16 Facts About Reflective practice

Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one's actions so as to take a critical stance or attitude towards one's own practice and that of one's peers, engaging in a process of continuous adaptation and learning.

Reflective practice can be an important tool in practice-based professional learning settings where people learn from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal learning or knowledge transfer.

Donald Schon's 1983 book The Reflective Practitioner introduced concepts such as reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action which explain how professionals meet the challenges of their work with a kind of improvisation that is improved through practice.

Reflective practice has been described as an unstructured or semi-structured approach directing learning, and a self-regulated process commonly used in health and teaching professions, though applicable to all professions.

Reflective practice is a learning process taught to professionals from a variety of disciplines, with the aim of enhancing abilities to communicate and making informed and balanced decisions.

Professional associations such as the American Association of Nurse Practitioners are recognizing the importance of reflective practice and require practitioners to prepare reflective portfolios as a requirement to be licensed, and for yearly quality assurance purposes.

Concept of reflective practice has found wide application in the field of education, for learners, teachers and those who teach teachers.

Concept of reflective practice is widely employed in the field of teacher education and teacher professional development and many programs of initial teacher education claim to espouse it.

For Russell, these problems result from the fact that teacher educators have not sufficiently explored how theories of reflective practice relate to their own teaching, and so have not made the necessary "paradigmatic changes" which they expect their students to make.

Reflective practice "is a term that carries diverse meaning" and about which there is not complete consensus.

In turn, reflective practice cannot hold one meaning, it is contextual based on the practitioner.

Reflective practice is viewed as an important strategy for health professionals who embrace lifelong learning.

Reflective practice provides a development opportunity for those in leadership positions.

Reflective practice provides leaders with an opportunity to critically review what has been successful in the past and where improvement can be made.

Reflective practice learning organizations have invested in coaching programs for their emerging and established leaders.

Reflective practice can help any individual to develop personally, and is useful for professions other than those discussed above.