The lessons of a reflective practice

During any learning experience we are able to take away pockets of useful information which we can apply to our own practice. I realised during my research project that I underestimated data analysis and longevity of this, as there is so much information to take onboard! Processing all of this information in detail and drawing out meaningful data is demanding to say the least. We need to immerse ourselves in the data to review and scrutinise multiple times to give the themes depth and importance as we only have enough time to focus on a few. This 12-week research project only analyses a snap shot of what is, so we have to be precise. When writing, thinking and talking I can often drift off topic, as thoughts come into my head I go off on a different tangent to which I started. This can be said for my everyday life as well, as sometimes days seem to come at me at 100 miles per hour. I read John Dewey's 'Art as experience' (2005), and reflected back to module 1 on how I commented on the learning through 'doing'. I pulled out the following quote as I feel it is very important to take a step back and look at the bigger picture to centralise our intentions:

    'especially in this hurried and impatient human environment in which we live, with experience of an         almost incredible paucity all on the surface. No one experience has a chance to complete itself because     something else is entered upon so speedily. What is called experience becomes so dispersed and                 miscellaneous as hardly to deserve the name' (Dewey, 2005)

This quote has me down to a T, however I am slowly learning to remember my intentions and to keep information relevant to give my research validation. This has hugely impacted on my day to day practice as well, as this lesson can be carried into numerous life situations. 

In module 3 it has been quite easy for me to write a critical reflection, as the adaptions within my practice and skills has created a whole area which I didn't know I needed. The network of the BA PP community has been fantastic throughout and I am very thankful to my fellow module 3's for enduring painful questions and Sunday Skype's.