Reflecting on ‘Reflective practice’ Essay

Maybe contemplative radiation patterns scissure us a path of essay to make sense of the interrogateablety in our addplaces and the courage to work competently and ethically at the edge of order and loony bin (Ghaye, 2000, p.7)Reflective put on has burge unityd everyplace the pass few decades by means of reveal various palm of lord shape and grooming. In some(prenominal)(prenominal) professions it has do peerless of the defining features of competence, redden if on occasion it has been adopted mis fuck offnly and un musingly to rationalise existing devote. The allure of the musing bandwagon lies in the fact that it rings genuine (Loughran, 2000). Within different disciplines and intellectual traditions, however, what is still by meditative carry away varies well (Fook et al, 2006). Multiple and contradictory netherstandings of ruminative utilisation loafer even be prime within the same discipline.Despite this, well-nigh(prenominal) consensus has been arrive atd amid the profusion of definitions. In general, wistful use is understood as the solve of hearing through and from recognise towards get toing unused insights of self and/or manage (Boud et al 1985 Boyd and Fales, 1983 Mezirow, 1981, Jarvis, 1992). This practically involves examining assumptions of everyday formula. It as well as tends to involve the exclusive practician in being self-aw be and circumstantially evaluating their own responses to consecrate situations. The peak is to recapture figure experiences and mull them everywhere life-sustainingly in order to gain newly understandings and so improve prox normal session. This is understood as part of the play of life-long carry throughment.Beyond these broad atomic number 18as of agreement, however, contention and trouble reign. on that point is debate near the goal to which practicians should cerebrate on themselves as individualists quite an than the larger societal mise en scene. There ar questions around how, when, where and why contemplation should income tax return place. For busy masters short on beat, ruminative practice is all too advantageously employ in bland, mechanical, un cerebration commissions, ambitious practitioners whitethorn too find it exam to stand back from painful experiences and sample to be analytical about them. In this tangle of understandings, misunderstandings and difficulties, exactly how to apply and teach meditative practice effectively has become something of a conundrum.This paper explores current ideas and debates relating to pensive practice. In the first ii sections, I review key definitions and humourls of expression ordinarily employ in superior practice. Then, in the ruminative spirit myself, I precisely examine the actual practice of the plan, foreground ethical, professional, pedagogic and ideaual concerns. I launch forward the shell that pondering practice is two complex and s ituated and that it cannot work if applied mechanically or simplistically. On this origination, I conclude with some provisionary suggestions for how educators might nurture an effective mull overive practice involving decisive construction.Defining meditative practice upbraiding can sozzled all things to all peopleit is used as a kind of umbrella or canopy line to entail something that is good or desirableeverybody has his or her own (usually undisclosed) rendering of what materialization means, and this interpretation is used as the basis for trumpeting the virtues of comment in a way that makes it hold up as virtuous as m oppositehood. Smyth (1992, p.285)The term reflective practice carries multiple meanings that range from the idea of professionals engaging in anchorite introspection to that of engaging in over particular dialogue with others. Practitioners may embrace it on occasion in haomaal, explicit ways or use it more(prenominal) fluidly in ongoing, sile nt ways. For some, reflective practice simply refers to adopting a idea approach to practice. Others see it as self-indulgent navel gazing. For others still, itinvolves carefully organize and crafted approaches towards being reflective about ones experiences in practice. For example, with reference to teacher education, Larrivee argues thatUnless teachers develop the practice of slender look, they wedge trapped in unexamined judgments, interpretations, assumptions, and expectations. Approaching program line as a reflective practitioner involves fusing in the flesh(predicate) beliefs and values into a professional identity (Larrivee, 2000, p.293). In practice, reflective practice is often seen as the bedrock of professional identity. Reflecting on performance and acting on refection, as McKay (2008, Forthcoming) notes, is a professional imperative. Indeed, it has been include in official benchmark standards hardened down for professional registration and practice (see table 1 in adjunct 1).One example is in the way it has been included, explicitly and silently, in all intention 2000 curricula for Nursing Diplomas, while formulation is highlighted as a pivotal skill to achieve required Standards of Proficiencies in nursing and other wellness professional education (NMC, 2004 HPC, 2004). It