Reflective Practitioner Research Articles

Teaching and Learning Resilience and Adjuvant Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis: A Reflective Practitioner’s Perspective

Teaching and Learning Resilience and Adjuvant Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis: A Reflective Practitioner’s Perspective

Shaping minds and hearts in medical education: Embedding and implementing a personal and professional development curriculum

This paper explores personal and professional development (PPD) as a key learning domain for the future of medical education and person-centered care. Guided by existing curriculum development models and lessons learned in practice, scenarios from academic and clinical learning environments will guide a theory-driven discussion of concepts and competencies that humanize the practice of medicine, such as emotional intelligence, professional identity formation, lifelong learning and inclusive practice. Factors contributing to contemporary curriculum implementation will be informed by a case study of a PPD program delivered to post-graduate medical students in Australia and propose an action-focused series of next steps to connect past, current and future directions for medical schools and graduates. Through reflections on iterative stages of program development and the incorporation of emerging concepts in PPD, this paper advocates for the true valuing of personal growth and professional development in medical education. If future doctors are to graduate as compassionate, socially informed, and critically reflective practitioners, they need dedicated PPD learning, opportunities to practice and active encouragement to remain curious towards and beyond their own experience.

Mapping Muslim Chaplaincy: An Analytic Review of Publications between 1989 and 2023

Abstract This article analyses the emergent field of Muslim chaplaincy research by reviewing English-language publications in this growing area of professional religious work, especially in Europe and the United States. After presenting the method of our enquiry, we provide a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the literature reviewed. We then focus on three key topics in Muslim Chaplaincy Studies that derive from our quantitative and qualitative research. These are: the training of Muslim chaplains, which is strongly linked to professionalisation, the vocabulary and sources that underpin Muslim chaplaincy and, finally, the significance of the increasing involvement of Muslim women in this area of professional religious work and leadership. Having identified exactly 100 publications related to the development of Muslim chaplaincy, many of them arising from empirical research, serious practitioner reflections located in peer-review publications, and a small number of articles that are explicitly devoted to methodological considerations, we are suggesting in this article that a distinctive sub-field of Muslim Chaplaincy Studies can now be identified.

Video-Feedback on Assignments:A Case Study From Norway

The background for the study was a desire to strengthen the students’ learning outcomes, and to support their development, preferably to become reflective practitioners. Knowing that the students prefer feedback on assignments and the opportunity to improve based on this feedback, summative feedback may not provide enough feedback in order to know what and how to improve. Also, some students, both younger students and students returning to school, are insecure and uncertain about studying in higher education and need psychological safety to be able to unlock their potential. The aim of the study is to investigate how they perceive personalized video feedback to contribute towards their development and their enhanced learning outcomes. By using video feedback, the students would be spoken to by name and get feedback on their assignment, including both what was adequately presented and why, and points for improvement and clues for improvement. The methods of inquiry have been survey, individual interviews and group interviews. We have treated this study as a case study. The results from the study have been very positive. The students claim that they perceive the feedback to be personal and they understand what and how to improve, in addition to how to prepare for the exam. Although some students still prefer written feedback, the majority of the respondents and informants are positive towards the video feedback, and some would even like to have this in other courses as well. They understand what and how to improve, and they perceive it as personalized and reassuring. The conclusion is that video feedback in general has had a positive impact on the students. The perception of personalization contributes to boosting confidence and supporting learning outcomes.

Influence of Teacher Beliefs on Employing EBT (Evidence-Based Teaching) in Creative Writing Lessons

Children who do not master writing skills risk possible failure because they cannot complete written assignments on time. The complex nature of writing as a language production skill requires thorough planning and problem-solving. Research emphasises that children who struggle to write tend to remain behind in their writing skill development. Hence, it is necessary to strengthen writing instruction, such as by incorporating research-based methods. The purpose of this article was to explore teachers’ perceptions of and beliefs in teaching creative writing and employing evidence-based teaching (EBT) in their lessons. Data were generated through two focus group interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. Purposive sampling was used to recruit Grade 3 teachers from two primary schools. The data revealed that teachers believed themselves to be inadequately trained to effectively teach creative writing. The findings suggest that teachers believe they have little time to explore the usefulness of evidence-based strategies as they already battle to complete the syllabus; there is little guidance on how to go about teaching creative writing; and how they currently teach is in line with the policy guidelines. This article recommends that the Ministry of Education and universities reinforce pre- and in-service teacher training programmes by teaching diverse evidence-based strategies, for example, self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), consolidate curriculum knowledge, and strengthen continuous professional development programmes to boost teachers as reflective practitioners.

Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' professional development needs in educational contexts: Exploring the challenge of reflective practice.

This study investigated Iranian, English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' attitudes toward reflective teaching compared with their classroom assessment preferences and up-take of strategy-based instruction. It compared their views in the two key higher education provider contexts of the university and institute. In this cross-sectional correlational study, a total of 90 teachers, half drawn from each university in a major city in Iran, were selected using controlled quota sampling. Data were collected through a four-part survey. Besides gathering demographic data (Part A), the survey drew upon three established instruments that used a Likert Scale format. Part B comprised the Teacher Reflectivity questionnaire, and Part C focused on the Classroom Assessment Preferences Survey Questionnaire for Language Teachers. Also, part D administered the Teachers' Beliefs Inventory for Strategy Instruction. The reliability of this and the CAPSQ-LT was confirmed by the researchers using Cronbach's alpha at 0.842 and 0.951, respectively. A total of 90 questionnaires were distributed, with 72 fully completed (80%) and returned. the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was employed to analyze the data, using the independent sample t-test and ANOVA. Also, Pearson product-moment correlations were used to measure the association between the variables. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered as significant. As shown in findings, a statistically significant and positive correlation was found between the teachers' reflective teaching scores and classroom assessment preference scores (r=0.473, p0=.001). This correlation was moderately high and positive, thus supporting that higher teacher reflective practices reflect a broader application of classroom assessment. The Table also shows that there was no significant correlation between the teachers' attitudes toward reflective teaching and their uptake of strategy-based instruction (r=0.094; p=0.434). Similarly, there was no statistically significant correlation between the teachers' attitudes toward classroom assessment preferences and their beliefs about strategy-based instruction (r=0.038, p=0.752). As shown, no statistically significant difference was observed between the teachers' attitudes toward reflective teaching and their uptake of strategy-based instruction (p<0.05). This study draws attention to the need for teachers in EFL contexts, such as this, to have access to professional development opportunities that deeply engage and guide them to be reflective practitioners who can make the connections between assessment techniques, strategy-based instruction, and students' improved language learning outcomes.

Meeting practitioners where they are: A conversation on engaged learning in policy and management

Our paper is a practitioner reflection that explores the concepts of engaged learning as a means of erasing the specious divide between academia and policy/management practice. It takes the form of a conversation between the two authors, each of whom have significant experience in both camps, but who also would seem to fall more neatly into one than the other. The paper outlines our experiences in professional development, with an emphasis on a specific series of organisational trust workshops, which use an ‘embodied values’ approach so that learning outcomes are built into the structure and process of the session rather than just in content. We utilise a conversational approach as this enables us to expand on broader themes as well as draw on our experiences. More importantly, it also is redolent of the embodied values approach and demonstrates the types of shared learning we seek to promote as useful for the future.

A practitioner reflection and response to students’ perceptions of assessment at Higher Education

Assessments are an integral component of university programmes. They have the formative function of being instrumental in gauging the level of student engagement, whilst also providing opportunity for feedback to enhance students’ learning. Moreover, assessments have the summative function of providing grades on which degree classifications are based. Therefore, it is crucial that assessments are presented in a format that engage students. Listening to the student voice is an essential step in designing appropriate assessments. The aim of this reflection piece is to review and critique how the student voice is captured. While students have various informal and formal opportunities to voice their views, here we chose to focus on processes that result in recorded data, namely, Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) surveys, Module Evaluation Surveys (MES), and research on students’ experience of assessments. We conclude by outlining an example of our adjustments to assessments, based on the student voice.

