Reflection Of Professional Practice Research Articles

Reflection in Professional Practice and Education in Engineering, Nursing, and Teaching

Background: Critical reflection is an essential curricular component for learning from experience that determines placement quality in postsecondary experiential learning placements. However, there are poor empirical connections between the use of critically reflective processes and learning outcomes. Purpose: This research explored reflective processes professionals use in their practice and how these processes compare with the reflective activities postsecondary instructors in professional faculties use during experiential learning. Methodology/Approach: This collective case study used focus group interviews, field notes, and professional grey literature to examine the research questions. Findings/Conclusions: Professional training programs must align their reflective practices with more integrated and holistic models of reflective practice to better mirror the professional skills demanded in professional practice contexts. Professionals in context-laden professional environments should integrate reflective activities into their practice based on emergent, iterative, and cocreative models that are more like their lived realities at work. Reflective practices which better fit and mirror these lived realities may lead to better connections between reflective activities and work outcomes. Implications: Professional environments are complex, dynamic, and affected by contextual factors. New integrated and holistic models of reflective experience should replace the separated, stepwise, or automatic models that have guided reflective practices in the past.

Innovative professional development for teachers of technology in New Zealand: The Mātanga Project

The Mātanga (Māori term for expert) project aimed to engage teachers with needs-based professional development with a particular focus on the teacher participants’ perspectives of their developing understandings. This article also explores the subsequent impact on teachers’ students as a result of their engagement with professional learning and development (PLD) in New Zealand. The PLD programme, funded by the Ministry of Education’s Network of Expertise Initiative and delivered by Technology Education New Zealand (TENZ), was designed to foster teachers’ engagement with the technology education curriculum. It also aimed to develop teachers’ specialist identity by focusing on notions of technological and technical thinking, by matching teachers with Mātanga experts. Research findings indicate that teacher professional development was significant. Participants developed a deeper understanding of the benefits of authentic technological practice, as well as the technology curriculum. Some participants also obtained a deeper understanding of the nature of responsive pedagogies, and the role of reflection in professional practice. The programme motivated technology teachers, which translated into a more positive learning environment for their students. Feedback was also sought on the Mātanga Project’s professional development model. Participants identified a number of key benefits gained through their participation. Specialist participants gained an appreciation for the theoretical and historical perspectives of technology, while generalist participants valued their increased curriculum knowledge. Participants found the year-long approach beneficial, particularly because they had access to experts in their area of technology. Participants also identified some limitations for the first iteration of the PLD and suggested improvements for the future.

Taking or creating control: A qualitative study of uncertainty among novice nurses in ambulance care

IntroductionIn emergency nursing situations, uncertainty may lead to delays, or block a decision which can have devastating consequences for a patient. The ambulance service is a complex clinical environment that often challenges the decision-making capabilities of the professionals, especially novice nurses. Novice nurses’ uncertainty may also lead to unhealthy transitions and turnover. To increase the understanding of how uncertainty affects novice nurses, this study explores novice nurses’ uncertainty during the first year of professional practice in the ambulance service. MethodA qualitative descriptive design was applied using qualitative content analysis of thirteen individual face-to-face semi-structured deep interviews. ResultFrom nine subcategories, three generic categories were derived: Reflections on contextual understanding, Strategies to create control, and Actions to take control. These were combined to form the main category Understanding what and dealing with how, while becoming a confident professional. ConclusionUncertainty is exacerbated by situations that demand rapid decisions or actions. This is especially true of newcomers to a profession. Preparing novices through study programs and encouraging continuous reflection in professional practice may increase resilience and tolerance of uncertainty, as well as benefiting professional development.

Teaching Expertise in Three Countries: findings and policy implications from an international comparative study in early childhood education

ABSTRACT In this paper, Teaching Expertise in Three Countries project is used as an example to show the significance and contribution of international comparative research and to think about the possible implications for policy in early childhood education. The project studied the development of expertise in preschool teaching in Japan, China, and the United States by employing ‘video-cued multivocal ethnography’ to explore how teaching expertise is defined in each of these countries and what processes help teachers acquire advanced teaching skills. This project has shown similarities and culturally specific notions, in what the participants have to say about characteristics of less and more experienced teachers. These research findings raise issues and challenges in early childhood education that resonate with the situation not only in the three countries but also possibly in other countries, such as problematizing the role of remembering and reflection in professional practice and the value of experience.

