‘Constructive reflection’ Getting the best out of reflective learning

Ann Thanaraj

doi:10.31686/ijier.vol5.iss2.500

Authors

Ann Thanaraj University of Cumbria, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31686/ijier.vol5.iss2.500

Keywords:

Reflective practice, Constructive reflection, Epistemology, Consciousness, dentity and values, Professionalism, Knowledge trajectory, Contextual learning, Professional development

Abstract

This paper proposes a constructive reflective model that offers students a layered and developmental approach to embed learning and the application of learning within the seemingly constantly changing professional environment. The model is different from other popular reflective practice frameworks because it embraces the influences of personal epistemology of assumptions and consciousness and recognises how our identity, values, opinion and experiences impacts on the way we react or behave in particular situations. It recognises the need to facilitate the reconceptualization of knowledge and learning by questioning, evaluating and critique of knowledge to draw higher levels of cognitive and moral development, whilst it aims to explicitly raise awareness of the necessary competent knowable, skills and attributes for professional practice through its constructive and methodological process. This leads to a holistic and effective professional learning process.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Barry, M. M., Camp, A. R., Johnson, M. E., & Klein, C. F. (2011-2012). Teaching Social Justice Lawyering: Systematically including Community Legal Education in Law School Clinics. Clinical Law Review 18(2), 401-458. Available at: http://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=scholar

Bengtsson J. (1995) What is reflection? On reflection in the teaching profession and teacher education. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 1(1), 23–32.Bleakley A. (1999) From reflective practice to holistic reflexivity. Studies in Higher Education, 24(3), 315–330. Access available at: http://srhe.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079912331379925 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079912331379925

Brownlee, J., Petriwsky, A., Thorpe, K., Stacey, P., & Gibson, M. (2011). Changing personal epistemologies in early childhood pre-service teachers using an integrated teaching program. Higher Education Research and Development, 30, 477-490. Access available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360.2010.518952 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2010.518952

Boud, D. (2000) ‘Sustainable assessment: rethinking assessment for a learning society’, Studies in Continuing Education, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 151_167. Available at: https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/davidboudKeynote.pdf DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/713695728

Brookfield, S. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.

Brookfield, S.D. (2000) Transformative learning as ideology critique, in J. Mezirow and associates (eds) Learning as Transformation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Boud, D. and Fales, A. (1983) Reflective learning: key to learning from experience. Journal DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167883232011

of Humanistic Psychology, 23(2), 99-117.

Carnegie Foundation (2007) Educating lawyers: Preparation for the profession of law.

Available at: http://archive.carnegiefoundation.org/pdfs/elibrary/elibrary_pdf_632.pdf

Casey, T., (2014) Reflective Practice in Legal Education: The Stages of Reflection’, 20 Clinical Law Review, p.317

Dewey, J. (1933), How We Think: A Restatement of the Relation of Reflective Thinking to

the Educative Process, DC Heath and Company, Lexington, MA.

Dewey J. (1938a) Experience and Education. Collier Books, New York.

Finlay, L. and Gough, B. (2003) Reflexivity: a practical guide for researchers in health and DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470776094

social sciences. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing

Fook, J. (1999b) Reflexivity as method, in J. Daly, A. Kellehear and E. Willis (eds) Annual Review of Health Social Sciences, 9: 11–20. Access available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.5172/hesr.1999.9.1.11?journalCode=rhsr19 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5172/hesr.1999.9.1.11

Fook, J. (2000) The lone crusader: constructing enemies and allies in the workplace,

in L. Napier and J. Fook (eds) Breakthroughs in Practice: Social Workers Theorise

Critical Moments. London: Whiting & Birch

Fook, J. (2004d) The transformative possibilities of critical reflection, in L. Davies and P.

Leonard (eds) Scepticism/Emancipation: Social Work in a Corporate Era. Avebury: Ashgate, 16–30

Fook, J., White, S.A. and Gardner, F. (2006) Critical reflection: a review of contemporary literature and understandings, in S. White, J. Fook and F. Gardner (eds) Critical Reflection in Health and Social Care. London: Open University Press. Available at: https://www.mheducation.co.uk/openup/chapters/0335218784.pdf

Gibbs, G. (1998), Learning by Doing: a Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods, FurtherEducation Unit, London.