Building event management skills through authentic assessment

ABSTRACT With a greater focus on employability upon graduation, universities are increasingly considering how the course experience links to knowledge and skill development. To assist with skill development, industry practice and authentic activities should be embedded into the curriculum. Designing and including authentic assessment helps to replicate real-life industry scenarios which support students’ development of professional competencies. This study examines an authentic assessment of planning and operating an event within an event management topic. Data was collected through a survey of students, and additionally the reflective practitioner approach was used to consider the development of the curriculum. This study found that students gained a greater understanding of the event process by, for example, using stakeholder theory in order to prioritise event objectives, produce a project plan including key milestones, and develop risk management strategies. Communication, time management and content management were identified as key areas of skill development by students.

Creating group work-integrated learning experiences for non-clinical health degrees: A practitioner reflection

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) experiences, integral for equipping students with the skills and knowledge crucial for employment and success in their chosen careers, have traditionally been associated with accreditation requirements in professional programs. More recently, acknowledging the importance of WIL experiences in non-professional programs has grown. In this reflective paper, the experiences of the practitioner tasked with developing a new WIL capstone course for students in Health and Biomedical Science degrees are described. Grounded in social exchange theory, where interactions are viewed as exchanges aimed at maximising rewards while minimising costs, the intent was for student groups to engage with a range of authentic project experiences offered by industry, community, and academic staff (the WIL partners). Critical elements were the active involvement of a diverse array of partners and the importance of relationship building for the long-term sustainability of the project experiences. I discuss and reflect on the specific strategies employed to engage the WIL partners, inspiring them to collaborate and develop meaningful projects suitable for students pursuing various career paths. Additionally, I reflect on the invaluable experiences and feedback provided by our partners.

Using image-reflections to support undergraduate students’ relational employability: A practitioner reflection

This practitioner reflection explores our integration of the Relational Employability Framework within the Health Research Project capstone unit of a Bachelor of Health Science degree. To address the historically low quality of student reflections, we incorporated image-based reflective activities to improve engagement and depth. These activities encouraged students to use visual media to examine their developing relational employability. We developed and implemented a series of tutorial activities designed to scaffold this process, aiming to foster deeper reflective practice and highlight its importance for career development and employability. Our reflections indicate that, while grades did not significantly increase, students showed enhanced critical thinking and engagement with reflective practice, suggesting the framework’s effectiveness in broadening awareness and enriching employability overall. We discuss the need for peer support among educators to sustain and enhance reflective practices in teaching-learning and conclude with thoughts on our ongoing efforts to embed and expand reflective practices in teaching approaches

Integrating employability learning and career development learning: Insights into a business school approach

This practitioner reflection shares insights based on our seven-year journey pursuing an ambitious curriculum transformation espousing partnerships pedagogy within the School of Business (SOB) at Western Sydney University (WSU). With a significant proportion of first-generation and culturally and linguistically diverse students, employability is of strategic significance for WSU. The objective was to integrate employability and career development learning while addressing confidence and self-esteem deficits among graduates. Massification of the higher education sector, new universities, courses and pathways along with the competition among university graduates for employment all compound the issue. This challenging landscape required a unique approach to achieve a fundamental shift in learning and outcomes to prepare students for life beyond university. A massive curriculum transformation was endorsed and led by a cross-disciplinary team adopting partnerships pedagogy to transform the student learning experience. This reflection documents the practitioner journey involved in developing a program expressly targeting graduate employability for business students. Emphasis is on the experiences and challenges encountered while implementing a partnership-based approach to build, sustain, and cultivate graduate employability, through the development of industry networking experiences.

Becoming Reflective Practitioners in the Music Business

This case study is from the music business production where we have investigated how supervisors at music camps develop as reflective practitioners. We have investigated the process of how the supervisors gradually become aware of their tacit knowledge and are able to make it explicit, following the SECI-model through reflecting. It is also interesting to identify how they maintain a production focus throughout each process of conducting the music camps, but at the same time opens up for reflection and learning. As the lecturers also work at a music production company, and we have sought to unveil how becoming reflective practitioners have made a difference when it comes to executing their profession. Hence, trough qualitative investigations we have interviewed the supervisors and their co-workers in their organization to unveil how this has had an impact in their organization and contributed to enhanced organizational knowledge.