Management in Action in the Educational Model of Reflective Practice to Support Dynamic Security in Penitentiary Units: a Case Study

The article presents one of the aspects of the implementation of a pilot postgraduate study program for the management of penitentiary units. It discusses the assumptions made when designing a model of management in action based on reflective practice. The presented approach to education and professional development results from the necessity to apply dynamic security in penitentiary units. The aspects mentioned in the article are a consequence of adjusting the work organization in penitentiary units to international law. The role of reflective practice for the effective transformation of the prison system in Poland is emphasized. The results are obtained in qualitative research investigating students esteems for the first edition of the management program expressed in a discussion forum. Based on gathering and assessing more than 500 records, it can be emphasized appreciation of the role of reflection in professional practice of officers involved to provide security in penitentiary system. The function of the podcast is presented as a tool supporting the development of reflective practice in remote learning.

Arts-Based Learning Strategies in Clinical Postconference: A Qualitative Study.

Arts-based learning (ABL) strategies can enhance student learning in nursing education. Clinical postconference provides an opportunity to integrate these strategies. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand student perspectives of ABL activities in clinical postconference and to explore the effect of ABL strategies during clinical postconference on nursing students' perceptions of their own practice. This study was designed to reflect the critical attributes of ABL proposed by Rieger and Chernomas. Twenty-nine nursing students participated in six ABL activities during clinical postconference. Data were collected from student reflective papers. Inductive data analysis was used to derive themes. Four main themes emerged: (a) Developing New Perspectives, (b) Appreciating the Patient Experience, (c) Reflecting on Feelings and Growth, and (d) Recognizing the Value of ABL. ABL strategies integrated during clinical post-conference facilitate student learning by actively engaging students in reflection of professional practice and developing empathy. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(9):549-553.].

Reflection revisited: how physicians conceptualize and experience reflection in professional practice \u2013 a qualitative study

BackgroundFor the purpose of continuous performance improvement, physicians are expected to reflect on their practice. While many reflection studies are theoretically oriented and often prescriptive in the sense that they conceptualize what reflection should look like, the current study starts with practicing physicians themselves and maps how these physicians conceptualize and experience reflection in daily professional practice.MethodsWe conducted a qualitative study using in-depth interviews with 13 hospital-based physicians from various specialties and institutions. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and were analyzed iteratively, following the interpretative phenomenological analysis approach.ResultsData analysis resulted in the identification of three main topics: fuzziness, domain specificity and dialogical dynamics of reflection in professional practice. Reflection was conceptualized as a fuzzy process of contemplation and action, leading to change and hopefully improvement of personal performance and health care in general. Physicians’ experiences with reflection were different for the patient domain and the team domain. Whereas experiences in the patient domain were recalled first and discussed in relatively clear terms, those in the team domain came second and were discussed in more ambiguous terms. In order to achieve improvement in daily practice, honest and open dialogues were perceived as necessary. These dialogues were regarded as the result of an interplay between an internal and an external dialogue. The internal dialogue required sensitivity and courage of the individual; the external dialogue required psychological safety and encouragement of the environment. Within the team domain however, handling the external dialogue effectively was not self-evident, underlining the importance of psychological safety.ConclusionsThis study draws attention to the interdependence between the individual and the collective contributions to reflective activity in professional practice. Apart from its importance to physicians’ individual medical performance, reflective activity is also important to the functioning of a team of physicians. To allow reflection to rise from an individual activity to a team activity, it is necessary to invest in a safe environment in which people are encouraged to think, act, and be engaged.

Poetics and space: developing a reflective landscape through imagery and human geography

This paper seeks to explore the notion of ‘thinking space’ as reflection through drawing on the concept of ‘landscape’ from a number of theoretical constructs. Firstly, the aim is to utilise geography (and to a lesser degree architecture) as a conceptual framework that creates structure to the creation of a reflective landscape derived from practice. As Andrews points out, although there have been a number of novel approaches to the understanding of spatial features in nursing, there has as yet been no real consideration of a geography of nursing. The work of Clandinin, however, has begun to address the concept of ‘knowledge landscapes’ in teaching. Secondly, the paper also constructs ‘landscape’ as the place where visual arts, literary arts and narrative intersect as a means to the prompting of, and representation of, the process of reflection in professional practice. Theories of domestic and geographical space, linked to artistry, image value and visual and literary arts are utilised to construct a framework for a reflective landscape of practice.