Reflective Practice

My colleague John ran into a wonderful article on reflective practice. In our reading I zeroed in on Boud's Reflective Learning Model. In fact I taped a hand written note on the page that illustrates the model reminding myself to go back to my teams and discuss this with them. I like the internal "scaffolding" that it tends to reinforce. That as the learner's own experiences and reflection on those experience recycle enough within their learning experiences they are laying the foundation for a "leveling up" to a new perspective, change in behavior or commitment. 

I also marked two lines that I found poignant and compelling. The first deals with unrealized experiences. "Without sufficient reflection, the potential of adults' experience may go unrealized and may yield little that they can apply to new situation or use as a foundation for deepening understanding" (p. 259). In these discussion boards I've written about my work to try and connect with our learners and help them reflect. Reflection through these discussion boards and through our homework has been the defining factor that has led to most of the learning I've hopefully gleaned from these classes. I don't like the fact that our organization has fostered a situation where so little reflection is done by our learners on what they've learned at our organization. Too often they come in, sit through the training and leave without any reflection on the materiel, and just a check mark to go get started on their jobs. This quote makes me think that my efforts to create connections and reflection moments for our trainees is not wasted effort, but actually what's happening now is wasted effort.

Secondly, Taylor and Marienau write, "After-the-fact reflection done in isolation, rather than in conversation, may reconfirm what adults believe they already know rather than promote critical reflection" (p. 261). A while back I wrote about a LinkedIn page I was promoting to go along with our leadership training. The idea being that the learners who attended the workshop would want a place to go for reflection, for continued connection with their facilitators, and a community where they could share their leadership difficulties or wins. So far it has not gained traction, but I'm still working on it. This quote too makes me think it's worth the effort. 

Taylor, K., & Marienau, C. (2016). Facilitating learning with the adult brain in mind: A  conceptual and practical guide. John Wiley & Sons.