Quality in reflective thinking: elicitation and classification of reflective acts

The concept of reflective thinking needs to be instantiated for more effective educational implementations and practice in the process of thinking and learning. This article therefore expounds on the elicitation and classification of the Reflective Acts derived primarily from various studies conducted on reflective practice, student reflections and metacognition. In order to elicit and classify the Reflective Acts, the study employed three sequential phases of analyses: qualitative meta-analysis, purport analysis and Intention Clustering Method. As a result, 17 types of reflective acts were identified and classified into four main categories: Interpretive, Associative, Transformative and Affective. It is concluded in the article that through the presence and awareness of Reflective Acts, the concept of reflective thinking will be better comprehended, perceived and retained, engendering the process of reflective thinking into a straightforward practice to guide individuals to perform structured, efficacious and successful reflective acts in order to improve the quality of their reflective thinking and learning.