Reflective Practitioner Research Articles

Supervisors’ guidance of PETE students’ reflections at practicum: creating conditions for different learning journeys

ABSTRACT Physical education teacher education (PETE) students’ reflections on their practicums are influenced by how their supervisors guide them. Supervisors often evaluate and discuss PETE students’ teaching by guiding their focus on essential aspects to consider. This exploratory case study focuses on how supervisors’ guiding styles in reflective conversations affect how PETE students make meaning of their teaching. Reflective practitioners, in this case PETE students, make sense of practical situations from their own perspectives as part of their teaching practice. Supervisors’ guidance is essential here, because it can change PETE students’ understanding by (re)directing their attention to meaningful aspects when framing their teaching and help them to examine it from new perspectives. However, the findings indicate that supervisors’ various guidance affect how PETE students experience their learning journeys during practicum. In this study, the participating PETE students’ experiences of practicum differed: either they experienced a controlled journey that restricted their teaching due to predefined rules and condemning attitude toward pupils, or they experienced an adventurous journey that enabled them to find their own paths as a teachers.

Practitioner Reflection: Reliance on Informal and Gig Economies Leaves LGBTQ+ Populations with Fewer Economic Choices and Greater Vulnerability to Trafficking

ABSTRACT Vulnerability to human trafficking is exacerbated by poverty, familial violence and abuse, homelessness, un- and under-employment, and migration. Many of these established vulnerabilities to human trafficking are also common vulnerabilities experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and other (LGBTQ+) populations worldwide. Further, LGBTQ+ individuals face additional risks due to community and workplace stigma. These circumstances result in disproportionate barriers to formal employment, particularly in stable jobs that pay a living wage and are insulated from economic shocks. Yet anti-trafficking efforts frequently overlook LGBTQ+ people’s particular needs. LGBTQ+ people frequently rely on insecure, informal, and gig economies for their livelihoods, making them susceptible to trafficking. Yet informal work opportunities also have positives. Individuals may maintain control of their work circumstances in ways they cannot if they work in formal settings. LGBTQ+ people report being able to choose contracts and clients or move on quickly when encountering unsafe situations. It should be noted that controlling our circumstances is a key tenet of trauma-informed support. Anti-trafficking interventions frequently seek transformational change with “rescue and rebuilding” underpinning programming. The authors propose an alternative model built around i) diversifying livelihood choices, ii) fostering psychological safety and iii) addressing the individual-level impacts of systemic stigma and discrimination.

Better with Practice: Changes in Preservice Teachers’ Psychological Literacy by Counseling Pupils on Their Self-Regulated Learning

In a rapidly changing and challenging world, teachers as influential social agents can play an important and promising role to guide through but also bring about positive change to individuals and society as a whole. This potential stresses the importance of professionalization of teachers and the need for elaborate learning settings to equip (future) teachers as psychologically literate and reflective practitioners who systematically reflect and integrate practice and (psychological) theory. As part of the preservice teachers’ psychology curriculum, we implemented a theory–practice learning setting in their educational foundation studies that aims at fostering preservice teachers’ psychological literacy. Specifically, to reflect their own and other's behavior and to apply their psychological knowledge of learning and counseling principles into real-life counseling sessions. This study addresses the didactical concept of teaching psychology to non-psychology students and the results from its evaluation. In a quasi-experimental pre-posttest design with comparison group ( Nintervention = 46; Ncomparison = 102), we analyzed the effects of the seminar on the preservice teachers’ reflexivity, their beliefs about the theory–practice relationship and their agency. Results indicate that beliefs about the theory–practice relationship and the levels of reflection significantly increase through the practice task in the intervention group, but reflexivity and agency does not.

Bracing Ourselves: Embracing Policy Changes through a Long-Standing University–Schools Teacher Education Partnership in England

We articulate the principles behind our practices as teacher educators for an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) provider in South-West England working in partnership with local schools. We position them as ‘braces’ that enable us not only to withstand but ‘embrace’ the challenges of the current policy environment, which imposes braces of its own. All ITE providers in England must present their curriculum and teaching plans for approval by the Department for Education, one of many significant changes to ITE required in England over the last decade. Furthermore, for such plans to be approved they must assume a model of schooling based on knowledge acquisition in tension with not only our own motivations but also a broader (global) conversation among teacher educators critical of policy priorities for schooling and professional teacher formation that prioritise success in high-stakes tests and international league tables. The braces/principles emerge through articulating our collective understandings of and concerns with the policy braces. Our principles connect to the processes we feel confident are necessary aspects of ‘becoming’ teachers and can hold our Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) together, going forwards. The braces—becoming an informed educator; becoming an ethical actor; becoming a reflective practitioner—have a distinctive form of reflexivity at their heart and should apply to everyone across our partnership: us, as university-based teacher educators; school-based colleagues; and pre-service teachers. We offer our approach and the braces/principles we have developed to others also struggling to reconcile their own notions of good teacher education with national policy imperatives.

