Reflective practice: origins and interpretations

The idea of reflection is central to the theory and practice of learning – especially learning which is grounded in past or current experience. This paper proposes a working definition of reflection and reviews its origins and recent developments. The author also provides an account of ‘critical reflection’, including its rationale and characteristics, and argues for its particular suitability in the practice of action learning.     

Reflective practice,staff development and understanding

This paper looks at the idea of reflective practice in the context of educational and staff development. The main elements of reflective practice and differences in the approach of the ‘expert’ in comparison with the ‘reflective practitioner’ are outlined. Notions of reflection‐in‐action and reflection‐on‐action are then taken up and elaborated. In particular, understanding, self‐understanding and openness are considered to be important for reflection‐in‐action. These are briefly considered and located within the tradition of interpretation, or hermeneutics. Reflection‐on‐action is then discussed and found to be very important for reflection‐in‐action. It is suggested that for busy, professional practitioners, reflection‐on‐action often comes under severe pressure and is the ‘endangered species’ of reflective practice.     

Encouraging professional autonomy: Reflective practice and the beginning teacher

Helping those teachers designated as Subject Induction Tutors in secondary schools who support Newly Qualified Teachers to become autonomous, self-reflecting practitioners has been the basis of a participatory action research project based at the University of Leicester. The first part of the paper explores the notion of professional autonomy in terms of staff development, professional communities and the encouragement of critical reflective dialogue. The second part presents some strategies for continuing professional development, with illustration of their impact that appear to provide for greater professional autonomy.     

Professional development in practicum settings: Reflective practice under scrutiny

This study explored the applicability of Donald Schön's notion of reflective practice for student teachers in practicum settings. The research was guided by three questions: What do student teachers reflect upon?, What precipitates reflection?, and What factors enhance or constrain reflection? Detailed case studies of four science student teachers on a 13-week practicum were constructed. Fifteen reflective themes were documented across the four cases, and it was possible to identify up to four precipitants for each theme. In all, 47 factors were documented that either enhanced or constrained reflection. The paper concludes by suggesting four strategies for promoting student teacher reflection and two refinements to Schön's conception of reflective practice for use in practicum settings.     

Reflective practice in clinical teaching: the experience of two nurse academics

This article outlines steps taken to introduce two new nurse academics to reflective practice to demonstrate staff development in clinical teaching. The personal exploration of practice by two beginning university teachers, Angela and Helen, draws on reflective practice to inform their interpretations of clinical teaching. Thepaper examines reflective practice and, in particular, strategies of journal writing, audio‐taped debriefing sessions, and the use of a ‘critical friend’ to support and inform reflection. The process indicates that personal and collaborative reflection provides an avenue to investigate and improve teaching and learning in clinical education. It also demonstrates an effective non‐judgmental process which facilitates quality in all types of educational experiences, and which can aid university review procedures.     

Reflective practice in the transition phase from university student to novice graduate: implications for teaching reflective practice

Reflective practice is widely taught within higher education and is regarded as beneficial to developing graduates' ability to practise effectively within professional environments. In spite of widespread acceptance of the merits of reflective practice, a comprehensive understanding of teaching reflective practice remains incomplete and contested. This paper reports on a study undertaken to explore physiotherapy students' experiences and perceptions of learning reflective practice in order to critically and meaningfully inform current teaching practice. The findings identified that students and graduates conceptualised reflective practice in terms of the challenges they faced in the concrete tasks of daily novice practice. They used methods of reflection that were embedded in the context of their daily practice with particular emphasis on using social and collective opportunities for reflection. The preferred methods of reflective practice used by students and graduates contrasted with traditional approaches to teaching reflective practice. This study supports rethinking approaches for teaching reflective practice to incorporate approaches that are embedded within real and daily practice experiences.     

对反思型教师及反思性教学的一点思考

随着中国教育事业的发展,教师教育和教师的专业化越来越成为教师及整个教育界关注的问题。该文以反思作为教师专业化和提高自身理论水平的切入点,就反思型教师教育的理论来源、反思型教师应遵循的原则、反思性教学的过程以及反思性教学对自身工作的启示进行了探讨。     

反思性教学:提高外语教学效果的一种有效方法

反思性教学是教师以自己的教学活动为思考对象，对自己的教学行为、决策以及由此产生的结果进行审视和分析，并据此采取相应的对策的过程，它为教师提供了一种新的提高专业能力的途径。     

反思性教学--教师专业发展的阶梯

教师的教学过程是一种自我反思的过程,教师在教育教学中反思,不仅提高教师的理论水平,而且也提高教师的实践水平.反思被认为是取得实际效果并使教师的教学参与更为主动、专业发展更为积极的一种工具和手段,教学反思是教师专业发展的有效路径.     

教师的反思性教学与学生的反思主体地位

反思性教学是现代教育改革中迅速兴起的一种教学理论思潮。它一方面通过反思活动使教师逐步成熟获得全面发展，另一方面要求学生也成为反思实践。在反思活动中，学生的元学习能力得到发展，从而主动进入深层学习并取得高效的学习结果。培养学生成为反思主体是教学过程中教师的一项重要职责。     

The Reflective Self

ABSTRACT

The following paper will apply a social constructionist paradigm to the concepts of the reflective self, creativity and intuition as valuable skills in social work practice education. The students' learning process and their integration of self-reflective, intuitive and creative knowledge and skills will be illustrated through excerpts from their final papers in an advanced social work practice course taught by this instructor. A qualitative analysis will focus on three main themes that emerged from these final papers: learning from the client, the use of intuition, and helplessness and omnipotence. The author's underlying thesis is that on-going self-examination, intuitive knowledge and a creative use of self are not only crucial skills in clinical practice in general but should continue to be emphasized in social work practice education.     

Reflecting Reflective Practice

This paper demystifies reflective practice on teaching by focusing on the idea of reflection itself and how it has been conceived by two philosophers, Plato and Irigaray. It argues that reflective practice has become a standardized method of defining the teacher in teacher education and teacher accreditation systems. It explores how practices of reflection themselves can suggest ways out of dictated pathways of reflection in teaching. Drawing on Luce Irigaray's and Plato's ideas on reflection, the paper includes a critical overview of how reflective practice can contradict its own aims and become non‐reflective, shutting off possibilities for transformations and educational differences that it has set out to achieve. Keeping up the deconstructive mood, the paper draws on Irigaray's re‐reading of Plato's parable of the cave to argue that reflective teaching that merely reflects phallogocentric educational systems and that attempts to universally reproduce standardized forms of reflective practice can never be conducive to the diversification of educational spaces.

The paper seeks to re‐think Plato's idea of reflection as mere copying and takes up Irigaray's strategic mimesis to explore ways through which reflective practice can regain its critical edge and reactivate teachers' reflective voices. It argues for the repetition of the practice of reflection by drawing on a feminist critique that challenges phallogocentric reflective tendencies in education and for mimetic strategies that engender difference.