Dewey and Mezirow

this is a quote that I really liked... it says it all

"Our own writing and research has been on the development of reflective judgement. Based on the work of Dewey (1933), who identified reflective thinking as a goal of education, our work defines a reflective thinker as someone who is aware that a problematic situation exists and is able to being critical judgement to bear on the problem.In other works, a reflective thinker understands that there is real uncertainty about how a problem that brings same kind of closure to it. this judgement, which Dewey refers to as a "grounded" or "warranted" assertion, is based on criteria such as evaluation of evidence, consideration of expert opinion, adequacy of argument, and implications of the proposed solutions" (Kitchener and King, 1991).

Kitchener, Karen and King, Patricia (1991) 'The Reflective Judgment Model: Transforming Assumptions About Knowing', Meziro, Jack (1991) TRANSFORMATIVE DIMENSIONS OF ADULT LEARNING, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

also see Mezirow

So what does it say? I would explain it this way: a reflective thinker does not understand a problem at the start, but uses evidence to argue a particular course of action after developing a good idea about what might happen as a consequence.