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Reflection is a term which appears often in the discourse of online postsecondary education, where it is typically offered as the key to ‘deep learning’. However, although researchers agree that reflection is a vital aspect of online learning, and even that new technologies can promote reflection, there is a surprising lack of clarity about what reflection actually means in e-learning contexts. This paper reports on a survey of the literature on reflection in online postsecondary learning for the years 2000–2015. Reading, rereading and reflecting on the 46 articles, papers and theses that met the search criteria, the author found that studies on the topic tend to be based on diverse, vague and questionable understandings about what reflection entails. A major implication is that, lacking a clear understanding of what is being studied, research can only yield inconclusive findings about the strategies that prompt and support students’ reflection in online postsecondary education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper underscores the dynamic and complex dimensions of ‘becoming’ an intercultural doctoral student. It employs autobiography as a research method to portray the reshaping of ourselves as doctoral students to help us engage in self-reflexivity on our mediation of academic, personal and cultural identities in international doctoral education. Our self-narratives on how the plurality of our doctoral identities has emerged and how we have mediated these multiple identities show that becoming an intercultural research student is intimately linked to the process of self-empowerment and re-construction of oneself as a flexible and reflexive intercultural learner and human being. The paper concludes by discussing the notion of ‘reciprocal intercultural supervision’ in doctoral education. It highlights the increased need for (Western) supervisors to develop reciprocal interculturality and the capacity for greater agency in their international doctoral students so that both groups can understand each other better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I reflect on my experiences after returning to academic work at the age of 58. My return to work parallels a time in my reflective practice scholarship when I have been paying a lot of attention to how I might apply the REFLECT model I developed originally to improve practitioners’ work lives, to be of assistance in personal spheres. In this paper, I introduce the model and then apply the process to an issue I uncovered in my work and private life through reflection, that of constant change. I then discuss personal-professional intersections and how these reflective spaces created opportunities for developing my sense of personal-professional integrity. This personal reflection of re-signing my academic work contract is a public(ation) exercise in ‘walking my talk’, by exploring how a reflective practice model I developed for work situations can also be instructive for daily living. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper will describe the theoretical and conceptual framework that underpins a new model of reflection designed for health and social care students in practice-based learning settings and qualified professionals engaged in work-based learning. The Me, My, More, Must approach has been designed to help learners considerwho they areand what impact their values might havebeforea description of the particular experience, situation or incident. The paper outlines the influence of movements that have emerged to support the adoption of values-based approaches to clinical practice and the development of values-based reflection. A values-based approach to the delivery of healthcare has emerged in response to several high-profile ‘moral catastrophes’, such as the public inquiry led by Sir Robert Francis QC which described poor standards of care at Stafford Hospital; and the abuse inflicted on residents at the Winterbourne View unit. Re-conceptualisations of the purpose of reflection and initiatives such as the 6Cs (compassion, caring, communication, competence, courage and commitment) are influencing a post-Francis era where values are not only determining selection and recruitment of students and staff, but the nature of practice through the emergence of values-based reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the nature of reflective writing through the experience of the researchers in running a series of writing workshops with a group of higher education practitioners working in a UK further education college. The focus here is on reflective writing, which was chosen to start the sequence of workshops, as it was perceived as a form of writing with which the participants would be familiar, given its role in the education and development of teachers within the sector. Our assumption was that this familiarity would facilitate the writing process and participants would readily respond by engaging in reflective writing. However, in practice this proved not to be the case, despite being introduced to a variety of different forms of writing over a series of workshops, it took the participants longer than we expected to begin to write. This led us to question our assumptions about the starting point for the writing workshops and what they might achieve. The paper draws on field notes made during the writing initiative and data gathered through focus groups and interviews with the participants, as well as extracts of their writing to examine their experiences. Different conceptualisations of reflective writing are identified and their implications are explored in relation to the participants’ engagement with writing and their experience of professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the concept of reflexivity and its changing role for both the researcher and participants. A phenomenology was carried out following three female student teachers through their teacher training and how they managed their multiple roles. Twelve semi-structured interviews were carried out over the academic year to investigate the changing nature of identity. The discourses of the students were analysed to reveal the equilibrium/ disequilibrium of the student teacher’s identity and the impact on both the researcher and the researched. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of the present paper was to test the effectiveness of the r-cards in sport performance, and to examine what kind of benefits and challenges the head coach, team manager and female basketball players (N = 12) faced when using the r-cards. Mixed methods were employed to gather specific data to answer the research questions. Inferential statistical analyses were conducted to examine whether players’ performances in terms of their targeted defensive rebound percentage and free-throw percentage differed across the five matches played. No significant differences were found. However, evidence from the qualitative data provides a contrasting but insightful perspective. Subjectively, the r-cards strategy was seen as beneficial because it improved the team’s performance and preparations, helped the players in goal setting, identification of weaknesses, and recognition of effort. In contrast, realistic goal setting, irrelevance of some reflection questions, effort recognition, and feedback to head coach were found challenging in r-cards usage. The paper closes with a critical discussion on the implications for future use of r-cards in the field of sport coaching. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, Heidegger’s and Gadamer’s examinations of the terms ‘reflection’ and ‘experience’ are explored in depth in order to contribute to discussions about the benefits of critical reflection of practice for practitioners in the helping professions. The importance of maintaining humility and an undogmatic stance is stressed since this allows helping professionals to learn afresh from critical reflection of their practice. As Gadamer points out ‘being experienced’ does not consist of knowing everything or knowing more than anyone else. Rather, he suggests that a truly experienced person is someone who is undogmatic. This encourages practitioners to hold knowledge tentatively and be willing to be surprised by new ways of thinking and being. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores notions of ethical competence in relation to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). It carves out a conceptual field for future empirical research, by coupling the promotion of action readiness as an empirical concept with a theoretical understanding of ethical competence. The concept of competence displays interpretative pluralism as a concrete attribute of an individual or task and an unattainable ideal beyond the specific. With interpretive care, ethical competence, with its origin in values education, is suggested as a foundation of action readiness as ESD competence. In educational practice, action readiness is assumed to be fostered through real-world learning opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines reflective portfolios of graduate students studying co-existing problems (CEP) within an alcohol and drug studies programme in New Zealand. The methodology employs Todd’s principles of treating co-existing disorders (culture, management, engagement, assessment, integrated care, well-being and management). The metaphor, a GPS, is employed in the title to describe how Todd’s principles are used as a GPS to help navigate the murky waters of working with this specialised client population. The principles, allocated as themes within the portfolios, highlight how these principles are reflected upon within their workplace. Culture and engagement principles were the most endorsed themes within the portfolios. The reflective portfolios also allowed us to reflect upon the ongoing process of curriculum development for this specialised client population. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Qualitative research is said to add flesh to the bones of quantitative data, and narrative inquiry, more specifically, is described as emotionally comforting, reassuring and validating for participants who share their stories. But little is said of the impact of the flesh, bone and emotions of the narrative inquirer on the qualitative research process. This paper explores a humanistic approach to a narrative inquiry into the lived experience of women casual academics in Australian universities, and exposes the emotional and embodied labour involved in researching others’ stories. Through reflecting in and on her practice as a narrative inquirer, the author discusses how she was affectively and ideologically motivated to investigate the lives of women casual academics and demonstrates how her heart worked in conjunction with her head when ‘handling’ the narrative data. The author finally explores how reflecting on a humanistic approach to narrative research exposes that emotional and cognitive alignment can create research ‘flow’, and that fully embodied engagement with research aligns with ‘slow’ and feminist ‘in-the-making’ scholarship where journey and outcomes emerge and cannot be pre-determined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is concerned with the ways in which reflective practice is learnt, taught and assessed within the profession of occupational therapy. It utilises individual experiences of reflection of both students and staff members in university and practice placement settings. The discussion places reflection within learning a profession’s way of being and individual learner’s relation to this ‘sense of being’. It concludes that the ‘rote’ way in which reflection is currently used to demonstrate evidence of reflective practice is detrimental to the development of a reflective professional, in this instance, an occupational therapist. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Practitioner action and reflection are understood as central to practitioner research in this paper. While Vygotskian-based premise highlights instructional practices and intervention as central to practitioner understanding, Bakhtin-based dialogical premise draws on relational constructs and attend to practitioner being, answerability and authorship. Vygotskian and Bakhtinian units of analysis used are viewed as means with which to conceive practitioner action/reflection and build a community of practitioners. Taken together, practitioner knowing is found inextricable with practitioner ontology, making practitioner research of ongoing instructional practices more human in line with Dewey. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examined adult learners’ ability to engage in critical reflection concerning their own learning in a graduate-level online instructional technology course. The online course was facilitated through asynchronous discussions, and the course topic was about the design and delivery of distance education. The data for this study consisted of four critical reflection papers about students’ perception of their learning. The Periodic Reflection Tool, based on activity systems analysis, was introduced to participants as a guide for engaging in in-depth reflection about their learning process and completing their course assignment. After course completion and during data analysis, we appliedinstrumental learningandcommunicative learningtheories to evaluate how participants used the tool to reflect on their personal learning in the course. At the conclusion of an analysis of their reflection statements, it was found that purposeful reflections guided by the Periodic Reflection Tool could help guide adult learners to reflect on many aspects of their learning and we suggest that the tool could be used to examine adults’ transition from traditional to online settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mindfulness practice by clinicians may benefit therapeutic relationships and improve treatment results. This paper aims to present a behavioural scientific model of mindful practice for nursing. It demonstrates how this model works through the example of a nursing student’s structured reflection. The model, which proposes specific reflective cues, may help nurses and other professionals to clarify where greater mindfulness could benefit their own work. The question of the extent to which and in what ways this mode of learning to be mindful in professional practice is useful, warrants further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Elite sport organizations invest considerable efforts in continuous evaluation of training and development. A key challenge is to promote athletes’′ reliable learning. This requires critical reflection. In this paper we look at how highly successful elite cross-country skiers reflect on their training. The theoretical framework of organizational mindfulness and reliable learning directs attention to three key mechanisms that influence reflection: socialization, sensemaking and interpretation. We identified an inherent tension in the way athletes are socialized into elite athletes. On the one hand, they internalize strong beliefs in key success factors. Such beliefs serve as a normative framework that provides commitment and enthusiasm. However, strong beliefs may weaken the athletes’ ability to notice ambiguous feedback signals in complex training situations. We found four different styles of reflection, but only one of them is consistent with requirements for reliable learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although caring is one of the integral aspects of nursing practice and education, it is often left assumed and loosely threaded through the curricula. In this arts-informed Narrative Inquiry we asked nursing students how they define caring and how we could teach it. We engaged students in the Narrative Reflective Process (NRP), a creative multi-step self-expression activity that includes stories, metaphors, drawing and creative writing, followed by a group narrative interview. The outcome of this study reveals that students see caring as going beyond the expectations; receiving care is a challenge; and caring can be augmented in the nursing school through reflection on practice situations with links to theories of caring. The implication for education is to choose a caring framework which allows creative reflection and critical dialogue among students and teachers. This paper also provides an example of how NRP can be used to foster creative reflection on caring within nursing programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I take issue with the overuse of reflective practice in teacher education, arguing that the term ‘reflection’ is often utilized without a comprehensive understanding of its quite diverse parentage. In efforts to clarify the term, I trace the ideological lineage of reflective practice in education, detailing the rationalist-technicist model offered in the work of John Dewey and the experiential-intuitive model as it appears in the work of Donald Schön, highlighting the key differences in their respective approaches to reflection through critique. I demonstrate that both models bifurcate knowledge and experience, privileging the former at the expense of the latter. I conclude with a brief exploration of Van Manen’s tacit knowing and its potential for reflective practice in teacher education. Ultimately, this work cautions against an uncritical adoption of reflective models, stressing that in doing so, the very spirit of reflective practice can be undermined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fewer teachers are available globally for nursing education positions, a fact exacerbated by retirement of ageing colleagues. As two late career nurse-teachers, we use Arts-Informed Narrative Inquiry to explore experiences of Canadian contemporaries to discern the legacy we have to share with nurse-teachers who come after us. Narrative Inquiry is a research process that reconstructs personal and professional experience to reveal learning and knowledge construction in researchers and teachers. It involves lifelines, stories, metaphors, collage-making and reflective dialogue to reveal what experienced nurse-teachers have learned about teaching-learning over their professional trajectories. As an outcome of this study, we offer a letter to new teachers as a legacy arising from conceptualizing teaching-learning practice as humanness of care; the creative processes for self-directed, site-specific faculty development are transferable to any professional and geographical contexts. The paper illuminates how research, education and practice are mutually informing and how emergent inquiry approaches are significant for faculty and curriculum development, as well as transformation of practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the use of painting with a group of pre-registration nursing students, as one-approach educators might use to encourage deeper thinking and reflection. During the second week of their course, the students were asked to paint a picture of what they believed nursing to be, using colour to capture their feelings associated with nursing. On completion of their paintings, the