Reflection and consolidation activities
Reflection is an important activity for students to be able to make sense of and grow from a learning experience. Activities that work towards consolidating knowledge and skills will also achieve this and combined with reflection they are essential for deep learning (that is, learning with understanding) and helping students gain a new perspective.
Students may be asked to reflect ‘on-action’ or ‘in-action’ and they will be given a reflective framework which facilitates this. Reflection can take place as an individual or as a group activity. Students will use analysis or observation to reflect on what they have learned in set situations, take a step back from set situations to evaluate their actions, and/or summarise any key takeaways and generate questions for further discussion.
alaIt is recommended that teaching staff provide a suitable reflection framework (this may depend on the discipline to some extent) with relevant refection prompts and design activities that require summaries of findings and the evaluation of new perspectives.
How to implement
Step 1: Determine the timing of reflection in relation the ‘core’ activity
Reflection activities typically follow another ‘core’ activity, so the timing that is most suitable is after the core activity (or part of it) is complete (reflection-on-action or/and consolidation) or in various stages during a ‘core’ activity (reflection-in-action).
Another approach is to ask students to reflect on their prior/existing knowledge as a way of engaging them in preparation for a ‘core’ activity.
Step 2: Identify a suitable reflection framework
Reflection is most effective when it takes place as a structured activity. To facilitate this, there are many frameworks for reflection – some are preferred over others depending on the discipline. These guide students through the process of reflection or introduce the practice in a structured way to students who are less familiar. The list below is indicative so you may want to explore others or use one that are familiar with:
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What… So what… Now what… Questions to help with the description of the event/experience Questions to help with the understanding of the event/experience Questions to help with what can be done to improve the experience …is the problem? or
…is the reason for this difficulty?
…does this tell me about me about:
- me?
- my patient/student?
- others?
- our relationship?
- my patient’s care?
- the model of care/teaching approach I am using?
- my attitudes?
- my patient’s/student’s attitudes?
…do I need to do in order to:
- make things better?
- stop being stuck?
- improve my patient’s care?
- resolve the situation?
- feel better?
- get on better?
…was my role in this situation?
…was going through my mind as I acted?
…broader issues need to be considered if this action is to be successful?
…was I trying to achieve?
…did I base my actions on?
…might be the consequences of this action?
…actions did I take?
…other knowledge can I bring to the situation?
- experience
- personal
- scientific
…was the response of others?
…could I have done to make it better?
…were the consequences?
- for the patient/student?
- for myself?
- for others?
…is my new understanding of the situation?
…feelings did it evoke?
- in the patient/student?
- in myself?
- in others?
…broader issues arise from the situation?
…was good (or bad) about the incidence or experience?
Driscoll, J.J. (2007) Supported reflective learning: the essence of clinical supervision? Chapter 2 in Practising Clinical Supervision: A Reflective Approach for Healthcare Professionals (2nd edition). London: Bailliere Tindall. pp 27-‐50.
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Example question prompts
Doing it
What happened?
- What did you do? Where did it happen? Who was involved? What was the context?
Reflecting on the experience
What were you thinking and feeling?
- Describe your internal thoughts and feelings before, during and after the event
Making sense of the experience
What was good and bad about the experience?
- Were there things that were difficult? Interesting? Surprising? Upsetting? Provide some judgement about the event and its possible consequences
Planning what to do
- What would you do if a similar situation arose again?
- What are some indicators that would help you recognise a similar event?
- What are some changes you would make?
Kolb DA. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewoods Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1984.
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Example question prompts
Describe the experience - Describe the experience, and the significant factors that were involved?
Reflection - What was I trying to achieve?
- What were the consequences of my actions?
- How did I feel about this experience when it was happening? Why did I feel this way?
- If there was another person involved (e.g., a patient), how did they feel about the situation?
Influencing factors - What things (e.g., internal factors, my own knowledge, external factors) affected my decision making and actions?
Could I have dealt with it better? - What other choices did I have?
- Did I act for the best?
- What would the consequences of those other actions have been? For myself? For others?
Learning - What will change because of this experience?
- How do I now feel about the experience?
- How has this experience changed my ways of knowing?
- Empirics (scientific)
- Ethics (moral knowledge)
- Personal (self-awareness, e.g., of my own beliefs and values)
- Aesthetics (the art of what we do, our own experiences)
Johns C. Becoming a reflective practitioner: a reflective and holistic approach to clinical nursing practice, development and clinical supervision. Oxford: Blackwell Science, 2000.
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Example question prompts
Awareness
- What happened?
- What influenced my emotions?
- What were my emotions after the situation occurred?
- What was I thinking?
- What am I now thinking looking back at the situation?
