Quick Answer
What are the six stages of Gibbs’ reflective cycle?
Gibbs’ reflective cycle uses six stages: Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclusion and Action Plan. In university writing, the model is most useful when description remains brief and most of the word count goes to analysis, learning and future action.
The Six Stages at a Glance
| Stage | Question to ask |
|---|---|
| Description | What happened? |
| Feelings | What were you thinking and feeling? |
| Evaluation | What went well and what did not? |
| Analysis | Why did it happen and what does theory or evidence suggest? |
| Conclusion | What have you learned and what could you have done differently? |
| Action plan | What will you do next time? |
1. Description
Describe the event objectively and briefly. Imagine a group presentation where one team member missed two deadlines, leaving the rest of the team to complete slides at the last minute.
Include who was involved, the task and the important sequence of events. Do not analyse causes yet.
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2. Feelings
Explain your thoughts and emotional response, but connect them to the situation. You may have felt frustrated, anxious about the grade and reluctant to confront the team member because you wanted to avoid conflict.
Feelings matter because they can influence behaviour. The academic value comes from recognising how they shaped decisions.
3. Evaluation
Identify what worked and what did not. The group may have maintained a good presentation standard, but task allocation was unclear and problems were addressed too late.
Include positive and negative elements. Reflection becomes unbalanced when it only lists mistakes.
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4. Analysis
This is the most important stage for an academic assignment. Use relevant theory to explain why the problem developed. Group-development or communication theory may show how unclear roles and avoidance of conflict weakened coordination.
Compare your experience with the literature. Perhaps the group had technical ability but lacked a process for accountability. Explain the mechanism rather than only stating that teamwork was poor.
5. Conclusion
State what you learned and what alternative action was available. You may conclude that raising the missed deadline early would have been more constructive than quietly redistributing the work.
The conclusion should grow from the analysis rather than repeat the description.
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6. Action Plan
Make future action specific. For the next group task, you might agree individual deadlines in writing, schedule a mid-project review and raise missed commitments within one day.
A strong action plan is observable and realistic. It demonstrates that reflection can change future practice.
Do Not Treat the Six Stages as Six Equal Boxes
Many students give the same number of words to every stage. That usually creates too much description and feelings and not enough analysis. The stages are a guide, not a requirement for equal length.
If your lecturer allows headings, they can help organise the reflection, but the writing should still feel connected. The analysis may refer back to feelings or evaluation rather than keeping each stage completely separate.
Common Gibbs Reflection Mistakes
- Using most of the words on description.
- Writing feelings without explaining how they influenced action.
- Calling something good or bad without evidence.
- Adding theory only in one sentence.
- Repeating the same point in conclusion and action plan.
- Creating an action plan that is too vague to follow.
If the six sections feel repetitive, connect them with transitions so that one stage develops naturally from the previous insight.
Look at the word count across the six stages. Description and feelings should normally provide context rather than dominate the assignment. Analysis, conclusion and action plan need enough space to demonstrate learning.
Do a Gibbs Balance Check
Do not repeat identical sentences in Evaluation, Conclusion and Action Plan. Each stage should add a new level of understanding.
When using Gibbs in an assignment, treat the cycle as a connected process rather than six independent questions. The feeling you describe should help explain later behaviour, the evaluation should identify the most important strengths and weaknesses, and the analysis should explain why those patterns occurred. The conclusion should then state what the analysis taught you, while the action plan should turn that learning into a concrete response. Before submission, remove repeated sentences that appear in several stages. Repetition uses valuable word count without adding reflection. If your course has a strict word limit, protect the analysis stage first because this is where theory, evidence and critical thinking usually become most visible.
Marker-Ready Final Check
Finally, make sure the action plan is genuinely based on the conclusion. If the learning was about role clarity, the future action should change how roles are agreed rather than introduce an unrelated personal goal.
Key Takeaways
- Use all six stages as a thinking framework.
- Keep description and feelings concise.
- Give substantial space to analysis.
- Use theory to explain the experience.
- Make the conclusion state genuine learning.
- Turn the action plan into specific future behaviour.