CILIP Reflective Practice28th October 2013Dr. Paula Nottingham

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Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is a valuable way of understanding how professionals evaluate what they do in order to improve their performance in the workplace.

Reflective practice

THOUGHT/COMMENTStrategies for reflective practice can help save time, but time is sometimes difficult to find in a busy work/life schedule.

Using Reflection

insideinterior personal

exterior professionalwith others

Using Reflection

Draw a head Fill the head with ideas.

Discuss these with the group.

Using Reflection

insideinterior personal

exterior professionalwith others

Concept drawings are devices for visualising ideas

The only rules say not to draw recognised figurative imagery – you can use shapes, lines, arrows, patterns. Three minutes…

The journey

Reaching goals through reflective practice

Using critical reflection as a way to engage and challenge.

‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’

Reflective practice in professional life

Adult learning and social learning theory based on critical reflection to improve performance

Reflection using contextual and situated knowledge

Experience of practice

Work based learningtransdisciplinarity

Work based learning (WBL) can be within a disciplinary area or used more generically within a workplace that contains transdisciplinary knowledge (Gibbons et al., 1994).

Middlesex model of work based learning (e.g Costley and Armsby, 2007)

Looks at learning in the workplace - there is a need to find the space and time to learn and negotiate change for busy professionals performing various roles and functions - often the emphasis is on the service or competencies that are required versus individual or team capabilities.

Considers individual and organisational learning.

Tripartite Practice

Professional learner

Employer/workplace Learning consultant/professional peers

The journey

Allowing critical reflection to guide present and future action.

Stargazing

Schön

Reflection-in-action practice is when practitioners think about practice while they are doing it. Reflection-on-action can happen after the encounter. It is about using tacit knowledge and treating experience as ‘unique’ versus solely using technical rationality.

“It is the entire process of reflection-in-action which is central to the ‘art’ by which some practitioners deal well with situations of uncertainty, instability uniqueness, and value conflict” (Schön, 1983, p. 50).

Argyris and Schön

“When they came to explore the nature of organizational learning Chris Argyris and Donald Schon (1978: 2-3) described the process as follows…

“Single-loop learning is like a thermostat that learns when it is too hot of too cold and turns the heat on or off. The thermostat can perform this task because it can receive information (the temperature of the room) and take corrective action. Double-loop learning occurs when error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organization’s underlying norms, policies and objectives” (Infed, 2013).

Argyris and Schön

http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/4797/1 A_Diaggrammatical_Representation_of_Organisational_Learning_Using_Socio_Cultural_Theory__KSchofield.pdf

Experiential models for reflection

Kolb and others developed models of experiential learning practice that include developing learning from doing. Learning from experience is a variation of this practice.

Experiential models for reflection

http://www.ldu.leeds.ac.uk/ldu/sddu_multimedia/kolb/kolb_flash.htm

Honey and Mumford

We learn in different ways– Activist - learning by doing– Reflectors - learning by observing– Theorist - learning by thinking through in a logical manner– Pragmatist - learning through putting ideas into practice

and testing them out

“Honey and Alan Mumford developed their learning styles system as a variation on the Kolb model…” (Infed, 2013, online).

What is Reflective Practice?

Boud in ‘Creating a Work-based Curriculum’, Work-based Learning A New Higher Education (Boud and Solomon, 2001) p. 55.

“Critical reflection is important… because it is only through deeper critique that work situations can be improved, workplaces transformed and productivity significantly enhanced. It is about noticing and questioning the taken-for-granted assumptions that one holds and that are held by others. While it can be discomforting process, it is necessary in all situations that do not involve perpetuating the status quo.”

What is Reflective Practice?

Eraut’s (1994) professional knowledge:

Propositional knowledge – disciplinary/professional principles

Impressions, Personal knowledge and Interpretations of Experience “ people naturally develop some constructs, perspectives and frames of reference which are essentially personal, even if they have been influenced by public concepts and ideas circulating in the community” (p.106).

Process knowledge - procedures based in professional practice - skilled behaviour

Dewey

John Dewey introduced a practical way of thinking saying that experience was key to understanding.

“Reflective thinking is always more or less troublesome because it involves overcoming the inertia that inclines one to take things at face value ; it involves willingness to endure a condition of mental unrest and disturbance (1910, p.13).

“Unconsciousness gives spontaneity and freshness ; consciousness conviction and control” (2010, p.217).

The journey

Seeing the realities of practice. Allowing the process to clarify and articulate needs.

Using Reflection

Personal goals that can be

played out at work and home to develop a

work/life balance and

utilise informal learning

Where do you think the process of reflection might help you improve or develop more useful practice?

