Reflective Practice
Definition:
“Reflective Practice is a dialogue of thinking and doing through which
you become more skilful” (Schon, 1987)
Reflective Practice is about self-improvement and is a key tool. It is
important for our career, university life and personal life —> to
understand the world and ourselves better
The process of learning is about 1) having an experience 2) reflecting on
it
How it works — 4 steps:
Experience —> Reflection —> Learning —> Action
Metaphor = You have a wet cloth (experience). You wring it out
(reflection). You collect all the water drops (learning). Then you apply
what you learned (action).
Some models of reflection: (We do not have to know them all but we
should use some of them in our assessment)
• Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (1984)
• Gibb’s Reflective Cycle (1988)
• Schön’s Reflection in action (1983)
• Discroll’s model (1994)
• Rolfe et al (2001)
• Johns’s model
• Atkins & Murphy (1993)
• Brookfield (2005)
Kolb’s Learning Cycle = Concrete experience (have an experience) —
Reflective observation (reflect on experience) — Abstract
conceptualisation (learn from the experience) — Active experimentation
(try out what you learned)
Schön’s Reflection in action = 1) Reflecting in the moment (while you live
the experience) to decide what to do and act 2) Reflecting after the
experience (understand what can be done differently next time based on
new information available after the experience)