What is Reflective Practice?

Reflective Practice is a concept which has been extensively used in education for some time, and is also adopted by other professionals such as healthcare workers. As with reflection, there are several models of Reflective Practice which vary from writer to writer, and organisation to organisation. Some of the key ideas are presented here, but we do not suggest any one is better than any other. Use the content and ideas which you think will work best for you!

Definitions of Reflective Practice

reflective practice is viewed as a means by which practitioners can develop a greater level of self-awareness about the nature and impact of their performance, an awareness that creates opportunities for professional growth and development. (Osterman and Kottkamp 1993: 2 )

Schon puts it in a nicely simple way

A dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skilful. (Schön 1987)

Reflective practice’ is a term often used in education pedagogy. It is a continuous process from a personal perspective that considers critical incidents within your life’s experiences.

Reflective practice involves thoughtfully considering one’s own experiences in applying theory to practice. In teacher education it refers to the process of trainees studying their known teaching methods and determining what works best for the students. All lecturers need to reflect on their experiences in the classroom and adapt their strategies accordingly. (Duckworth et al 2010: p 41)

Pollard and Tann (1993) laid out a set of six characteristics of reflective practice. They argued that the reflective practitioner:

• has an active concern with aims and consequences, as well as means and technical efficiency
• requires competence in methods of classroom enquiry (gathering data, analysis, evaluation) to support the development of teaching competence
• requires attitudes of open-mindedness, responsibility and wholeheartedness
• is based on teacher judgement which is informed partly by self-reflection and partly by insights from educational disciplines
• is enhanced through collaboration and dialogue with colleagues

(Pollard and Tann 1993: pp 9-10 

Source: http://reflectivepractice-cpd.wikispaces.com/Definitions3