Graham Gibbs' six-stage cycle turns a messy experience into a reflection an assessor, inspector or professional body can follow - description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan.
Most people can describe what happened. Far fewer can say what it meant and what they changed because of it - and that gap is exactly where reflective writing gets marked down, whether it is a teaching qualification, a nursing revalidation or a CPD audit.
Graham Gibbs published his reflective cycle in 1988 in Learning by Doing. It gives you six stages to work through in order, so the thinking happens before the writing.
The six stages
1. Description. What happened? Facts only - who was there, what you were trying to do, what actually occurred. No judgement yet.
2. Feelings. What were you thinking and feeling, at the time and afterwards? This stage feels awkward to write, and it is the one assessors most often find missing. It matters because your emotional response usually explains the choice you made next.
3. Evaluation. What went well and what went badly? Be specific and be balanced. A reflection that is all self-criticism is as weak as one that is all self-congratulation.
4. Analysis. Why did it happen? This is the heart of it. Bring in something outside your own head - a model, a policy, a piece of feedback, a colleague's view, something you read. Analysis is where a reflection stops being a diary entry.
5. Conclusion. What else could you have done? Name the options you did not take and why one of them might have worked better.
6. Action plan. What will you do differently next time, specifically? "Communicate better" is not an action plan. "Send the agenda 24 hours ahead and ask each person for one item" is.
Where reflections usually fall down
- Stopping at stage one and three, so it reads as a report with an opinion attached.
- Skipping feelings because they feel unprofessional. They are evidence of your reasoning.
- An action plan with no timescale, no owner and no way of knowing whether it worked.
- Reflecting only on things that went wrong. Working out why something went well is how you repeat it.
Using it for CPD
A reflection is CPD in its own right. If you are logging development time, the entry is far stronger with the six stages behind it than with a line saying "attended training". Work through the cycle, save it, then revisit the action plan a month later and log what changed - that follow-up is what makes the record credible.
Gibbs sits comfortably alongside Kolb's learning cycle: Kolb explains the loop of experience and experimentation, Gibbs gives you the questions to ask inside it.
Pick one real event from your work. Six short answers and you will have a reflection that stands up to scrutiny - and you can save it straight into your CPD log.
No names, no judgement yet.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the six stages of Gibbs' reflective cycle?
- Description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan. They are worked through in order, and the cycle repeats the next time you face a similar situation.
- How long should a Gibbs reflection be?
- Long enough to cover all six stages honestly - often 300 to 600 words. Depth of analysis matters far more than length.
- What is the difference between Gibbs and Kolb?
- Kolb's learning cycle describes how experience becomes learning through observation, theory and experimentation. Gibbs adds structured prompts - including your feelings - which makes it easier to write with.
- Does a reflection count as CPD?
- Yes. Reflective practice is recognised CPD by most professional bodies. Record the time spent, what prompted it and the action you took as a result.
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