These headings should form the basis of your reflections and help you to record your daily experiences whilst on placement. You should start collating this information from the first day of your placement as this will significantly help you with your assessment.

Please maintain confidentiality when you are completing your journal.

 

ABOUT MY PLACEMENT

Name of placement organisation:
Name of Placement Supervisor:

Overall aim of my placement:
Objective 1:
Objective 2:
Objective 3:
Add as many objectives as you require.

How will my placement help me achieve my PDP action plan:

Date of visit:

Group or individual with whom I worked:

REFLECTIONS

BEFORE my placement …
What am I aiming to achieve from my placement today?
What do I need to be mindful of? What issues/questions need to be addressed to
ensure I achieve my aim? Do I need to be aware of particular theories, or have
particular skills? Have I thought about all of the ‘what ifs’?

DURING my placement …
What did I notice happening around me today? What was
I thinking and feeling? How was I involved? Did I do anything to intervene and
change the situation that I found myself in e.g. how I conveyed a point or
whether I decided not to do something I had planned to do? Did my reflections
at the time change the session I had planned or my actions?

AFTER my placement … (based on the Gibbs Reflective Cycle)

1. Describe the activities you undertook whilst on
placement today. Set the context, what you did and what happened.

2. Document how you felt through-out your placement
today. Were you anxious, confident, pleased or disappointed?

3. Evaluate today’s placement activity. What went well,
what went badly, what would you have done differently?

4. Take a deeper, analytical and critical approach to
today’s experiences. Can you make connections or apply academic theory or
current policy to understand why today’s activities went well or went badly.

5. Draw conclusions. What have you learnt from today’s
activities and your reflections?

6. Action plan. How will you apply what you have learnt
from today’s activities to the rest of your placement and your future
professional and personal development? Do you need to undertake further
research or reading? Are there courses that you need to undertake to fill a
skills gap?

7. Have any questions arisen today that I need to discuss
with my Placement Supervisor or University Placement Tutor (UPT)?

RETURNING to my reflections …
It is often useful to return to your reflections after
a period of time. Revisit the experiences you had; think about how you felt (positive
and negative feelings) and re-evaluate your experiences. Do you feel
differently about the experience now time has passed have your feelings changed
in light of the experience or do you now view the experience in a different
light?