has similarly become a key prime of approaches to the broader field of continuing professional development, work-based look oning and lifelong nurture (Eby, 2000 HPC, 2006).Given its developing emphasis in professional practice and education, it would seem important to explore the concept of reflective practice in some detail. To this end, this section distinguishes mingled with different types of reflective practice and looks at the sister concepts of manifestation, full of life reflection and reflexivity. verbal expression in and on practiceDewey (1933) was among the first to detect reflection as a specialised form of persuasion. He considered reflectio n to stem from doubt, vacillation or perplexity related to a directly experienced situation. For him, this prompted purposeful examination and problem resolution (Sinclair, 1998). Dewey also argued that reflective thinking moved people extraneous from routine thinking/activeness (guided by tradition or external authority) towardsreflective action (involving careful, deprecative consideration of taken-for-granted acquaintance). This way of conceptualising reflection crucially starts with experience and stresses how we learn from doing, i.e. practice. Specifically Dewey argued that we think the problem out towards formulating hypotheses in trial and error reflective situations and then use these to plan action, interrogation out our ideas.Deweys ideas provided a basis for the concept of reflective practice which gained act upon with the arrival of Schons (1983) The reflective practitioner how professionals think in action. In this seminal work, Schon set ways in which professi onals could become aware of their implicit whopledge and learn from their experience. His main concern was to accelerate the development of reflective practitioners rather than find the process of reflection per se. However, one of his close important and enduring contributions was to identify two types of reflection reflection-on-action (after-the-event thinking) and reflection-in-action (thinking while doing). In the case of reflection-on-action, professionals are understood consciously to review, describe, hit the books and evaluate their past practice with a view to gaining insight to improve future day practice.With reflection-in-action, professionals are seen as examining their experiences and responses as they occur. In both types of reflection, professionals aim to connect with their feelings and go to to relevant conjecture. They seek to build new understandings to shape their action in the anthesis situation. In Schons words The practitioner allows himself to expe rience surprise, puzzlement, or confusion in a situation which he finds uncertain or unique. He reflects on the phenomenon in the first place him, and on the prior understandings which have been implicit in his behaviour. He carries out an experimentation which serves to generate both a new understanding of the phenomenon and a tack in the situation. (Schon, 1983, p. 68)For Schon, reflection-in-action was the midpoint of professional artistry a concept he contrasted with the technical-rationality demanded by the (still dominant) plus paradigm whereby problems are solvable through the rigorous application of science. A contemporaneous example of this paradigm is the evidence-based practice movement, which favours quantitative studiesover qualitative ones, and established protocols over intuitive practice. In Schons view, technical-rationality failed to go under the dilemma of rigour versus relevance confronting professionals. Schons argument, since taken up by others (e.g. t ip and Coles,1998), was as make ups Professional practice is complex, aleatory and messy. In order to cope, professionals have to be able to do morethan follow set procedures. They draw on both practical experience and hypothesis as they think on their feet and improvise. They act both intuitively and creatively.Both reflection-in and on -action allows them to revise, characterize and refine their expertise. Schon believed that as professionals become more expert in their practice, they developed the skill of being able to monitor and set their practice simultaneously, maybe even intuitively. In contrast, novice practitioners, inadequacying knowing-in-action (tacit friendship), tended to cling to rules and procedures, which they are inclined to apply mechanically. Schon argued that novices needed to flavour back and, from a aloofness, take time to think through situations. Whether expert or novice, all professionals should reflect on practice both in general and with imp ress to specific situations. Schons work has been tremendously influential some would say basic in the way it has been applied to practice and professional learn and education. For example, in the health care field, Atkins and tater (1993) identify ternion stages of the reflective process.The first stage, triggered by the professional becoming aware of uncomfortable feelings and thoughts, is equal to Schons experience of surprise (what Boyd and Fales, 1983, identify as a sense of interior(a) discomfort or unfinished occupation). The second stage involves a critical psychoanalysis