Reflective Logs

Reflective logs are personal accounts used by anyone wishing to learn from their experiences. Potential and qualified instructors (and their learner drivers) can record their thoughts, feelings and reflections to help provide clarity and make sense of their experiences when teaching and supervising their pupils (or for pupils, after a driving lesson).

Ideally, a reflective log ought to be completed immediately after a training session. For some it can seem a chore, so limiting it to those occasions when a teaching session was a struggle or just happened to flow really well (for no apparent reason), is advisable.

Reflection and self-analysis allow us to make sense of, and rationalise, what actually happened, learn from them and move on. To be most effective, they should not be completed by a trainer; they should be a personal account of what happened and what can be learnt from it.

Some students do prefer their trainer to record their thoughts for them to allow the freedom to think clearly and accurately without the distraction of recording these thoughts for themselves. In these cases, trainers should record precisely what is being said and in the first person, i.e. “l feel I was late with my instruction at roundabouts today”

To be most effective, logs need careful thought and self-analysis otherwise lessons cannot be learned nor any worthwhile progress made. Noting what happened and what you were thinking and feeling is just the start of the process. Making sense of WHY events developed in a certain way and how this could be changed for the better in future, are key to long-lasting personal development.

So, be specific and accurate with your language when recording your reflections. Describe precisely what happened. Don’t rush to conclusions but rather think deeply of the reasons why events unfolded as they did and what lessons can be learned going forwards.

An example 1988 Gibbs Reflective Cycle log is detailed below

It may be advisable to get pupils to complete a reflective log similar to the one below if they have experienced a challenging lesson, it will give them time to reflect on it and set their own goals for the subsequent lesson