Reflective practice
[6] Reflecting throughout one's practice is taking a conscious look at emotions, experiences, actions, and responses, and using that information to add to one's existing knowledge base and reach a higher level of understanding.
[7] Donald Schön's 1983 book The Reflective Practitioner introduced concepts such as reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action which explain how professionals meet the challenges of their work with a kind of improvisation that is improved through practice.
[9] Some scholars have claimed to find precursors of reflective practice in ancient texts such as Buddhist teachings[10] and the Meditations of Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
[citation needed] As adult education professor David Boud and his colleagues explained: "Reflection is an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about it, mull it over and evaluate it.
[14] Terry Borton's 1970 book Reach, Touch, and Teach popularized a simple learning cycle inspired by Gestalt therapy composed of three questions which ask the practitioner: What, So what, and Now what?
[16] Learning theorist David A. Kolb was highly influenced by the earlier research conducted by John Dewey and Jean Piaget.
[citation needed] Kolb's reflective model, which also draws from the works of Kurt Lewin,[17] highlights the concept of experiential learning and is centered on the transformation of information into knowledge.
Single-loop learning is when a practitioner or organisation, even after an error has occurred and a correction is made, continues to rely on current strategies, techniques or policies when a situation again comes to light.
Double-loop learning involves the modification of objectives, strategies or policies so that when a similar situation arises a new framing system is employed.
[22][page needed] Schön claimed to derive the notions of "reflection-on-action, reflection-in-action, responding to problematic situations, problem framing, problem solving, and the priority of practical knowledge over abstract theory" from the writings of John Dewey, although education professor Harvey Shapiro has argued that Dewey's writings offer "more expansive, more integrated notions of professional growth" than do Schön's.
For Schön, professional growth really begins when a person starts to view things with a critical lens, by doubting his or her actions.
[26] It is designed to be carried out through the act of sharing with a colleague or mentor, which enables the experience to become learnt knowledge at a faster rate than reflection alone.
[27] Johns highlights the importance of experienced knowledge and the ability of a practitioner to access, understand and put into practice information that has been acquired through empirical means.
[28] Five patterns of knowing are incorporated into the guided reflection: the aesthetic, personal, ethical, empirical and reflexive aspects of the situation.
Descriptive reflection is the tip of the iceberg as it manifests as narratives of reality without any multilateral accounts and analyses to bring forward a change in individual perspective.
Dialogic reflection, just below water surface, represents the interdependence and correlations of experiences through iterative self- questioning cycles seeking reasons for an action.
[1][12][33] Reflective practice is a learning process taught to professionals from a variety of disciplines, with the aim of enhancing abilities to communicate and making informed and balanced decisions.
Students can benefit from engaging in reflective practice as it can foster the critical thinking and decision making necessary for continuous learning and improvement.
[35] When students are engaged in reflection, they are thinking about how their work meets established criteria; they analyze the effectiveness of their efforts, and plan for improvement.
[37] Rolheiser and colleagues (2000) state that "When students develop their capacity to understand their own thinking processes, they are better equipped to employ the necessary cognitive skills to complete a task or achieve a goal.
[40][41][42] Attard & Armour explain that "teachers who are reflective systematically collect evidence from their practice, allowing them to rethink and potentially open themselves to new interpretations".
[33] It is important to note that, "the reflective process should eventually help the teacher to change, adapt and modify his/her teaching to the particular context.
[51] Neville Hatton and David Smith, in a brief literature review, concluded that teacher education programs do use a wide range of strategies with the aim of encouraging students teachers to reflect (e.g. action research, case studies, video-recording or supervised practicum experiences), but that "there is little research evidence to show that this [aim] is actually being achieved".
[56] For Russell, these problems result from the fact that teacher educators have not sufficiently explored how theories of reflective practice relate to their own teaching, and so have not made the necessary "paradigmatic changes" which they expect their students to make.
Professor Tim Fletcher of Brock University argues forward-thinking is a professional habit, but we must reflect on the past to inform how it translates into the present and future.
[69] Activities to promote reflection are now being incorporated into undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education across a variety of health professions.
They noted that the evidence to support curricular interventions and innovations promoting reflective practice remains largely theoretical.
[72] There is some criticism that traditional environmental management, which simply focuses on the problem at hand, fails to integrate into the decision making the wider systems within which an environment is situated.
[73] This style of approach has been found to be successful in sustainable development projects where participants appreciated and enjoyed the educational aspect of utilizing reflective practice throughout.
[81][better source needed] Relevant considerations could include ethical values, environmental impacts and efficiency and could be determinants of one's choice of activity or work during lifetime.