Hatton,N., & Smith, D. (2006). Reflection in Teacher Education: towards Definition and Implementation. Australia: Sydney University, School of Teaching and Curriculum Studies. Available at: http://alex.edfac.usyd.edu.au/LocalResource/originals/hattonart.rtf

Hofer, B. K. (2000). Dimensionality and disciplinary differences in personal epistemology. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 378-405. Access available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11001783 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1026

Hofer, B. K. (2004a) Introduction: Paradigmatic Approaches to Personal Epistemology. Educational Psychologist, 39, 1-4. Access available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15326985ep3901_1?journalCode=hedp20 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3901_1

Hofer, B. K. & Pintrich, P. R. (1997) The Development of Epistemological Theories: Beliefs

about Knowledge and Knowing and Their Relation to Learning. Review of Educational Research, 67, 88-140. Available at: http://cedu.niu.edu/~walker/research/Epistemological%20Theories.pdf

Johns, C. (2002) Guided Reflection. Oxford: Blackwell Science

JISC. (2011) Developing Digital Literacies: Briefing Paper in support of JISC Grant Funding 4/11, Available at: https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20140616150918/http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/funding/2011/04/Briefingpaper.pdf

King, P. M. & Kitchener, K. S. (2004) Reflective Judgment: Theory and Research on the Development of Epistemic Assumptions Through Adulthood. Educational Psychologist, 39, 5-18. Access available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247522681_Reflective_Judgment_Theory_and_Research_on_the_Development_of_Epistemic_Assumptions_Through_Adulthood DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep3901_2

Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Prentice Hall, London. The Legal Education and Training Review (2013) available at:

http://www.letr.org.uk/the-report/

Magolda, B.M, (1992) Knowing and Reasoning in College - Gender-related patterns in intellectual development, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Access available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED350947

Mezirow, J. and associates (2000) Learning as Transformation: Critical Perspectives on a Theory in Progress. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Moon, J. (1999) Reflection in Learning and Professional Development: Theory and Practice. London: Kogan Page.

Perry, W. G. (1970) Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years, New York, Holt, Rinehart and Wilson.

Piaget, J. (1990). The child's conception of the world. New York: Littlefield Adams.

Piaget J (1994). Cognitive Development in children: Piaget Development and Learning, J.

Res. in Sci. Teaching, 1964, 2: 176-186Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D.A. and Jasper, M. (2001) Critical Reflection for Nursing and the Helping Professions: A User’s Guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave.

Schon, D. A. (1991) Educating the Reflective Practitioner: Towards a New Design for Teaching and Learning in the Professions, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA

Schon, D.A. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. USA: Basic Books.

Schon, D.A. (1987) Educating the Critically Reflective Practitioner: Toward a New Design for Teaching and Learning in the Professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) Competence Statement of 2015 http://www.sra.org.uk/solicitors/competence-statement.page

Stuckey, R. T., Barry, M., Dinerstein, R. B., Dubin, J. C., Engler, R., Elson, J. S., .Schwartz, M. H. (2007). Best practices for legal education: A vision and a road map. Columbia, South Carolina. Available at: http://www.cleaweb.org/Resources/Documents/best_practices-full.pdf

Thanaraj, Ann and Sales, Michael (2015) Lawyering in a digital age: A practice report on the design of a virtual law clinic at Cumbria. International Journal of Clinical Legal Education, 22 (3). pp. 334-361. Available at: DOI: https://doi.org/10.19164/ijcle.v22i3.471

http://journals.northumbria.ac.uk/index.php/ijcle/article/view/471

Van Rossum, E. J., & Hamer, R. (2010). The meaning of learning and knowing. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Available at: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789460912535

https://www.sensepublishers.com/media/1113-the-meaning-of-learning-and-knowing.pdf

Vermetten, Y. J., Vermunt, J. D., & Lodewijks, H. G. (1999). A longitudinal perspective on learning strategies in higher education: Different viewpoints towards development. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 69, 221−242. Access available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/000709999157699/abstract DOI: https://doi.org/10.1348/000709999157699

Vygotsky, L., & Vygotsky, S. (1980). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjf9vz4