of feelings and knowledge. The final stage of reflection involves the development of a new perspective. Atkins and Murphy argue that both cognitive and affective skills are prerequisites for reflection and that these combine in the processes of self-awareness, critical analysis, synthesis and evaluation (see attachment 2). In the education field, Grushka, Hinde-McLeod and Reynolds (2005) distin guish amid reflection for action, reflection in action and reflection on action (see Appendix 3).They offer a series of technical, practical and critical questions for teachers to rent with. For example, under reflection for action teachers are informed to consider their resources and how long the lesson will take (technical) how to make the resources relevant to different learning styles (practical) and to question why they are commandment this particular topic (critical). Zeichner and Liston (1996) differentiate between five different levels at which reflection can take place during teach1. Rapid reflection immediate, ongoing and voluntary action by the teacher.2. Repair in which a thoughtful teacher makes decisions to interchange their behaviour in response to students cues.3. go off when a teacher thinks about, discusses or writes about some element of their instruction.4. Research when a teacher engages in more doctrinal and sustained thinking over time, perhaps b y collecting data or reading research.5. Retheorizing and reformulating the process by which a teacher critically examines their own practice and theories in the light of academic theories. temporary hookup Schons work has inspired umpteen such(prenominal) models of reflection and categories of reflective practice, it has also drawn criticism. Eraut (2004) faults the work for its lack of precision and clarity.Boud and Walker (1998) argue that Schons analysis ignores critical features of the context of reflection. Usher et al (1997) find Schons account and methodological analysis un reflex(a), while Smyth (1989) deplores the atheoretical and a policy-making quality of his conceptions. Greenwood (1993), meanwhile, targets Schon for downplaying the splendour of reflection-before-action. Moon (1999) regards Schons pivotal concept of reflection-in-action as unachievable, while Ekebergh (2006) draws onphenomenological philosophical system to argue that it is not possible to distance oneself from the lived situation to reflect in the moment. To achieve real self-reflection, she asserts, one needs to step out of the situation and reflect retrospectively (van Manen, 1990). Given this level of criticism, questions have to raised about the wide adoption of Schons work and the wayit has been applied in professional practice and education (Usher et al, 1997). There have been calls for a more critical, reflexive exploration of the nature of reflective practice.Reflection, critical reflection and reflexivityContemporary write on reflective practice invites professionals to engage in both personal reflection and broader societal critique. For example, work within the abrupt Universitys Health and Social fretfulness faculty has put forward a model whereby reflective practice is seen as a synthesis of reflection, self-awareness and critical thinking (Eby, 2000) (see figure 1). In this model, the philosophical grow of reflective practice are identified in phenomenol ogy (with its tenseness on lived experience and personal consciousness) and also in critical theory (which fosters the development of a critical consciousness towards emancipation and resisting oppression ).Self-awarenessroot phenomenology The cognitive ability to think, feel,sense and know through intuition To evaluate the knowledge derived throughself-awareness to develop understandingReflectionRoots existentialphenomenology andcritical theory-interpretive and critical theory tool for promoting self- and fond awarenessand companionable action meliorate self-expression,learning and co-operation links theory and practiceReflectivePractice comminuted thinkingRoots skepticism andcritical theory identifying and challengingassumptions challenging the importanceof context to imagine and explorealternatives which leads toreflective scepticismFigure 1 Skills underpinning the concept of reflective practice. Other authors argue for the concept of critical reflection, which is seen as off ering a more thorough-going form of reflection through the use of critical theory (Brookfield, 1995). For adherents of critical reflection, reflection on its own tends to remain at the level of relatively undisruptive changes in techniques or superficial thinking (Fook, White and Gardner, 2006, p.9). In contrast, critical reflection involves attending to deal and social and political analysis it seeks to enable transformative social action and change. For Fook (2006), critical reflectionenables an understanding of the way (socially dominant) assumptions may be socially restrictive, and thus enables new, more em agenting ideas and practices. Critical reflection thus enables social change beginning at individual levels. formerly individuals become aware of the hidden source of ideas they have absorbed unwittingly from their social