students shared their ideas and beliefs with the group. This process was repeated at the start of the second year when, on completion of a second painting, their first picture was returned; with time devoted for the students to analyse both paintings and write a reflective account. Analysis was required on three levels: (1) to examine the content of each picture; (2) to explain why they had painted particular images, and explore factors influencing changes or similarities between pictures; and (3) at a deeper level, begin exploring how their values and beliefs had shaped their paintings. Through a facilitated group, students shared their analysis and associated feelings with their peers, the latter being encouraged to ask questions and discuss arising issues to develop their reflective and analytic skills. Examining personal and peer experience enables students to begin to recognise where, in terms of self and self in relation to others, they need to focus their attention. The findings provide tentative evidence that such innovative approaches, together with careful facilitation, can promote deeper insight into self and their chosen career. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is an ongoing debate in the social work profession about the value of faculty with practice experience. Many doctoral students begin teaching with significant practice experience but limited preparation for teaching. Schön’s reflective practice paradigm describes how new instructors can trust their existing social work skills and values, as well as cultivate the ability to reflect on their developing teaching practice. Drawing on the authors’ own experiences as new doctoral-level instructors, and referring to the literature on teaching effectiveness, this paper suggests that practice experience and clinical skills can be an invaluable resource for new instructors in social work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

New lecturers may find the notion of academic identity difficult to grasp, yet it potentially provides them with a means of revealing issues of self, career and work-life balance. In this paper, we introduce an innovative research strategy and democratic research framework which have enabled us to explore new lecturers’ academic identities in self-revelatory ways. This collaborative inquiry was undertaken by two teaching staff and four former students of a postgraduate certificate in higher education professional practice at a UK post-92 university. Through our innovative research strategy, one’s academic identity is conceptualised as the map of an island featuring actual or potential personal characteristics, qualities and interests. The visual metaphors and clustering of these attributes, together with individuals’ reflective commentaries on creating their own academic identity maps, lead us tentatively to characterise four alternative expressions of identity: themultifaceted whole, thelayered self, theinterlinked selfand thefragmented self. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With the increasing awareness of power and privilege in current theorizing, social workers are increasingly called upon to engage in critical self-reflection and develop strategies of reflective use of self in their practice. However, despite this call the use of self is disappearing from social work curricula. This paper presents an overview of findings from a small qualitative study exploring the use of self among reflective social work practitioners. In-depth collegial conversations were used to generate data. Narrative and discourse analysis were used to interpret the data. Findings are nuanced and textured reflecting the diversity of participants’ worldviews. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Setting the tone for reflective writing – should the first person, populated approach that currently dominates be ethically questioned? An active voice is recommended to enhance ‘power’ and emotional investment in reflection, but often presents practical difficulties for students conditioned in ‘scientific’ depopulated ways. Beyond the practical, being instructed to employ a personal tone could exacerbate the emotional risks involved for vulnerable students. Ethical questioning is an area of reflection and teaching that has been largely neglected. The current paper responds to this gap, discursively considering the impact of requiring students to reflect using the first person and how this could intersect with emotionality components, located within the experiences of MSc Forensic Psychology students. Six students that had recently undertaken a reflective practice assignment volunteered to take part in a semi-structured interview about their experiences. For some students the themes of personal pronoun use and emotionality intersected, whereby at deeper levels of analysis the emotional impact was compounded by first person usage. Assessing the risk of enhanced vulnerability to psychological discomfort, implementing practical strategies to mediate this and the support procedures followed when requiring students to reflect are reviewed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper highlights the authors’ experiences of negotiating a curriculum of narrative inquiry identity explorations in pre-service teacher education. Attending to both teacher education students’ evolving stories to live by, as well as our stories to live by as teacher educators, shapes a meeting place for, and of, shifting identities. The authors offer autobiographical narrative accounts of narrative inquiry practices in two Canadian teacher education programs and, as a result, foreground a curriculum of narrative inquiry identity explorations as an important aspect of teacher preparation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Commitment to ongoing learning is a hallmark of effective sport coaches. Available literature indicates: (a) coach learning inquiries have become more common but mostly conceptual not empirical; (b) the few available empirical studies provide only brief snapshots of ongoing learning efforts and seldom track learning impact; and (c) ongoing learning for sport coaches should be coach-driven and contextually-situated. To help close the gap between conceptual advice and empirical evidence, this paper shares our collective reflections on a unique, 10-year ongoing learning effort initiated and sustained by an American high school basketball