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Reflective Practice

Reflective practice involves critically examining one's actions and experiences to support continuous learning. Through deliberate reflection on experiences, people can learn from their own professional work rather than just formal learning. Reflective practice brings together theory and practice by allowing people to see how theories relate to their work through reflection. It is an important form of personal and professional development. Donald Schön's 1983 book introduced the concepts of reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action to explain how professionals improve through reflective practice. Since the 1970s, there has been growing focus on experiential learning and reflective practice.

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210 views

Reflective Practice

Reflective practice involves critically examining one's actions and experiences to support continuous learning. Through deliberate reflection on experiences, people can learn from their own professional work rather than just formal learning. Reflective practice brings together theory and practice by allowing people to see how theories relate to their work through reflection. It is an important form of personal and professional development. Donald Schön's 1983 book introduced the concepts of reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action to explain how professionals improve through reflective practice. Since the 1970s, there has been growing focus on experiential learning and reflective practice.

Uploaded by

Vanessa Seman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Reflective practice is the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process

of continuous learning. According to one definition it involves "paying critical


attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions, by
examining practice reflectively and reflexively. This leads to developmental insight".
A key rationale for reflective practice is that experience alone does not necessarily
lead to learning; deliberate reflection on experience is essential.
Reflective practice can be an important tool in practice-based professional learning
settings where people learn from their own professional experiences, rather than
from formal learning or knowledge transfer. It may be the most important source of
personal professional development and improvement. It is also an important way to
bring together theory and practice; through reflection a person is able to see and
label forms of thought and theory within the context of his or her work. A person
who reflects throughout his or her practice is not just looking back on past actions
and events, but is taking a conscious look at emotions, experiences, actions, and
responses, and using that information to add to his or her existing knowledge base
and reach a higher level of understanding.
History and background
Donald Schn's 1983 book The Reflective Practitioner introduced concepts such as
reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action which explain how professionals meet
the challenges of their work with a kind of improvisation that is improved through
practice. Soon thereafter, other researchers such as Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget were
developing relevant theories of human learning and development. Some scholars
have claimed to find precursors of reflective practice in ancient texts such as
Buddhist teachings and the Meditations of Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
Central to the development of reflective theory was interest in the integration of
theory and practice, the cyclic pattern of experience and the conscious application
of lessons learned from experience. Since the 1970s, there has been a growing
literature and focus around experiential learning and the development and
application of reflective practice.
As adult education professor David Boud and his colleagues explained: "Reflection is
an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about
it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in
learning." When a person is experiencing something, he or she may be implicitly
learning; however, it can be difficult to put emotions, events, and thoughts into a
coherent
As adult education professor David Boud and his colleagues explained: "Reflection is
an important human activity in which people recapture their experience, think about
it, mull it over and evaluate it. It is this working with experience that is important in
learning." When a person is experiencing something, he or she may be implicitly
learning; however, it can be difficult to put emotions, events, and thoughts into a

coherent sequence of events. When a person rethinks or retells events, it is possible


to categorize events, emotions, ideas, etc., and to compare the intended purpose of
a past action with the results of the action. Stepping back from the action permits
critical reflection on a sequence of events.
Models of reflective practice
Many models of reflective practice have been created to guide reasoning about
action.
Kolb 1975
Learning theorist David A. Kolb was highly influenced by the earlier research
conducted by John Dewey and Jean Piaget. Kolb's reflective model highlights the
concept of experiential learning and is centered around the transformation of
information into knowledge. This takes place after a situation has occurred, and
entails a practitioner reflecting on the experience, gaining a general understanding
of the concepts encountered during the experience, and then testing these general
understandings in a new situation. In this way, the knowledge that is formed from a
situation is continuously applied and reapplied, building on a practitioner's prior
experiences and knowledge.
Argyris and Schn 1978

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