Transcript Slide 1

Time Out for Lunch
Using Reflection to Foster
Students’ Personal and
Professional Formation
Brenda Coppard, Tim Dickel, & Lou Jensen
April 8, 2009
Objectives
1. Gain a broad understanding of University Learning
Outcome that is focused on deliberative reflection
for professional and personal formation.
2. Gain some tangible exercises for use in promoting
student reflections.
3. Discuss the value of reflection on personal strengths
as a measure of personal and professional
formation.
4. Describe additional strategies to promote reflection
during experiential learning.
Welcome
• Who’s in the audience?
• Overview of materials
– Power Point
– Reference Sheet
– Review of development theories
– Young Adult Development Project
University Level Outcomes
1. Disciplinary competence and/or professional
proficiency
2. Critical thinking skills
3. Ignatian values to include, but not limited to a
commitment to an exploration of faith and the
promotion of justice
4. An ability to communicate clearly and effectively
5. Deliberative reflection for personal and
professional formation
6. An ability to effectively work across race, ethnicity,
culture, gender, religion, and sexual orientation.
Deliberative reflection for personal and
professional formation
What does this mean to you?
Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm –
from International Center for Jesuit Education
Through students’ context, faculty create an
environment for students to recollect their past
experience and help them to assimilate new
experiences.
Faculty help students learn skills and techniques of
reflection, which shapes their consciousness. Faculty
challenge students to action in service.
“The evaluation process includes academic mastery as
well as ongoing assessments of students’ wellrounded growth as person for others” (Taub, 2004, p. 12)
Deliberative reflection for personal and
professional formation
Ignatian or Jesuit Pedagogy (by Robert Newton)
• Instrumental (to serve God and others)
• Student centered (adapted with learner in mind)
• Flexible (freedom of exchange & self-direction)
• Eclectic (variety of methods and techniques)
• Personal (whole person)
Goal: “develop men and women of competence,
conscience and compassion” (Traub, 2004, p. 12)
Tangible Exercises for Use in
Promoting Student Reflections
Personal Strengths as a Measure of
Personal and Professional Formation
• Doctor of Occupational Therapy Program has
a total of 44 weeks of fieldwork, or
experiential learning, in the curriculum
• “strategically arranged experiences yield
articulated knowledge, which is then
metacognitively examined through reflection
for meaning” (Schell & Schell, 2008, p. xiii)
Model adapted from Schell & Schell, 2008
How Does Reflection Tie to Personal
and Professional Formation?
• In many professions, personal and professional
formation is one in the same
• In occupational therapy one term we use for this
therapeutic use of self
• Classroom instruction, experiential learning, &
structured reflection are used in the OTD
program to facilitate personal and professional
formation
StrengthsFinder: An Example of
Infusing Reflection on Self and Practice
• Students in their first year of the OTD program attend a
fieldwork preparation seminar
• Completing StrengthsFinder Profile is an assigned task
• StrengthsFinder was created by Gallup scientists led by
the late Father of Strengths Psychology, Donald Clifton
• Basic premise: People have more potential for success
and growth when time and energy is invested in their
natural strengths or talents instead of correcting areas of
weakness (Rath, 2007)
StrengthsFinder (cont.)
• StrengthsFinder Profile allows students to discover their
top 5 talents (out of 34)
• Guest lecturer from the Gallup Organization
– Talent (natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving)
x Investment (time spent practicing, developing your skills, and
building your knowledge base)
= Strength (ability to consistently provide near perfect
From Rath,
performance)
2007
– Description of talents with a personalized touch
– Plants the seed
StrengthsFinder (cont.)
• Students engage in first week-long fieldwork
experience and are asked to write a reflection
and discuss with peers how talents were
utilized:
• How was your personal and professional
development enhanced through this
experience? How do you see your top five
talents incorporating into your professional
identity? Give some examples.
• Several times later in curriculum, students
revisit their talents to make choices about
their future:
– Choosing practice settings for 12-week fieldwork
placements
– Creating plans for their Professional Rotation, a
16-week self-directed learning experience which
allows students to explore an area of occupational
therapy that is of particular interest to them
– Reflection on how talents and strengths help craft
their image of a leader in a Leadership class
Future Directions
• Research on students who select occupational
therapy as a career
• Longitudinal studies connected to talents at selected
points in time (e.g. knowledge & use of strengths)
• Emphasis on strengths based psychology & reflection
resonates not only in occupational therapy, but also
in Jesuit education
• Building personal strengths has a natural connection
with an Ignatian value: Magis
MAGIS
• Latin meaning the “more”. Embodies the idea of
discerning, “What is the best choice in a given situation
to better glorify or serve the Lord”; e.g. choosing
between options encountered in life with a primary
focus of being “God centered”. The Magis does NOT
mean to always do or give “more” to the point of
personal exhaustion. It is a value central to Ignatian
spirituality and encompassed by the Latin phrase “Ad
Majorem Dei Gloriam” meaning “For the Greater Glory
of God”. (Motto of the Society of Jesus).
Other Examples of Weaving Reflection
into Experiential Learning
Strategy
Description/Application
Reflective
Diaries/Journals
•Use as a foundation and then progress to higher level strategies
•Reflect on client, day, professional interactions, theory to practice
link, performance, curricular themes as seen on fieldwork, etc.
Critical Incident
Analysis
•What are your thoughts about the incident?
•What was your response or intervention?
•What might you do differently? What additional knowledge
would you need in the future?
•How have your values/feelings have changed as a result of the
incident?
(Burns & Bulman,
2000)
Case Studies/
Videotaping
•Guided questions with peer collaboration
•Explicate clinical reasoning, evidence supporting plan of care, etc.
Other Examples of Weaving Reflection
into Experiential Learning (cont.)
Strategy
Description/Application
Peer Learning
Collaborative supervision models, discussion groups, online
discussion boards, debriefing at end of day/session with
supervisor or peers, etc.
Evaluation Reflections
•Reflect on performance and supervisor feedback
•Develop an action plan and timeline to address deficit areas
Electronic Portfolios
•Learning artifacts and reflections collected and presented
electronically over time (Barrett, 2000)
•Electronic portfolios have been found to showcase evidence of
learning and link academic and experiential learning through
reflection (Hayward, et al., 2008)
Discussion/Questions
References
• Barrett, H. (2000). The electronic portfolio development process. Retrieved
March 15, 2009, from
http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/EPDevProcess.html
• Burns, S., & Bulman, C. (2000). Reflective practice in nursing: The growth
of the professional practitioner (2nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Science.
• Hayward, L.M., Blackmer, B., Canali, A., DiMarco, R., Russell, A., Aman, S.,
Rossi, J., & Sloane, L. (2008). Reflective electronic portfolios: A design
process for integrating liberal and professional studies and experiential
education. Journal of Allied Health, 37, 140-159.
• Rath, T. (2007). StrengthsFinder 2.0. New York: Gallup Press.
• Schell, B. A., & Schell, J. (2008). Clinical and professional reasoning in
occupational therapy. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
• Traub, G. W. (2004). Do you speak Ignatian? Cincinnati, OH: Xavier
University.