Reflection doubts in JDBC

I have implemented an application that simulates a shop in java with all information placed in a database made in SQL. My issue is with a reflection technique which I have to implement in order to show the list of elements from a table. I have tried this method(the first answer, the one with metaData) Most simple code to populate JTable from ResultSet However I have been told that this is not a reflection method. I made this, guided by the teacher. But, I have no idea how to actually call it in my function and where the "object " is supposed to come from. The first function returns the headers and the second extracts the info and creates the table.

public class ReflectionExample {

    protected static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(ClientDao.class.getName());
    public static ArrayList retrieveProperties(Object object) {
        ArrayList<String> ob = new ArrayList<String>();
        Class obiect = object.getClass();

        int i = 0;
        for (Field field : object.getClass().getDeclaredFields()) {
            field.setAccessible(true); // set modifier to public
            ob.add(field.getName());

            i++;
        }
        return ob;

    }

    public static JTable retrievePropertiesM(List<?> object,    Object[]lit) {
        Class obiect = object.getClass();
        Object [][] matrice = new Object[object.size()][20];
        //Object[] lit=null;

        int row = 0;
        for (Object o : object) {
            int col = 0;
            for (Field field : o.getClass().getDeclaredFields()) {
                field.setAccessible(true); // set modifier to public

                Object value;
                try {

                    value = field.get(object);
                    matrice[row][col]=value;
                    //lit[col]=field.getName();

                } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
                col++;
            }
            row++;
        }
    //  Object[] lit=retrieveProperties(object);
        JTable t = new JTable(matrice,lit);
        return t;


    }
}

However, I am in doubt as to why the first way I made was not a reflection? As per all, I did not understood what reflection means beside that a method with reflection can be called by any type of object from the database. Some explanations or maybe somewhere I can understand better reflection?