contexts, they are then freed to make choices on their own terms.Fook and Askeland argue that the focus of critical reflection should be on connecting in dividual identity and social context federal agency of the spot of critical reflection in capableing up new perspectives andchoices about practice may only be realized if the connections between individual thinking and identity, and dominant social beliefs are articulate and realized. (Fook and Askeland, 2006, p.53).For Reynolds (1998), four characteristics distinguish critical reflection from other versions of reflection (1) its concern to question assumptions (2) its social rather than individual focus (3) the particular care it pays to the analysis of power relations and (4) its pursuit of emancipation (Reynolds, 1998). By way of example, Reynolds argues that when managers critically reflect (rather than just now reflect) they become aware of the wider environment in which they operate. They begin to grasp the social power exercised by their organisation through its networks and relationships. In the field of teaching, Brookfield (1995) characterises critical reflection as stance and dance. The critically reflective teachers stance toward teaching is one of inquiry and being open to further investigation. The dance involves experimentation and encounter towards modifying practice while moving to fluctuating, and mayhap contradictory, rhythms (Larrivee, 2000).A key concept prominent momentum to the idea of reflective practice involving both personal reflection and social critique is reflexivity. Reflexive practitioners engage in critical self-reflection reflecting critically on the meeting of their own background, assumptions, positioning, feelings, behaviour while also attending to the impact of the wider organisational, discursive, ideological and political context. The terms reflection, critical reflection and reflexivity are often confused and wrongly assumed to be interchangeable. Finlay and Gough (2003, p. ix) find it instrumental to think of these concepts forming a continuum. At one end stands reflection, defined simply as thinking about s omething after the event. At the other end stands reflexivity a more immediate and dynamic process which involves continuing self-awareness. Critical reflection lies somewhere in between.Previously, Ive proposed five lapping variants of reflexivity with critical selfreflection at the core introspection intersubjective reflection uncouth collaborationism social critique and ironic deconstructionism (Finlay, 2002, 2003). These variants can similarly be applied todistinguishing between the types of reflection practitioners could engage in when reflecting on practice. Reflective practice as introspection involves the practitioner in recluse self-dialogue in which they probe personal meanings andemotions. Intersubjective reflection makes the practitioner focus on the comparative context, on the emergent, negotiated nature of practice encounters. With mutual collaboration, a participatory, dialogical approach to reflective practice is sought what Ghaye (2000) calls a reflective int ercourse. Here, for example, a mentor and student, or members of a team, seek to solve problems collaboratively. Reflective practice as social critique focuses attention on the wider discursive, social and political context. For instance, the practitioner may think about despotic institutional practices or seek to manage the power imbalances inherent in education/practice contexts. Finally, reflective practice as ironic deconstruction would cue into postmodern and poststructural imperatives to deconstruct discursive practices and represent something of the ambiguity and multiplicity of meanings in particular organisational and social contexts. At the very least, a critical and possibly satirical gaze could be turned to challenging the ubiquitously unreflexive rhetoric of reflective practice.In practice, introspection is the dominant mode of reflective practice. Sometimes presented as entirely a promising personal judge (Loughran , 2006), it is a predominantly individualistic an d personal exercise (Reynolds and Vince, 2004) in which practitioners tend to focus on their own thoughts, feelings, behaviours and evaluations. This passes as legitimize reflective practice which professionals then can use to advance their cause to explosion formal requirements for continuing professional development. age such reflective practice may take place in dialogical contexts such as supervision sessions, the onus waistcloth on the individual practitioner to reflect upon and evaluate their own practice. What is lacking is any(prenominal) mutual, reciprocal, shared process. Institutional structures and quality self-reliancesystems encourage, perhaps even require, this individual focus. It starts beforehand(predicate) on during professional education and training where learners engage professional socialisation and are taught how to reflect, using structured models of reflection.One of the consequences of the lack of consensus and clarity about the concept of reflective practice is the proliferation of different versions and models to operationalise reflective practice.