Reflective Practice

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• Reflective Practice
• John Hart
• August 2007

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R E F L E C T I V E
R E F L E C T I V E
P R A C T I C E
P R A C T I C E
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Just So StoriesKipling (1902)

• I keep six honest serving men
• (they taught me all I know)
• Their names are what and why and when
• and how and where and who.

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Reflection revisited

• 1. What is reflection?
• 2. Reflection- why bother?
• 3. How do I reflect?
• 4. When do I reflect?
• 5. How do I write reflectively?

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1. What is reflection?

• The purposeful deliberate act of inquiry into
  ones thoughts and actions. through which a
  thoughtful, reasoned response might be tested
  out. Laughran,J. 1995

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2. Reflectionwhy bother?

• Personal - Widen perspectives on a problem
  (broaden knowledge) self- awareness / knowledge /
  belief.
• Professional - Develop strategies for dealing
  with it (develop skills / competencies)
• Political - Acquire insights into behaviour
  (change attitudes). Social, cultural, historical,
  political contexts

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Functions of reflective practice

• To review and evaluate experience
• Your thoughts and feelings
• Your performance/behaviour
• The impact on others
• Your motives
• Short term and long term consequences
• To use that in your planning of your future
  development
• Important component of CPD process
• Useful for challenging stereotypical thinking
• To take on role of managing (supervising)
  yourself?

Sheila Bonas 04
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Kolb
Concrete experience
Reflection on experience
Integrate change
Planned modification of behaviour and rehearse.
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3. How do I reflect?

• Noticing taking in information
• Making sense new material related to old
• Making meaning processing new material
• Working with meaning reflects on reasons for
  new learning
• Transformative learning thinking changes views

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Jenny Moon

• To enhance professional practice or the
  professional self in practice
• To explore the self, personal constructs of
  meaning and understand ones view of the world
• To enhance creativity and free-up writing
• Moon J. 1999 Reflection in Learning and
  Professional Development

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Reflection can involve...

• One to One or Reflective Groups
• Lecturer and student
• Peer group discussion
• Free-ranging or Structured
• Coffee time chat
• Tutorial
• Oral or Written
• Reflective diaries and essays

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Things to remember

• No knowledge is secure
• Learn to be adaptive
• Willingness to experiment
• The Thought Police (Orwell 1984)

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Reflective diaries

• To record experience
• To deepen the quality of learning
• In the form of critical thinking
• Developing a questioning attitude
• To enable the learner to understand their own
  learning process
• Learning styles influence teaching styles
• To facilitate learning from experience

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4. When do I reflect?

• Anticipatory what am I going to do?
• Retrospective what did I do?
• Contemporaneous- what am I doing?

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5. How do I write reflectively?

• Unstructured
• Free writing and reflecting
• Recording and record-keeping
• Structured
• Autobiographical writing
• Exercises / Questions to answer
• Portfolios- additional documents

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Writing v. talking

• Stays there
• Can be developed and worked on
• Can destroy or share
• Longer process
• Can use fiction (socially acceptability)
• Increase self confidence

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Writing Methods

• Present tense / first person
• Different perspective
• Unsent letters
• Stepping stones
• Period reflections
• Dialogues with people
• Working with dreams imagery
• SWOT
• List 100 things
• Free writing
• Topics du jour
• Roads not taken
• Fairy tale

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Developing dialogue

• Develop a question
• Thoughts and emotions
• Focus on the future
• Assessment of value judgements

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Possibilities

• Reflective diary
• Reflective notes on courses / meetings
• Reflective writing on practice, books read,
  holidays, television programmes
• Reflective learning journal
• Can include in PDP / appraisal documentation

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My Reflective Diary TemplateReid 1994

• DESCRIBE - What happened during the session
• FEELINGS - What did I think about how the
  session went
• EVALUATION - What went well/Not too well
• ANALYSIS - What sense can I make of the
  situation
• CONCLUSION - What else could I have done
• ACTION PLAN - What will I do differently next
  time

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Try it out
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Six minutes writing

• On anything
• (use next slide as reminder of points to consider)

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• What happened?
• What did I need to do?
• How did I perform ?
• Well?
• Areas of improvement?
• What did I think/feel ?
• I think that
• I feel sad/happy..
• Why did I think or feel this way?
• New insights?
• Related to past experience?
• How did my thoughts/ feelings affect others?
• Behaviours beliefs feelings.
• What are consequences ?
• short term, long term, for me, for others
• How can this help me in the future?
• goals, improve skills, learn, stress levels etc

Adapted form Sheila Bonas 04
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Superficial reflectors.

• Tell their story from one point of view
• The account is sequential
• No reference to emotional reaction and how this
  impacted on them
• Little attempt to focus on particular issues
• Most points made with similar weight
• Merely a descriptive account of the experience

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The deep reflectors..

• Clear evidence of standing back from the event
  and mulling over an internal dialogue
• Self-questioning was evident and taking on board
  different perspectives
• Motives of others taken into account and
  considered
• Recognition that learning was to be gained from
  the experience
• Recognition that their personal frame of
  reference could change according to their
  emotional state, the acquisition of new
  information, the review of ideas and the effect
  of time passing

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Consider..

• A recent learning event

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InREFLECTIONbe like a diamond

• A diamond has a very low critical angle.
• Very little light passes through a diamond.
• Most is reflected on attempting to leave the
  other side.

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AIR
DIAMOND
??
Incident ray
Totally reflected
?? is 24? for diamond critical angle
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The more you reflect the more you

• sparkle.

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Reflection does not just happen
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Not always comfortablefor you or others

• Impostor syndrome Ill be found out
• Cultural suicide can isolate, threaten
• Lost innocence may not find the solution
• Road-running previous solid assumptions gone
• Time
• Beware of excessive self criticism

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• Previous solid assumptions gone
• Protection in community and network

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• Habermas amancipatory understand situation
  sufficiently to free ourselves.
• Be aware of language may promote certain
  ideologies
• Political questions whose interests are being
  served?

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Further Reading

• Reflection in Learning and Professional
  Development
• Jennifer Moon 1999
• Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher
  Education
• Brockbank and McGill 1998
• Educating the Reflective Practitioner
• Donald Schön 1987

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Kollwitz - Poverty 1893
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Kollwitz Mothers 1921
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Kollwitz - Call of Death 1937
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Dix - The Skat Players 1920
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Grosz Pillars of Society 1926