Considering Medical Professionalism from the Standpoint of Pharmacy Education

Worldwide interest in teaching medical professionalism has increased drastically over the past two decades and is recognized as an important core competency. It is also essential in pharmacy education. However, there is no single definition of medical professionalism owing to its multifaceted nature, leading to difficulty in understanding it. The foundational concept of professionalism are the social contract and accountability, which describe the relationship between the profession and the society which it serves. Profession must understand expectations from the society, which is trustworthy, assures competence, and devoted to the public good for the contract based on their mutual trust. In "teaching," three basic educational actions ("setting expectations," "providing experiences," and "evaluating outcomes") are required. There are two learning goals of professionalism education: the minimum goal of not doing unprofessional acts and the aspirational goal of pursuing a higher level of interiorized professionalism which leads to the professional identity formation. The true professionals are "reflective practitioners," who have the ability to manage ambiguous problems using their interiorized professionalism in complicated situations. Therefore, reflection is one of the central concepts of professionalism education. The Professionalism Mini-Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX), an observational tool to evaluate medical professionalism, has some favorable aspects; the Japanese version is available and is a guide to specific actions for professionalism through its items, although some cautions must be exercised when using it. Considering that teaching professionalism includes not only formal but informal and hidden curricula, all of the staff in the educational environments should consider professionalism education by understanding professionalism.

Promoting Values-Informed Development in an Elite Dual-Career Endurance Athlete

This case study reports a values-based intervention with an elite dual-career athlete over an intermittent 2-year time period. The longitudinal psychological support process (i.e., intake, needs analysis, case formulation, intervention, and evaluation) is reported, and practitioner reflections are provided at the end of the case study. The intervention focused on the client-led production of personal core values and the exploration of how these could inform the athlete’s behavior change and goal attainment in sport and other life areas. Monitoring and evaluation findings suggested effective integration of values within training and competition settings, based on the observation of client behaviors and qualitative feedback from the client and their coach. The case study seeks to emphasize the importance of practitioner adaptability in developing client-led, values-based interventions that aim to facilitate holistic athlete development.

Reflections and experiences of mentors, tutors and writing consultants on enhancing student Learning during the COVID-19 pandemic

The experiences of mentors, tutors, and writing consultants in the execution of their roles during unprecedented times, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic, remain insufficiently explored and inadequately documented. This article, which adopts a qualitative research methodology with a specific focus on a rural-based comprehensive university in South Africa, delves into the experiences and reflections of mentors, tutors, and writing consultants in the course of their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic. We contend that providing safe spaces for mentors, tutors and writing practitioners to share their experiences on their roles not only during the pandemic should be central to all student support initiatives. This fosters a sense of reflection on their practices which in turn results in professional growth and development as reflective practitioners capable of enhancing student success in higher education. In assessing their work, data was gathered from a population comprising seventy-two selected mentors and tutors (referred to as MenTuts), as well as writing consultants affiliated with the Academic Development Unit (ADU) of the institution. Content and thematic analysis were employed to examine the data after coding. The reflections and experiences of MenTuts and writing consultants were both positive and negative. They expressed enthusiasm for their roles during the COVID-19 pandemic but also conveyed feelings of being overwhelmed by the challenges they faced. This underscores the need for exploring alternative approaches to mentoring, tutoring, and writing consultancy to enhance effective student learning and success in higher education during both present and future unprecedented times. Given the plethora of recent unprecedented events, higher education institutions in South Africa as well as in Africa should start undertaking innovative radical approaches for student support initiatives that are centred around engaging with mentors, tutors, and writing consultants to ensure that they are able to reflect on their experiences to enhance student learning.

What role should we play to be effective evaluators? – practitioner reflections

There is still widespread debate about the role that an evaluator could, should or even must play. Evaluations are often complex and require a broad array of interlinked roles and areas of expertise, making it difficult to generate a singular definition of an evaluator. Furthermore, an evaluator may be expected to change their responsibilities and actions throughout the stages of an evaluation, changing the role they play. As practitioners, we believe there is value in contributing to this discussion, providing our perspectives based on personal experience and data collected during the 2022 European Evaluation Society conference. In this article we seek to describe six evaluator traits which we believe to be the most influential to the roles which we play, and six evaluator roles which best illustrate the impact of changing these traits.