coach in a suburban Midwestern community. This story is compelling, not only because of its sustained longitudinal nature, but because of the peer teaching role played by the iconic American basketball coach John Wooden. The story we tell is based on our conversations and interviews with the high school coach, media documents, systematic observation of the coach’s practice videos seven years apart, and perspectives from his school administrators and one of his former players. Ermeling’s four-feature reflective practice typology is used to frame the coach’s ongoing learning effort, and connect the story back to the coach development literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Algebra is a key course in the secondary mathematics curriculum. As a prerequisite for post-secondary mathematics, science and engineering courses, it is considered a gateway course. Since mathematical knowledge for teaching involves more than content knowledge algebra, teachers must be able to do more than successfully complete algebraic problems. They should understand algebra deeply and flexibly so that they are able to mediate students’ ideas, make choices about representations of content and modify curriculum materials. Yet, little is known about how certain groups view algebra and its teaching. In order to determine the beliefs held by a group of South African mathematics teachers with historically disadvantaged backgrounds teaching in schools that were previously segregated through Apartheid, this paper reports on what the group felt are the most important features of algebra. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within the global economy, education leverages social and economic improvement. Teachers are positioned as drivers and agents of compliance within change processes. Addressing this concern, we investigate intern teacher agency, as transformative professional learning, that occurs through a process of critical reflection. Critical reflection is conceived as an important element of teacher agency within the current political milieu. This article addresses the role of critical reflection in school-based intern teacher professional learning (PL). It is argued that intern teacher agency is inherent in transformative PL characterized through partnerships, which provide scope for decision-making and critical reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A focus on quality assurance of assessment processes in tertiary education within Australia and throughout the world has resulted in a changing landscape of assessment types and grading schemes over the last decade. The use of criteria and standards-based assessment systems are now very commonplace in tertiary education. There are a variety of models now used, but typically they include a criteria sheet and a levelled rubric. An alternative to the traditional matrix-style rubric is the Continua Model of a Guide to Making Judgments (GTMJ). In this paper, we analyse available assessment models and their capacity to guide the marking, grading and moderation of student assessment tasks. We specifically address standards descriptors used to identify the quality expected at each standard. The research was undertaken through a community of practice within the School of Education at a tertiary institution where the collective goal of enhancing assessment grading tools to improve student outcomes was approached through a process of peer review. In our results section, we analyse the efficacy of an internal peer-review model as part of a community of practice and the professional learning about grading tools that occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, I will discuss the concept of self-care and its importance for clinical psychologists, both during training and post-qualification. I will review the pertinent literature in this area covering the concept of self-care and its meaning, the personal and professional impact of a lack of self-care for clinical psychologists, and discuss some of the barriers to implementing self-care practices. Throughout the discussion of barriers to self-care, I will intersperse three reflective pieces on my own experiences throughout clinical psychology training, which will allow for a more in-depth exploration of the issues. My conclusion will highlight the personal, professional and systemic barriers to self-care in clinical psychologists, and in other helping professionals, and suggest possible ways of tackling these barriers and promoting greater utilisation of self-care during clinical training and beyond and across different professional groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The practice of reflecting on work-based experiences has received an increasing amount of attention from management and leadership writers in recent years. Yet, few empirical studies have been conducted into the use of reflective methods in the workplace. In response, this study explores the reflective practices of nine managers working in the higher education sector. Three broad methods of practice are identified. Whilst characterised by a number of shared features, significant variations were also evident in the way individual practitioners employed each method. These variations and the initial choice of reflective method can be explained as a response to the circumstances practitioners operated in, along with their personal preferences – the latter an outcome of a process of experimentation. Indeed, each method profiled was subject to continued evolution, as reflective practices were themselves reflected upon. Although time had been invested in the development of these practices, all were positive about the benefits and certain that reflective practice constituted a highly effective use of time. Whilst these findings help underpin the value of reflecting on work-based experiences, it is hoped that they also offer an insight into the means by which such practices may be pursued by others. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reflective journal facilitates teachers to reflect on their teaching and then generate feedback for the improvement of their classroom practices. This study examined how in-service English teachers in a MA Linguistics program at a US Mid-Western University perceived the influence of reflective journals toward their teaching attitudes. At the time of the research, participants were 25 years of age or older. The findings generated from interviews indicated that most participants were convinced that reflective journals help them become reflective teachers. It also found that most in-service teachers regard reflective journals as an effective tool to increase teaching awareness, and thus improve their performance during teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A Patchwork Text is a creative approach to learning and assessment based on short pieces of reflective writing to promote deep, meaningful reflection. A five-year study was undertaken to explore whether this approach supports postgraduate students’ personal and academic development and the factors that influenced student experience, within one UK university. Our adapted approach encompasses patches of reflection, a structured Reflective Journal, formative feedback, and action learning within a constructively aligned curriculum. Between 2010 and 2015, 100 students attended the MSc Leadership Development programme and 71% (n=71) completed a questionnaire at the end of the first module. The questionnaire contained mainly open questions. The overwhelming majority of responses (89%, n=63) reported their experience of action learning was extremely positive. Eighty-five percent (n=58) reported that the Patchwork Text approach supported their academic development. Seventy-five percent (n=52) agreed the approach was helpful in relation to their summative assessment which comprised a reflective integrated portfolio. Thematic framework analysis of the qualitative data suggests the Patchwork Text approach increased self-awareness and insight; deepened and promoted on-going reflection; and facilitated critical thinking, analysis, and synthesis thereby enabling completion of the summative assignment. Findings suggest the adapted Patchwork Text approach increased students’ self-awareness as well as supporting them with both their summative assignment and the development of academic writing skills. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite increased use of professional learning communities in the teacher education field, they do not necessarily guarantee change in teachers’ daily practice. This study is a multiple case study of three school leaders in Vietnam to connect their teachers’ learning and practice by utilising visual records. In the cases studied, we see a progression of models of joint reflection based on visual information, from only occasional reflection to daily critical reflection, the latter of which the authors call ‘vide-flection’ referring to a process for people to consider their actions, thoughts, or experiences by utilising video-recorded images. For joint vide-flection, school leaders visit every classroom for several minutes every day to observe the wellbeing and learning of pupils and video-record struggles or breakthroughs in children’s learning; they share those images with teachers to jointly reflect on the situations. Through this vide-flection, teachers develop more detailed awareness of pupils needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of the use of reflective teaching approach by university lecturers in Ghana to achieve improved student learning outcomes. The research utilised a quantitative survey design involving 180 lecturers who were accidentally or haphazardly selected from four universities in Ghana to complete a reflective teaching survey (RTS) questionnaire. The results showed that participants frequently engaged in varied reflective teaching activities, and were successful in evaluating the effectiveness of their pedagogies. The research concluded that the approach should be an essential component of the teacher performance appraisal system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents the case for self-managing and self-regulating learners to link their various forms of reflection explicitly, and to do so within an ePortfolio, in order to support the development of higher-level abilities such as problem-solving, critiquing, decision-making, empathising and resolving conflicts. It explores the reflective options for self-managed experiential learning, and concentrates upon what three forms of reflection (reflection-for,-on- andin-action) entail, and could contribute to learning and development. It also addresses how linking previous reflections (composted reflections) can contribute to the development of higher-level abilities. An ePortfolio is taken as a natural and effective location for this integration. Guidance is offered, requiring modest tutorial activity to generate and maintain learner involvement in the development of linked reflections in a learner’s assorted records and reflections housed in an ePortfolio. Suggestions for gathering learner constructive feedback on such initiatives are included. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This methodological article takes the reader on a phenomenological journey through a research process and reflects on three aspects deemed as particularly relevant for the process: (1) considerations leading to a phenomenological approach; (2) aspects related to gathering the material; (3) aspects related to analysing the material. The hermeneutic phenomenological analysis is visualized with examples from a specific study, related to perceptions of practice changes among English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers. By making reflections of an inexperienced researcher transparent, as well as sharing descriptions and experiences of the analysis procedures, this article can be read as a thinking tool for others who walk the same path, but in different shoes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A reflective team (RT) is a team of professional carers who reflect on a specific caring issue under the direction of an RT leader. The goal for the reflective process is to accomplish care improvement based on research and proven experience, and the first step is to reflect upon the competence that already exists in the context in which RT takes place. This study aims to bring previous unarticulated competence in caring for people living with dementia to the surface after it has been reflected during RT sessions. Ten assistant nurses who work closely with patients who have dementia and attend RT sessions on a regular basis were interviewed about their competence for caring for people living with dementia. Using a phenomenographic analysis, two qualitatively separate categories emerged: general caring skills and dementia-specific caring skills. It was concluded that specific skills in caring for people living with dementia build in caring skills and that tacit knowledge can be explicit and be expressed when it has been reflected in RT. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within the research and teaching program of maker pedagogy(TM), this study analyzes how teacher candidates construct knowledge about teaching and teaching with technology. The study applies an experiential-intuitive framework of reflective practice and takes cues from critical thinking to analyze the participants’ interactions in a maker pedagogy lab. Schön’s conception of reflection drove the data collection and analysis of participants who were asked to reflect on their experiences gained in the maker pedagogy lab. The researchers argue that the maker pedagogy lab provides participants with a way to understand their teaching practice. The results demonstrate that the maker projects enabled teacher candidates to engage in exploratory and hypothetical talk about how they are thinking about teaching and learning, particularly with technology. Furthermore, the researchers uncovered that teacher candidates’ prior knowledge and frames of reference affect their making experiences and their developing identities as science and technology teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of the present study was twofold: examining the effect of contextual differences on the degree of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ involvement in reflection and exploring context-related factors that may help/hinder the reflection process. A mixed-methods quantitative-qualitative procedure was adopted. Eighty-five Iranian EFL teachers (41 teaching in public schools and 44 working in private language institutes) completed the English-language teaching reflection inventory developed by Akbari, Behzadpour, and Dadvand (2010), with 10 of the participants attending a follow-up interview too. The results of multiple sets of independent samplest-tests showed that teachers in the private sector reported significantly more active involvement in lower levels of reflection (i.e. practical, cognitive, and affective reflection), while no measurable difference was detected between the two groups in terms of higher levels of reflection (i.e. metacognitive and critical reflection). Analysis of the interview data further revealed that teachers’ involvement in reflection was influenced by five main context-specific factors namely, knowledge of reflection, institutional demands, teachers’ attitude toward teaching, availability of resources, and collegial support. The implications of the findings for educational policymakers and teacher educators were discussed and suggestions were provided for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although reflection has been viewed as an individual process, increased attention has been given to how reflective processes are socially anchored. The present article contributes to this knowledge through an examination of how collective reflection is enacted in the context of police education. The article is based on a one-year ethnographic study of police recruits undergoing training, and the main sources of data collection were participant observations and field interviews. The data were inductively analysed, and a model that differentiates amongst ‘specular’, ‘dialogic’ and ‘polyphonic’ reflection processes is presented. The findings suggest that collective reflection involving multiple individuals adds complexity to reflective processes and that these processes may take on more diverse forms than has been acknowledged, as previous research has mainly focused on dialogic collective reflection. The implications of these findings, such as how increased complexity may counteract the benefits of collective reflection, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This research studied accountability pressures faced by five school administrators, and explored collaborative autobiography as a way for administrators to reflect on and address those pressures. The administrators cycled back and forth between reflective writing and group dialogue as they contemplated accountability pressures, their life histories in relationship to the pressures, and their preferred future. The participants reported that the process helped them to better understand accountability pressures and develop strategies for negotiating those pressures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is an increasing awareness that teaching is a practice where moral action is inseparable from pedagogical action, and where wise deliberation or reflection on what course of action to take as an educator is an important part of being a good teacher. This article focuses on rethinking the role of narratives as an articulation of such practical knowledge and the enrichment they might bring to a teacher’s pedagogical imagination. Working within a conceptual framework drawing on Schön and Aristotle, the study presents a group of narratives describing successful conflict resolution told by students at a newly launched teacher education program. These are discussed as part of a teachers practice repertoire and the argument is made that the local and personal repertoires of practitioners need to be complemented with elements from the repertoire of others, something systematic research into narratives of teaching in action can be part of. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article features nine ‘narratives of experience’ illustrative of academics engaged in an alternative Professional Development (PD) activity, referred to as Writing for Publication, in a regional Australian university. Each narrative adopts a critical stance to academic practice situated in what Ball defines as a ‘culture of performativity’ perpetuated by a ‘global neoliberal environment’. Contrary to professional development built primarily around sporadic content-provision and credential-based activities, Writing for Publication represents an alternative approach to professional development, a loose-coupling model, that gives validation to academics engaged in navigating dominant neoliberal discourses driving higher education filtered through the interstices or sites for identity-creation, agency formation and emerging communities of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reflection has been identified as key to interprofessional education as it facilitates a focus on interprofessional communication, collaborative practice and professional roles, while contributing to debunking ingrained understandings of roles and behaviours. The aim of this study is to explore the written reflections of nursing students following an interprofessional placement in ambulatory care. A deductive analysis of nursing student reflective journal entries mapped against the university interprofessional framework was conducted. A purposeful sample of 19 graduate entry Master of Nursing Science students participating in a two-week interprofessional educational placement completed a reflective journal relating to an interprofessional placement in ambulatory care. The analysis of the journals found that all students were able to reflect on their interprofessional clinical experience, but the ability to reflect varied between students. Despite the challenges that some nursing students experienced in achieving deep levels of reflection, the study demonstrated the usefulness of incorporating reflective journals into nursing curriculums and as part of interprofessional practicums. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The continuing professional development of ordained ministers is an important concept given the ever-changing nature of ministry and society as a whole. Within such a context, professional development needs to cope with continuous change through reflective practice in order to challenge and renew expertise. The proposed scenario for change seeks to embed reflective practice as the central method for the professional development of ordained ministers, thereby extending reflective practice from training and into the mode of lifelong learning. Components of this approach will include:• Intentional reflective practice as the central methodology.• Communities of practice as the central location for reflective practice.• Facilitation as the central mechanism for reflective practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to increasing globalization and immigration, there has been an increase in the culturally and linguistically diverse student population in the public school system. Educating teacher candidates to become culturally aware, sensitive and competent in order to meet the needs of this diverse population has been a concern of teacher education programs. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential usefulness of cultural narratives in teacher education classrooms and determine how they could be used as an instructional strategy to positively influence the pre- and in-service teachers’ growing knowledge and application of teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students with the views of the three TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher educators. Using the collaborative narrative inquiry, three TESOL educators, who are from linguistically, racially and culturally different backgrounds, academic settings and locations, analyzed the personal cultural narratives of one TESOL educator. We believe that cultural narratives have great potential as an instructional strategy in educating teacher candidates on issues related to language, culture, identity and diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Past research has described reflection as a process of thinking anew about already existing knowledge and experiences. More recently, reflection has also been referred to as a way of making sense of experience in complex situations. Research in coach learning has suggested that one of the ways coaches’ learn is by reflecting on their coaching practice. The purpose of the present study was to explore how four parasport coaches used reflection to help them learn and develop as coaches. The findings are discussed in light of the context of parasport and illustrated by four themes: reflecting on educational experiences, reflecting with a ‘lens of adaptability’, reflecting with others, and the relevance of the timing and depth of reflection, as coaches reported using reflection ‘before, during and after’ their coaching experiences. Given the apparent importance of reflection for parasport coaches, recommendations are suggested for how reflective practice might be nurtured. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In contemporary world, there is a need to make changes to literacy practices in schools towards outside school practices based on the use of technology and its communicational affordances. In this study, I focused on the process of reflecting my own emotions as a teacher in the context of changing literacy practices in a Finnish first-grade classroom. In my self-reflection, I aimed to understand my emotions, which were mediated in a discussion between my supervisor and I concerning the practices I had implemented. The discussion led me to an emotional conflict, which mirrored my pedagogical habitus in a tension of the old and the new practices. This tension was productive as it forced me to process my emotions also in the light of literature concerning teacher emotions. I also aimed to find new insights based on my reflections that could enhance understanding of literacy learning more generally. I ended up rethinking the changes in literacy learning in the contemporary world from the perspective of ‘possibilities’ rather than ‘need’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The practice of reflection in teacher education is a contentious area. Debates have focused on the nature of reflection and how to evidence that it is taking place. Students training to be teachers in the UK are expected to be taught about reflection and incorporate it into their practice. This qualitative study took place in response to difficulties trainee teachers had in grasping abstract concepts. The study explores the use of reading poetry as a tool for facilitating reflection. Data were gathered by observing groups at work with the poems and by interviewing the participants. The findings were that poetry particularly encourages students to venture to areas that they may not address unprompted. It also encouraged a particular form of reflection, to do with the nature of teacher identity and the value of teaching. We suggest that further studies with larger sample groups could be carried out to test these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]