Building a Leader Framework for Post-Pandemic Response Expertise for Higher Education Future Reality

A successful future for higher education is dependent on the level of preparedness to manage future crises that are no longer linear processes in the best way possible. The severe disruption of academic progress post-COVID-19 across the globe brought a growing sense of chaos in the education system. This forced education institutions to adopt a rapid re-design of institutional strategic systems that called for different kinds of responses in different contexts because previous successful leadership approaches often fail in crisis situations. However, the challenges brought about by the chaos have positively presented humanity with many opportunities to re-think and re-engineer a new way of doing business. Therefore, this paper designs and develops a post-pandemic conceptual model that is an approach to crisis management, quick decision-making, and quick problem-solving to enable general adaptation to future pandemics. Through a developmental research design and a comprehensive literature review, an adaptive emergence response cycle (AERC) was developed and built around the theory of chaos, the reflective practitioner theory, using the adaptive approach. One potential benefit of the post-pandemic response model was the creation of an emergency response equation that was best suited for the post-pandemic crises. This model allows higher education management to be protected by planning generalizable futuristic crisis models.

Enriching systems practice with African perspectives

AbstractThis paper follows an autoethnographic approach that seeks to give a practitioner's reflection by exploring the intersection between African philosophies, particularly the concepts of Ubuntu and Ukama, and the practice of systems thinking. It raises concern about the absence of an African perspective in the discourse on mainstream systems thinking approaches. It argues that African philosophies, with their emphasis on relationality, community and humanness, can contribute to and enrich the discourse on developing systems thinking approaches. The main author's positionality, including his struggles with his identity as an African, his personal experiences growing up in a rural African village and being exposed to traditional African storytelling and community‐based practices, is used to illustrate the connections between African philosophies and systems thinking. As an example of this linkage and how an African perspective can enrich the practice of systems thinking, the paper applies an African worldview to Critical Systems Heuristics.

The Collaborative Literacy Coaching Framework for Transformation: Humanizing Prerequisites for Reflective Practitioners

AbstractLiteracy coaching is a professional learning model designed to provide teachers with supportive partnerships as they enhance their literacy instruction (L'Allier et al., 2010). However, the enhancement of instruction requires teachers to make changes to long‐standing instructional practices. To prepare for change, teachers must have the psychological safety and time to explore their beliefs, values, and identities and how these intrapersonal factors support or hinder change (Dewey, 1933). Literacy coaches can guide teachers through this preparation by using The Collaborative Literacy Coaching Framework for Transformation, which focuses on the cultivation of relationships, the examination of intrapersonal factors, the acknowledgment of how these factors impact instruction, and the need to plan for change. I will share a detailed outline of this framework and share the stories of three teachers who were better prepared for change while working within it.

Investigating Preservice Teachers’ Conceptualizations of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Through Video Analysis

Mathematics Preservice Teachers’ (M-PSTs) conceptions of Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) enhance their reflective skills because they utilize such conceptions to reflect on how to contextualize content knowledge during secondary mathematics teaching. While previous studies suggested M-PSTs develop MKT, including pedagogical content knowledge by analyzing teaching in video lessons, how M-PSTs enhance their conceptions of MKT through such analysis is underexplored. I used a collective case study approach to investigate how four secondary M-PSTs conceptualized MKT when they analyzed and discussed teaching represented in a video lesson using the MKT framework. The findings indicated that the M-PSTs often described teacher knowledge either as purely pedagogical or solely content knowledge in their initial analyses of the video lesson. After engaging in a discussion that introduced the MKT framework, the M-PSTs began to illustrate how a teacher’s content knowledge influenced her instructional decisions and actions. Through this discussion, M-PSTs began identifying MKT as professional content knowledge unique to teaching and, thus, distinguished MKT from generic pedagogical or content knowledge. I argue that the language and concepts offered through the framework enhanced the M-PSTs’ conceptions of MKT and suggest that the instructional activities from this study contribute to developing M-PSTs as reflective practitioners.