Holding still, together - Parkinson's care Portrayed

Complexity within the healthcare setting grows rapidly, and person-centered care takes on center stage. This begs for a mind- and skillset change in health professionals, because most current education equips them poorly to deal with this. Last year at ICIC22, we presented our innovative arts-based research project, focusing on a combination of narrative accounts and photographs of 21 people with Parkinson’s and 22 different practitioners. The research project was co-developed with people with Parkinson’s and professionals. Now, this project has evolved into an workshop that aims to develop healthcare practitioners in becoming reflective practitioners. Reflecting on deeper beliefs and observation skills are vital for future healthcare professionals in a complex world. 
 This workshop aspires to develop these skills and has been piloted three times in the last year with different target groups: people with Parkinson’s, nurse practitioners, and university - & art academy students. The workshop itself holds three phases. First, the workshop intents to put participants in a beginner’s frame of mind. The focus of the first exercises lie with judgement free observations. Secondly, the workshop focuses on judgment: what do you think you see, and what words will you give the description? Thirdly, we delve deeper in those judgements. Helping participants search effectively for often latent, but crucial normative convictions. All in all, the workshop is about slowing down and providing space and tools for a mindset evaluation.

Exploring Lesson Learned From Lecturers’ Experience On Implementing Lesson Study In Higher Education

In the ever-evolving landscape of education, the importance of innovative teaching methodologies cannot be overstated. One such approach that has gained substantial traction in recent years is Lesson Study. This study aims at investigating lecturers’ experience on implementing lesson study, specifically the lesson learned from lesson study. This study employed case study which involved five lecturers at higher education level as the participants. The data were gained through open ended questionnaire, interview, and documentation. The results indicated that the lessons learned that confirmed by the participants are: enhanced creativity and innovation, targeted student - centered teaching, cultivation of reflective practitioners, and building a supportive community. In conclusion, lesson study is not only gives new experience for lecturers but also new insight that can be useful for their teaching improvement.

Lessons from Covid‐19: A narrative and reflective practice review of non‐pharmacological treatments for agitation in Alzheimer’s dementia, in a time of social distancing

AbstractBackgroundAgitation as a behavioural and psychological symptom of dementia is common and distressing for patients and their carers. There are several non‐pharmacological approaches to managing agitation in Alzheimer’s Dementia (AD). Many of these require close interactions with the patient. However, social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic has made many of these interventions impractical. As busy clinicians working on a psychiatric unit managing AD patients with agitation, we wished to explore what we could offer in a time of social distancing. Our study sought to review the literature looking at the non‐pharmacological management of agitation in dementia and reflect on this as clinicians working amid a pandemic. While the pandemic recedes, this review and reflection still offers guidance for the management of agitation in AD whilst reducing the risk of disease transmission. The review would help to keep our most vulnerable safe during future outbreaks of infectious disease.MethodWe conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify non‐pharmacological treatments for the management of agitation in Alzheimer’s disease related dementia. Specifically, we sought evidence related to treatment in inpatient and care facilities. We appraised the evidence about these treatments. We then went on to use practitioner reflection on this evidence to consider the practicalities of implementation during the social distancing restrictions of the Covid‐19 pandemic.ResultMyriad non‐pharmacological therapies exist to help treat agitation in individuals with AD. Of these the evidence suggests music therapies and caregiver education interventions reduced agitation most significantly. We found that the most effective methods tailor treatment to the individual’s preferences and needs and use active engagement in therapies. Non‐group activities and those which do not involve shared equipment are most easily implementable during Covid‐19.ConclusionInterventions which are individually tailored to the patient and involve an active element to them are most effective, however those with an active element are less easily used during a pandemic. Given the evidence base and practicalities of implementation, our review suggests music therapy for those with agitation in AD.

Relational clinical practice: A hermeneutic, enactive, intersubjective model of osteopathy

This commentary proposes a framework for considering the philosophical foundations that support osteopathic practice, using the metaphor of ‘tectonic plates’. It is argued that reflective osteopathic practitioners, and the organisations they make up, would benefit from engaging with the differing ontological and epistemological traditions that underpin healthcare theory, evidence and practice. It is proposed that having more insight into the philosophical traditions of reality (ontologies) and forms of knowledge (epistemologies), that underpin medicine and healthcare, will support ethical, reflective practice, informed by the concepts of ontic integrity and epistemic humility. We focus particularly on phenomenological ontology and epistemology, which we propose underpins the relational and embodied concept of osteopathy as hermeneutic, enactive, intersubjective healthcare, locating it within the sphere of phenomenological and enactivist theory and research.

