Borton's Reflective Model
Updated 2026-08-09
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
Borton's Reflective Model was developed by American schoolteacher Terry Borton in 1970 and published in the book Reach, Touch and Teach, where he called it the What, So What, Now What approach to reflective education. Three core questions structure it. What asks what happened and describes the situation including factual information. So What asks what this means and extracts meaning from the What stage, considering what knowledge or theory would help interpret the situation. Now What asks what to do next and creates a future action plan, so that reflection becomes meaningful through action.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Sequence reflection: move from what happened, to what it means, to concrete next steps. - Prevent premature action: force the meaning-making step before any jump to fixes. - Convert experience into learning: always close the reflection by writing one specific future action.
Anchor fast decisions
Built on the What, So What, Now What ladder. Description feeds interpretation and interpretation feeds action, so raw experience is converted into a plan; omitting the final step leaves reflection as idle recounting that changes nothing.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
account_treeGenealogyexpand_more
menu_bookReferencesexpand_more
Source support: Explicit
- en.wikipedia.orghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practiceverified
PRIVATE NOTES · Only visible to you
SAVED Q&A
ENTRY Q&A · Private saving available
Ask with a clear boundary
thinkingmodels answers from published entry context only.
Your question is sent to thinkingmodels. The answer uses public entry context only.
RELATED MODELS