Reflective Writing Template + Example Prompts

QualifiedProfessors | Content updated 2026-09-14

Use an experience you actually had, then examine what happened and what you would do differently. This worksheet follows the stages of Gibbs' reflective cycle as explained in the University of Edinburgh's Reflection Toolkit. If your assignment requires a different model, use that model's headings instead.

Choose a specific experience

Select an incident with enough detail to examine: a group decision, feedback on a draft or a presentation you delivered. Record what you observed and did. Avoid filling gaps with assumptions about another person's motives, and follow your institution's confidentiality requirements.

Gibbs' cycle moves through description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and an action plan. The stages help separate an account of the event from an explanation of what you learned.

Move from description to analysis

Hypothetical teaching example: a group presentation ran over its allotted time. Description records the sequence. Analysis might consider rehearsal, the amount of material and how speaking time was allocated. It would be premature to blame one person without evidence.

Where the assignment calls for theory or research, use it to examine the experience. Explain what the concept helps you understand and where it does not fit. Do not add references solely to make a personal account look academic.

Make the next action observable

An action such as 'communicate better' is difficult to review. For the hypothetical presentation, the group might schedule a timed rehearsal, agree a maximum speaking time for each section and decide what to shorten if necessary. The next reflection could then examine whether those actions helped.

Your conclusion should stay within the experience you analysed. A single event may change how you approach a task without proving a general rule about every team or situation.

- The account is based on my own experience.

- Observation is separated from interpretation.

- Relevant theory helps explain the event.

- The action plan states what I will do and how I will review it.

YOUR WORKING COPY

Experience and context:

Description — what happened and what did I do?

Feelings — what was I thinking and feeling?

Evaluation — what worked and what did not?

Analysis — what helps explain the experience? What evidence or theory is relevant?

Conclusion — what have I learned, and what could I have done differently?

Action plan — what will I do, when, and how will I review it?

References, if required:

Confidentiality checks:

SOURCES AND FURTHER GUIDANCE

University of Edinburgh: Gibbs' reflective cycle
https://reflection.ed.ac.uk/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle
The six-stage reflective model used to organise this worksheet.