Developing reflexivity

From e-mail discussion about reflection techniques, by Christian Rangen:

I believe debriefing to be a personal characteristic far more than anything that can be learned by anyone. The techniques, of course, can be learned, but what is far more important is:

• The natural curiosity that leads up to a debrief
• The desire to learn (from ones own mistakes in order to improve)
• The desire to help others learn (by learning from their mistakes and helping them focus on their strengths)
• By enabling group processes and group learning through debrief sessions.

For my part, I’ve (unconsciously) been running debriefs for years prior to joining KMG. While still in school, we often sat down and asked;

• What was supposed to happen?
• What happened?
• What can we do to improve the next time?

Debrief is one of the ultimate learning tools, but require a natural thirst for learning.

I’m not so sure, but there is something true in it. At least I tend to ask a lot of questions along this “nature vs. nurture” dilemma, for example:

• Do weblogs develop reflective skills or just fit well with reflective people?
• Is being well-connected node in social network is a function of personality or environment?

Archived version of this entry is available at http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2003/09/17.html#a753; comments are here.

• Learning: communities vs. courses (4) – learners’ skills and motivation
• Power of articulation
• Learning instructional design

Tagged as: meta-learning, nature vs. nurture