual reflections on strengths in task- and relational-based behaviours, which are then shared with team members, provides a firm foundation for swift progression through groups’ forming and storming phases. This fundamentally shifts individuals from merely making independent contributions to the project to actively contributing to the collective achievements of the team.

By reimagining group projects as a platform for meaningful collaboration and personal growth, we can prepare students more effectively for the complexities of teamwork in their future careers. This shift requires moving away from traditional, loosely structured methodologies towards a more deliberate, reflective approach that emphasises clear goals, active engagement and leveraging individual strengths.

William J. Owen is interim vice-president academic and provost, and Leah Chambers is a sessional instructor and PhD candidate in the department of psychology, both at the University of Northern British Columbia, Canada. 

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  1. Gibbs Reflective Essay On Group Work

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  4. Group Work Reflection Example Free Essay Example

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  5. 📚 Self-Reflective Writing on Teamwork

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  6. 50 Best Reflective Essay Examples (+Topic Samples) ᐅ TemplateLab

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  6. REFLECTION ESSAY

COMMENTS

  1. How to write a Reflection on Group Work Essay (2024)

    Here are the exact steps you need to follow for a reflection on group work essay. Explain what Reflection Is. Explore the benefits of group work. Explore the challenges group. Give examples of the benefits and challenges your group faced. Discuss how your group handled your challenges. Discuss what you will do differently next time.

  2. Self-Reflection On My Experiences Working In A Group: [Essay Example

    A Reflection on My Experience Working in a Group. Working in a group increases the productivity and improves once performance. This semester, I and other 4 of my classmates were assigned to make a group assignment with a topic of "Agencies that deals with emotional/physical disabilities". The purpose of this essay is to discuss my ...

  3. Reflection Paper on Group Work: [Essay Example], 591 words

    Published: Mar 20, 2024. Table of contents. Group work is a common practice in academic settings, with many courses incorporating group projects and assignments as part of the curriculum. In this reflection paper, I will discuss my experiences with group work, the challenges I have faced, and the lessons I have learned from working in a team.

  4. A reflection on my experience of working in a group

    A reflection on my experience of working in a group. Posted on February 7, 2021. Introduction - The project that I have been involved in was to make a presentation for our chosen company to review their current digital marketing campaign and to make recommendations on how to improve it. The company that we chose was The Bok Shop, "a free ...

  5. My Experience Working in a Group: a Reflection

    Conclusion. In conclusion, the phrase "my experience working in a group" encapsulates a journey marked by challenges, benefits, and personal growth. While conflicts and differing opinions can pose hurdles, the advantages of. diverse perspectives, skill development, and life lessons make group work a worthwhile endeavor. As I reflect.

  6. Gibbs' Reflective Cycle

    Gibbs' Reflective Cycle was developed by Graham Gibbs in 1988 to give structure to learning from experiences. It offers a framework for examining experiences, and given its cyclic nature lends itself particularly well to repeated experiences, allowing you to learn and plan from things that either went well or didn't go well. It covers 6 stages:

  7. Group Work Reflection Example

    Group Work Reflection Example. In today's work culture and dynamic environment educational institutions and organizations require students and employees to work together in groups at certain tolerant and coordinative levels, thus proving "experience of working in group or teams" (Blease, 2006 cited Kelly, and P.2007).

  8. A Reflection On Our Group Work

    A Reflection On Our Group Work - Georgia Barker. Posted on February 12, 2021. Introduction: In this project we helped the fitness company Vanquish improve on it's digital marketing campaign by evaluating certain topics in which we, as a group, felt needed developing or improving. Unfortunately, for many people group work is a negative ...

  9. Supporting Students to Reflect on their Group Work

    Reflection can be informal or formal (built into assessment). Students can reflect individually or in groups. Students can reflect on both the processes and products of group work. When incorporating reflective activities into group work, it is important that students have the opportunity to apply what they have learnt through their reflections ...

  10. Reflecting on Group Presentation with Rolfe's Reflective Cycle Essay

    The following reflective essay uses this model to guide my thinking about teamwork, leadership, and time management in relation to creating a group Powerpoint presentation. ... to stimulate deeper reflection. As stated by Business Bliss Consultants FZE (2018), this is aimed at increasing self-awareness, analysis skills, and skills of problem ...