Job descriptionWhat is your roleWhat do you do?

Learning Log exercise

What was the task for the learning?

What have I learned about the focus/task?

How can I be more effective? What needs to be done and why? e.g. acquiring knowledge, feedback/discussion with peers?

What have I discovered about myself? e.g. strengths, points of view, values…

Fill out the sample learning log using a small and focused experience from your workplace.

Date

Using Reflection

What did you learn

about yourself?

What did your learn about your workplace?

Experience of practice

Reviewing an incident using Kolb

Take an larger significant incident from you own professional working environment and apply the thinking form the Kolb cycle. Discuss this with others.

Doing…

Reviewing…

Concluding…

Planning/trying out…

What did you do?

How did it go?

What ideas would you keep or do differently?

When we you try out the new version after reflecting on the outcomes?

Using Reflection

What are your ideas?How can you action your ideas?

Following up on the critical reflection - making a difference to practice…

Closing the shutter for a break

Using reflective practice with others

Leading others along the wayGuiding service users in reflective practice.

Communities of Practice (Wenger)

“Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly” (Wenger, 2011, online).

Mapping your CoPs

Using the 3 elements as guides map and describe and map your communities of practice and the elements of coherence they might have.

Your network of practice

See if you can map your communities of practice – then we will discuss how you can use reflective practice in these groupings.

Your network of practice

How can your reflective practice to think about activity within your professional communities of practice?

Can everyone think of 3 ways that reflective practice can be shared within your various communities? Try to action these as you develop your community networks.

Work role 1

Professional communityPersonal

or voluntary Work role 2

Adding to or making a start

Use today’s exercises to develop a sense of where you need to apply critical reflection in your practice.

Adding to or making a start

Create a portfolio where you can continue to research and explore the practices discussed today.

Personal journalWork logConcept drawingsCollecting evidence

Digital blogWork based identityParticipating in online Forums

Reflective Practice

Indicative Bibliography

Boud, David and Solomon, Nicky (2001) Work-based Learning A New Higher Education A New Higher Education, SRHE, Buckingham: Taylor and Francis Inc.

Eraut, Michael (1994) Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence, London: Falmer.

Francis, Russell (2011)The Predicament of the Learner in the New Media Age, Weblog, Available from: http://predicamentofthelearner.wordpress.com/

Gibbons, Michael, Limoges, Camille, Nowotny, Helga, Schwartzmen, Simon, Scott, Peter, and Trow, Martin (1994) The New Production of Knowledge, The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies, London: Sage Publications.

Infed (2013) reflection Infed (2013) (online) reflectionhttp://infed.org/mobi/reflection-learning-and-education/; ‘david a. kolb on experiential learning’, Available fromhttp://www.infed.org/biblio/b-explrn.htm; ‘Schon’, Available at: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-schon.htm

International Review of Open and Distance Learning (2011) (illustration of CoP) (online) Available from: http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/204/286

Indicative Bibliography

Kolb, David A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience As The Source Of Learning And Development, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Kolb’s Learning Styles (2011) (illustration and text) Available from http://www.businessballs.com/kolblearningstyles.htm

McAteer, Erica and Marsden, Sally (2004) ‘Networked Learning Conference, Frameworks for the Representation and Analysis of Networked Learning Activity’, University of Glasgow (illustration).

Murillo, E. (2011) "Communities of practice in the business and organization studies literature" Information Research, 16(1) paper 464. [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/16-1/paper464.html] (Illustration)

Nottingham, Patience (2013) Illustrations ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’.

Owen, Deborah and Saries, Patricia (2012)Exit tickets to Understanding, Copyright of Library Media Connection is the property of ABC-Clio - Library Media Connection.

Saddington, T. (2011) (online) Available from: http://www.icel.org.uk/pdf/el.pdf

Indicative Bibliography

Schön, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action, New York, NY: USA: Basic Books.

Schön, D. (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner: Towards a New Design for Teaching and Learning in the Professions, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

University of Leicester (2011) ‘Honey and Mumford’, Available from: http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/careers/pgrd/resources/teaching/theories/honey-mumford

Wenger, E. (2006) ‘Communities of Practice a Brief Introduction’, available from: http://www.ewenger.com/theory/communities_of_practice_intro.htm [Accessed 4/12/06]

Wenger, E., White, N. and Smith, J. (2009) Digital Habitas Stewarding Technology for Communities, Portland, USA: CPSquare.

Wenger, E. (2011) Website (online) Available from http://www.ewenger.com/theory/index.htm

The End

p.nottingham@mdx.ac.uk