Reflective Practice Skills Research Articles

Becoming a reflective practitioner: a continuing professional development strategy through humanistic action research

This article seeks to show how Human Resource Management and Development practitioners can develop an ethics of practice by adopting a Humanistic Action Research approach toward their Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Central to this approach is the development of reflective practice skills, in itself a journey of development. I aim to give a flavour of what this practice has meant for me as a professional educator by sharing an account of my own CPD using this approach. This approach is for the mature practitioner and it is located within Humanistic Action Research: to be appropriate, it necessitates a maturity of ego and not simply professional maturity and status. The article will discuss what this maturation process involves and will show its centrality to reflective practice. Within this framework of human inquiry, CPD requires an undertaking to engage in first person Action Research, where ‘I’ am the subject and object of my inquiry. At the heart of this approach is the pragmatic question at the centre of any approach to CPD ‘How do I improve my practice?’

Portfolios: Promoting teaching

This article is based on the findings of a study that examined the use of portfolios for assessment and learning purposes in an initial teacher education course in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Progressive refocusing of the research led to an investigation of the extent to which the use of portfolios for such purposes promoted the development of reflective practice and teaching skills. Constraints and supports for the implementation of portfolios were identified through the use of observation, documentary analysis, surveys, video recordings and interviews with pre-service teachers and their lecturers. The implementation process and the teaching and learning outcomes are described. Teacher educators requested portfolio exemplars, more specific grading criteria and more examples to illustrate standards. Six principles that underpin the use of portfolios for assessment purposes, that emerged from an analysis of the research data and findings, are briefly described. An interactive CD ROM and a set of guidelines were produced as implementation resources. Details of these resources are provided.

Accelerated Professional Development and Peer Consultation: Two Strategies for Continuing Professional Education for Nurses

ABSTRACT This study was designed to evaluate a program of professional development for RNs working in mental health settings. The development of skills in reflective practice and peer consultation was fostered by encouraging nurses to explore critical incidents from their practice experience within a small group environment. The aim of the program was to improve the knowledge and skills of the participants, enhance the work environment and improve work performance. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated using a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest design. The participants demonstrated improvements in their empathic responses to patients, their sense of hope, and some aspects of their work performance and perceptions of the work environment. The implications of the findings for practice and research are outlined.

The influence of the personal on the professional: A preliminary investigation of work and family issues for social workers

Conducting qualitative research with parents who are social workers reveals some interesting and surprising insights about how personal experience influences professional practice. This paper reports on research conducted with a group of sixteen ACT social workers. The aim of the research was to explore whether social workers who are parents regard the experience gained from parenting as a positive adjunct to their professional practice. The research participants identify, through group and individual interviews, that the experience gained from parenting not only strengthens their practice but in turn their professional roles enhance their parenting. The construction of personal and professional boundaries is also influenced by their caring roles. The boundary on the one hand is regarded as permeable, to allow for the meaningful transferability of work experience and yet the importance of maintaining separateness between the work and family sphere is regarded as an important survival strategy. These research findings highlight important aspects of the use of self in social work and confirm the need to encourage social workers to develop the skills of reflective practice.

Reflective practice.

Christine Nash exemplifies reflective practice as a frequently used but infrequently defined concept in nursing (Jarvis 1992), with intuition seldom granted legitimacy as a sound approach to clinical judgement (Benner and Tanner 1987). She follows with a personal account of how she used reflective practice and intuitive skills in reassessing an A&E attender.

Reflection on reflections

This study is based upon an experiential learning group for student teachers of health care, which is used as a means of developing the skills of reflective practice.

Description of a module on the theory and practice of reflection

This paper is a description of a module to prepare community studies students for reflective practice skills, and which provides a model of collaboration between service and educational practitioners. Details are given of the taught, experiential and organisational elements of the programme and the practice issues examined are also identified. Group process issues indicate that formal reflective practice may create uncertainty and anxiety due to the need to share practice thinking and actions. Strategies and interventions are identified to contain such inevitable reactions, which centre upon informed consent, consideration of feelings and the establishment of the conditions necessary for trust. Student evaluations of the module indicate both scepticism about, and hope for, formal reflection upon practice. The issues arising from this module have relevance to all practitioners engaged in reflective practice and clinical supervision.

Developing Residents as Teachers: Process and Content

Developing Residents as Teachers: Process and Content

Reflective Practice: A Case Study of Professional Development for Environmental Education

Abstract A case study is presented of a professional development program for environmental education in Australia that applies the principles of participatory research and critical reflection. These two principles are embodied in the concept of reflective practice. Reflective practice involves using ethical and contextual considerations in professional decisionmaking rather than making such decisions on the basis of habit, intuition, impulse, and tradition. The education of “reflective practitioners” of this type is the goal of the Master of Environmental Education program at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. After an introduction to the program and the concept of reflective practice, a case study of the experiences of students in one of the subjects of that program is presented. The case study revealed that students derived a number of benefits from developing their reflective practice skills, including heightened political awareness, a strong sense of influences and limitations of social context on their ideas and environmental education practices, increased self-confidence, and a desire to continue in a reflective practice group. The case study also revealed some of the concerns of the students and staff, especially in the areas of assessment, the fear of personal disclosure, and the need for structured peer support.