  11. PDF Self-Reflection: Taking Part in a Group

    1. Did I understand what my role was in the group? 2. Did I complete my task to the best of my ability? 3. Did I have my turn speaking? 4. Did I let others have a turn at speaking? 5. Did I listen while others were speaking? 6. Did I offer to help when it was needed? 7. Did I enjoy taking part in the group work? 8. Did I enjoy working with the ...

  12. Individual Critical Reflection on Group Work

    Individual Critical Reflection on Group Work. peachyessay. April 8, 2021. Psychology, Sample Essay. The success of any group highly depends on how effective is communication between the players takes place. Without effective communication among the members of a given group, it is not possible to achieve its goals and unnecessary conflicts may ...

  13. Group Work Self-Reflection Questions for Students

    When students work in collaborative groups, it's critical to have self-reflection questions for them to consider when the group work is done or you risk wasting terrific, real data. I've written about how to get gifted kids to work in groups, and this is one more step towards best practice. Working in a group is more than just about the work.

  14. PDF REFLECTIVE WRITING

    Types of reflective writing. 1. REFLECTION: when you ask questions about something you would like to better understand, e.g. a problem to solve or an issue to consider. 2. REFLECTIVE PRACTICE: when you reflect on the relationship between practice in your area of study and the theories you are being introduced to. 3.

  15. Personal Reflection On Group Work

    Open Document. Personal Reflection "Group work is a form of voluntary association of members benefiting from cooperative learning that enhances the total output of the activity than when done individually". Working in a group can be very difficult at times. Different people with different views may not always agree which one another.

  16. 3 Compelling Self-Reflection Essay Examples: Learn, Inspire, Write

    Self Reflection Essay On Group Work Example Introduction. Self reflection on a group work can be explained as the voluntary collaboration of members who benefit from cooperative learning that enhances the overall output of the activity in comparison to if it was done individually. As beneficial as it is, working in groups can be quite ...

  17. Reflection On Group Work

    Reflection On Group Work. 1815 Words8 Pages. This essay serves as a reflection for myself and the process our group went through for the semester. Through this module, I gained greater insights about myself, discovering my strengths and weaknesses when working in a team, as a member, and as a leader. Reflecting upon the past few months ...

  18. A complete guide to writing a reflective essay

    Here's a recap of the contents of this article, which also serves as a way to create a mind map: 1. Identify the topic you will be writing on. 2. Note down any ideas that are related to the topic and if you want to, try drawing a diagram to link together any topics, theories, and ideas. 3.

  19. Enhancing the Effectiveness of Work Groups and Teams: A Reflection

    Psychologists have studied small groups for well over 60 years. Much of that research was initially conducted by social psychologists who were interested in how individual behavior was influenced by the group context and in factors that influenced interpersonal processes and group behavior (McGrath, 1964).For example, early work focused on power and social influence, social forces that bond ...

  20. Self-Reflection Essay on Group Work

    A self-reflection essay about what i have done, my contribution to the group and what i have learned. This module has been very insightful and has exposed me to rare areas in the application of AIData Science and the ethical issues that arises. The use of AIData Science has been widely adopted in many organizations and in different disciplines ...

  21. Self Reflection Essay

    A self- reflection essay is a type of essay that makes you express the experiences you have gone through in life based on a topic you have chosen to write about. It is a personal typeof essay that you write about. It makes you reflect on your life and journey to who you are today. The struggles, the fears, the triumphs and the actions you have ...

  22. Turn individual wins into team achievements in group work

    Before initiating the group project, we require the learners to engage in self-reflection and share the outcomes with their group. These activities are recorded and submitted as part of the project. Also, during the initial stages of the project, students use their analysis of group strengths to assign roles and tasks for working together as a ...

  23. Group Work Reflection Example Free Essay Example

    Group Work Reflection Example. In today's work culture and dynamic environment educational institutions and organizations require students and employees to work together in groups at certain tolerant and coordinative levels, thus proving "experience of working in group or teams" (Blease, 2006 cited Kelly, and P.2007).