The Effects of a Brief Online Rational-Emotive-Behavioral-Therapy Program on Coach Irrational Beliefs and Well-Being

Research into the psychology of coaching has been somewhat neglected in comparison to research on the psychological development of athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a brief online rational-emotive-behavioral-therapy (REBT) program on coach irrational beliefs and well-being. Coaching staff from an elite international canoeing team (N = 4) took part in a three-session (30- to 40-min) REBT program. Participants completed measures of irrational beliefs and mental well-being at preintervention, postintervention, and follow-up (1 month) time points. Visual analyses and social validation revealed that the intervention reduced irrational beliefs and enhanced mental well-being in two participants. However, REBT was more effective for some coaches than others, and follow-up data indicated a return to base levels in some coaches. Limitations and recommendations for future research are discussed, alongside practitioner reflections.

Exploring our Open Educational Practices in Support of Excellence in Graduate Education: A Collaborative Autoethnography

This paper presents the findings of our exploration of our open educational practices (OEP) with graduate students. As reflective practitioners, we used a self-study methodology and collaborative autoethnographic methods to interrogate our open approaches to teaching and supervision. We draw on our developing competencies to support the wisdom, critical thinking, resilience, and adaptability of our graduate students. The article extends preliminary findings about graduate education and open practices in relation to and emerging from earlier work (Ives et al., 2022), which committed us to further exploration of our practices. Using our definition of OEP which expands on the work of several open scholars, we report new findings from our in-depth collaborative analysis of data collected over two years. We found a gap in the literature examining the use of OEP with graduate students. Findings include OEP and their alignment with our values and competencies, as well as OEP within our teaching, course design, and graduate supervisory practices. We offer insights into the outcomes of our practices for students and ourselves, and ways we can improve.

The role of gender and teaching experience in reflective thinking among Moroccan EFL teachers

ABSTRACT In light of some of the challenges of the present day, such as the changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the needs of the 21st century, and post-method pedagogy, reflection in education has become a must rather than a luxury. Despite the attention given to this line of research, studies on reflection in Morocco are relatively scarce. Therefore, this study aims to shed light on reflective thinking among Moroccan EFL teachers. It seeks to investigate 1) whether there is any significant difference between male and female teachers in reflective thinking, and 2) whether teaching experience significantly differentiates teachers’ reflective thinking. Data was collected from 127 teachers using the Teachers’ Reflective Thinking Questionnaire. The relevant statistical tests used revealed that neither gender nor teaching experience made a difference in reflective thinking among our sample of teachers. Building on this, it is high time other factors that may affect teachers’ reflective thinking were considered. To this end, valuable implications for language teaching and teacher training in Morocco are drawn based on the results of this study including the provision of professional development opportunities to equip preservice and in-service teachers with the skills needed to become successful reflective practitioners.

Empowering Rural Science Teachers as Reflective and Action-Oriented Practitioners

Teachers are aware of the presence, nature, and extent of classroom problem that they experience in daily teaching but they are not empowered enough to solve them as they aim to address learning losses. Thus, this paper described the profile of rural secondary science teachers; identified their problems encountered in daily teaching; and formulated policy recommendations that could empower them to be a reflective and action-oriented practitioner. Using qualitative case research design, eleven science teachers were purposively chosen as informants and data gathered were analyzed thematically. Three of them specializes in Biology, General Science, and Physics while the other two specializes in Chemistry; four of them were teaching Science in two or more grade levels; majority of science teachers were females; are Teachers I; and teaching experience of 0-5 years. Their problems meet was students’ poor performance, unfavorable behavior in class and teachers’ perceived difficulty. With these findings, the researcher recommends empowering teachers by developing their skills as reflective teachers and as classroom action researchers which could be strengthen by involving them in planning and designing professional development program, extending its implementation and evaluation in classrooms and by being part of a collaborative learning community.

