Ryan identifies reflection as a process that should be taught. This article shares analysis of a project that collected data across different university courses in Education, Health, Business, Law and Creative Industries in one Australian university. Ryan uses Bain et al.’s (2002) terminology of the 5 Rs – reporting, responding, relating, reasoning, and reconstructing – to sort her data. However, she slims it down to 4 R’s by combining “reporting” and “responding.” The four resulting categories consist of: reporting and responding, relating, reasoning, and reconstructing. These are ordered from the most basic level of reflection to the highest level of reflection. Ryan’s larger project involves semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 40 volunteer staff and 40 volunteer students from across university faculties, along with samples of reflective work from 60 participating students across faculties. Based on her analysis, Ryan explores why reflection is critical to learning and to application of knowledge.

Annotation contributed by Sophie Miller, 2021-2024 CEL Student Scholar