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Week 8


I would like to start with a quote of Confucius: “Learning without reflection is a waste. Reflection without learning is dangerous.”
Last week was all about reflective writing and the lecture and seminar should prepare us for our final essay. When I think about reflection in general, I would like to address the following thoughts.
I have often noticed my following character trait. Especially when it comes to criticism, I can sometimes only deal with difficulties. I am always happy about constructive criticism because I think that it contributes strongly to my personal development. Nevertheless, it is often difficult for me to accept it at first. Therefore, I always try not to say anything in affection, but to keep the points in my head and think about them in a quiet minute. This helps me to develop a differentiated opinion on the topics and to deal with them.  
Often the statement is correct in its core aspect and if you allow this understanding and then recognize the true point, you can also start to work on it. I think this is transferable to many situations. Reflected thinking makes connections conscious and easier to learn and helps us to become aware of the elementary core aspects of new topics.
Just when you start to think about what you have learned, only then it can be applied. The quote shows exactly this connection. It is important to learn first and to acquire theoretical knowledge or to receive new impulses and opinions through the exchange with others.  In the next step, you must think it through so that you don't forget it in the long run. Only in this way is it possible to anchor and store the core aspects in the long-term memory.
I also notice this personally during my studies and can transfer it very well to the learning contents in the lectures. Even though we sometimes must learn a lot for the exams, only a fraction of this knowledge remains in the long-term memory and can therefore be used and retrieved. My own experience is that this knowledge is usually a topic for which there was an interesting example, a current reference or a corresponding personal experience. However, I think I can say that the points only get stuck if you have thought about them. For example, a learned content that you then transfer to a practical project only gets stuck when I have thought about it, fully understood the context, and know how to apply it to another project.
I therefore think that constructive reflection and discussion with other people often has a greater learning effect than listening to a lot of theoretical knowledge or reading reference books.
I also often notice that I learn very easily from mistakes or when I reflect on which points there is still room for improvement. Only if you admit that your performance was not perfect and there are still points that you can develop, you can improve your work and your appearance at the next attempt. Thus, the key to success is always your self-reflection and allowing criticism points.
Picture Source: www.medium.com/maestral-solutions/conflict-resolution-through-reflective-thinking-b666d185adb2 [19/11/2019, 9am]

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