Describe the situation
- What was the event?
- Where was the event?
- When did it happen?
- What was my involvement during the event?
- What did other people do?
- What were the key observations?
Analyse feelings and knowledge
- Imagine and explore alternatives
- What did I already know about the situation?
- What were my assumptions about the situation?
- How did reality reflect my assumptions?
- What were the differences?
- How would I react if something else happened?
- In what type of scenarios would the discomfort not occur?
Evaluate the relevance of knowledge
- How does it help to explain the situation?
- How does analysing different scenarios influence your thoughts?
- How complete was your use of knowledge?
- How can your knowledge next time be useful?
Identify any learning
- What have I learned?
- How can my learnings be used in future situations?
Atkins, S. and Murphy, K. (1994). Reflective Practice. Nursing Standard, 8(39) 49-56.
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Example question prompts
Description (of the event) What happened?
- What did you do? Where did it happen? Who was involved? What was the context?
Feelings What were you thinking and feeling?
- Describe your internal thoughts and feelings before, during and after the event
Evaluation What was good and bad about the experience?
- Were there things that were difficult? Interesting? Surprising? Upsetting? Provide some judgement about the event and its possible consequences
Analysis What sense can you make of the situation?
- How do past experiences compare to this?
- How does theory or evidence fit with this?
- How did your involvement affect the outcome?
Conclusion What else could you have done?
- What insights, thoughts, or conclusions, about your role within this event that you can now take away?
- What have you learnt for the future?
Action plan What would you do if a similar situation arose again?
- What are some indicators that would help you recognise a similar event?
- What are some changes you would make?
Step 3: Allow enough time for reflection and consolidation in your lesson plan
It can be easily underestimated how much time students may need for reflection activities. Allowing enough time gives the activity more weight in the minds of participants and will produce more considered responses.
However, you may want to distinguish between reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action in this context. For example, it may be desirable to capture a quick reflection-in-action while allowing more time for reflection-on-action as part of later activities like debriefing, self-assessment and goal-setting.
Step 4: Plan feedback on reflection
It is recommended not to overlook this aspect of the reflection process – students will need guidance and encouragement depending on year level and experience in similar activities. Allocate some time for feedback and/or involve students in peer review of each others’ reflection.
Suggested reflection and consolidation activities
1-minute paper
Provide students with one brief reflection question they develop a concise response to (can be extended up to 3-5 minutes equivalent response/workload).
Look back/look ahead
Similar to 1-minute reflection or reflective activity – as a final/concluding activity encourage students to look back on the subject, how far they’ve come, what they’ve learned and achieved, and to look forward to how to take these skills into real-world or how they can continue to progress/build skills.
KWL chart
Individually or in small groups, students develop a KWL chart: What do you know, What do you want to know, what have you learned?
How to provide feedback
Reflection is a very personal experience and a great opportunity for growth; therefore, feedback should not focus on what is right or wrong. Rather, it is a chance to broaden the discussion and highlight the value of reflection as a process of learning. In this sense feedback can take the form of a short group discussion of student reflection and work as ‘feed-forward’ that consolidates learning.
Reflection on-action can be planned as a self-paced activity for students – the activity however will depend on the alternative ‘core’ activity on which students are reflecting.
Reflection in-action can be built in the alternative ‘core’ activity you are providing students who do not attend class – in this case reflection should be ‘woven’ in and broken down in smaller parts, made available as part of a sequence of self-paced online activity.
Some LMS tools such as Feedback Fruits include reflection ‘steps’ that students need to complete at the end of an activity.
LMS tools
These LMS tools enable reflection activities in teaching sessions or are online alternatives:
H5P
The H5P Documentation Tool in particular can be used to build scaffolded reflection activities for students that you can embed directly within the LMS. You can also build reflection into interactive presentations (Course Presentation) and virtual scenarios (Branching Scenario).
LMS Discussions
LMS Discussions can be used to encourage students to reflect and share in small or large groups.
FeedbackFruits
Reflection can be built into any FeedbackFruits activity, including as part of peer review activities, assignment submissions and self and peer evaluation tasks.
PebblePad
Using PebblePad, students can complete reflection using structured templates or build their own blogs or portfolios of work for various purposes.
For advice, consultation or support in setting up relevant LMS tools, contact Teaching and Learning Innovation by submitting a support request. Teaching and Learning Innovation also has examples and sample templates for some technologies that you may be able to copy and modify as a starting point.
Important: Not all tools are accessible to all students. Actively encourage students to seek out the teaching staff if any tool is inaccessible to them.
Support and resources
Request support from Teaching and Learning Innovation
Student resources
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This page was last updated on 17 Apr 2026.
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