Language Teacher Educators’ Identity Construction through Teaching and Supporting Action Research: A Trioethnographic Study

Action research is a form of inquiry that allows language educators to understand and improve their own practice. The literature suggests that language teachers can employ it as a self-led and self-directed source of professional development and enhancement of their professional identity and agency. However, little is known about its impact on the development of identity of language teacher educators who teach and support action research. Against this backdrop, this article aims to explore the experience of three language teacher educators regarding the influence of action research on the construction of their professional identity. Drawing on verbal and visual data sets, findings show that when teacher educators teach and mentor action research in language teacher education programmes, they can become guiding knowers, reflective practitioners and agents of change. The roles that teacher educators enact may lead to a reflective process that enhances their professional development. These identities connected to agentic growth demonstrate the relevance of including action research in language teacher education programmes as it can help teacher educators nurture their professional identity, particularly concerning their professional knowledge. This study suggests that teaching and supporting action research can become a meaningful entry point for language teacher educators to reflect on their own practice and to carry out action research themselves in language teacher education programmes.

Integration of Reflective Practice into a Writing Pedagogical Course at a Teacher-Education Program in Thailand

Teachers are the greatest assets of any education, and teacher-educationplays a crucial role in reforming and strengthening the education system ofany country. In this practice-based professional learning setting, reflectivepractice (RP) is considered as an empowering teaching mode. The findingsfrom several studies on this topic, conducted in different EFL teachingcontexts, have proved that RP is a meaningful way of learning aboutteaching and plays a central role in teachers' professional development. InThailand, despite the commonly-reported problems about the Englishlanguage education program, a few studies were conducted on how toimprove the training for prospective English teachers. Besides a brief reviewof RP, its significance and classifications in teacher-education, this paper will share the integration of this practice into a Writing Pedagogical courseat a teacher-education program and its effectiveness to assist Thai preserviceEnglish teachers to become reflective practitioners. This paper is thusexpected to shed some light on how teacher-educators can improve thequality of Thai preservice English teachers by training them to be life-longlearners.

A TEACHER’S REFLECTION ON INTRODUCING A REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN THE PRO-SKILLS CLASS

This paper aims to present how Reflective Practice (RP) is promoted through the Professional Skills (Pro-skills) Class and describe the transformation of English learners into reflective practitioners. Pro-skills class is a tailored business English class program offered by Wallstreet English (WSE) to its students, especially corporate students, to master some professional set skills in English. The intention for this reflective paper was simply to see if it was possible to enhance corporate students' self-reflection and convince them that the lessons were essential for their personal and professional development. As a result, they needed to pay closer attention to the class material because my practical experience teaching corporate students revealed that the majority of them attended the class simply because their superiors told them to, and they tended to take all of the lessons for granted. With this in mind, I began this reflective research by introducing the participants to the concept of reflective practice from Jasper (2013), where she introduced the reflection model theory of ERA (Experience, Reflection, Action), which involves a careful distinction between theory and practice in the context of the lessons they have learned in the class. Three questions were formulated to ask the students in a five-minute reflection session before ending each class in the form of a discussion, and the session was promoted for five consecutive weeks. So this paper is fundamentally a teacher’s reflection based on the student’s reflection. The findings indicate that the RP benefits the participants more than just bringing the difference between the theory and the practice in the pro-skills class; In accordance with Philip's (2006) concept, the RP encourages all students to participate in the session, not just the top performers, and it promotes 'peer-tutoring' in some way. The RP also successfully becomes the media for the students to interact, allowing them to be aware of their reflective ability as well as the process that is being followed; this is critical if they are to transfer this skill. By reflecting academically and on job satisfaction in a subject-specific manner, students can gain insight from their mistakes and improve their future learning through RP. Reflection, in other words, includes not only skill development but also subject comprehension and knowledge acquisition. Students can also begin to notice common errors they make and see how far they have progressed. To conclude, RP offers multiple benefits to the students who took part in the research as respondents.

Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in Higher Education: Considerations for the Future of Research and Practice

This paper examines the current state of the scholarly literature on trauma-informed pedagogy (TIP) in higher education. We trace the origins of this literature in clinical fields where scholars brought the trauma-informed care lens to bear on pedagogical questions. This literature is currently dominated by practitioner reflections, often written by scholars working in these clinical fields. While these reflections provide valuable insights for educational practice, we identify two important gaps in this body of scholarship: the dearth of empirical research and the lack of attention to students’ experiences and perspectives. We argue that given trauma-informed pedagogy’s stated commitment to collaboration, trust, and choice, future empirical scholarship must re-center students’ voices, experiences, and meaning-making in both research and practice. We conclude by reporting on an on-going participatory action research project designed to address these identified gaps.