Co-production and collaboration: Academic practitioner reflections on undergraduate internship schemes in History

Co-production and collaboration: Academic practitioner reflections on undergraduate internship schemes in History

I Think, Therefore I Am: A Reflection of Family Nurse Practitioners

&lt;p&gt;隨著台灣人口老化和社區醫療照護需求增加，在原本的內外婦兒、精神和麻醉專科護理師外應運而生「家庭專科護理師」，從傳統的急性照護邁向基層照護，更多的在門診、社區、居家、長照、偏鄉離島等場域提供民眾專業健康照護服務。本文從簡介國人健康形態的轉變延伸到對家庭專科護理師的需求、發展與培育，以國立陽明交通大學為例，分享家庭專科護理師養成的核心能力架構，並佐以核心訓練理念，達到：全生命歷程轉銜（從新生兒到老人）、急慢性疾病無縫接軌（照護能力養成）、醫護進階合作、國際領航訓練和無邊界學習擴充（線上虛擬實境），同時配合學生過去的教育背景（有無專科護理師碩士學位）提供完整或是轉銜家庭專科護理師訓練，讓學習更有效率。期待家庭專科護理師不僅僅是第一線的民眾健康照護提供者，更是具有國際觀和科技識能的進階護理專家。&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Taiwan is going to be a super-aged society and has increased needs of primary care providers. There-fore, the demand for family nurse practitioners (FNPs) is expected high and strong in addition to the roles in medical, surgical, women health, pediatric, psychological, and anesthetic areas that nurse practitioners have contributed in Taiwan. FNPs are specialized in providing preventative and primary care to individuals and families across the lifespan in various care settings, including primary care clinics, family medicine practice, urgent care centers, long-term care facilities, home health agencies or in the places where medical services needed. National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University&amp;rsquo;s FNP master program emphasizes hands-on, real-life care in meeting all core competence requirements across the lifespan from infants to the elderly, from acute illness to chronic diseases, physician-nurses advanced collaborations, international visits and virtual education. We expect that our FNP graduates have the competence and confidence in their clinical practices and leading the advanced nursing prac-tice with global vision and technology skills in the new era&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

From Virtual to Physical

Since the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century, teachers of all levels of education have been experiencing turbulent times. Beginner teachers as well as experienced ones have been forced to rethink their skillset to reflect the changes not only in opportunities provided by the development of technology and globalisation but also the sudden, unexpected consequences of the global pandemic. The governmental decision to close all educational institutions in the Czech Republic because of the COVID-19 pandemic and to move the teaching and learning process into an online environment had an impact on university initial teacher education for future teachers of English, among others. Everyone had to cope with the challenges the situation brought about; educators had to re-evaluate their approach to initial teacher education so that their students would feel better prepared for the challenges of the crisis. Teacher educators, among others, have embraced the changing environment and have been actively searching for ways to best support students in their preparation for the teaching profession. The aim of this paper is to present and discuss the results of research conducted at the Department of English and American Studies at a regional Czech university in response to the consequences of the pandemic. The aim of the small-scale study was to explore student teachers’ perceptions of whether and how their microteaching sessions, conducted online because of the pandemic restrictions, prepared them for their face-to-face placement practice teaching the following semester. The context, therefore, was heavily influenced by the circumstances of the global pandemic. The theoretical framework of the initial English language teacher education programme, and of this paper, is based on the models of teacher professionalism (Spilková, 2019), the reflective practitioner (Černá, Píšová, &amp; Vlčková, 2017), and the realistic approach (Korthagen et al., 2001). In the study, the data from reflection sessions, two focus group discussions, and a questionnaire were collected, analysed, and evaluated. The participants in the study were second-year bachelor students of the English for Education programme. The results of the research indicate that the students did not see the aims and content of the selected study programme as being affected by changes of external conditions; however, the processes of their professional learning were perceived as having been affected. These outcomes are in alignment with the research of Yochanna and Levy (2022) into the effective implementation of microteaching practice in teacher preparation. The implications of this study, in terms of both education and research, suggest that initial teacher education for future teachers of English needs to address the challenge of enabling the students to get ready for their profession regardless of whether they are teaching online or face-to-face classes. Initial teacher education should aim to prepare future teachers to expect the unexpected, which is a theme to be explored in further research.