Becoming Professional through Reflective Practice
- Details
- Created on Saturday, 24 June 2006 10:56
- Written by Allen Parrott & Ann Hopper
The following thoughts on professionalism and reflection were circulated at a day
conference for acupuncture and herbal medicine teachers held at the Northern
College of Acupuncture (NCA) on June 24, 2006. They may be of wider interest?
Like all BAABaccredited
institutions, NCA prepares undergraduate students for the
‘profession’ of acupuncture. We believe reflective practice to be a crucially important
aspect of that preparation.
Each student’s learning journey has to include a deep,
and a deeply personal, understanding of what it means to be a ‘professional
practitioner’ in their chosen profession. We also believe that reflective practice is of
continuing value throughout a professional career. It does not end when a student
graduates with their first degree.
For teachers of a practice profession like acupuncture, reflective practice becomes
doubly important. Each teacher of acupuncture has to be a reflective ‘professional
practitioner’ twice over, because teaching is a separate professional practice that is
also enhanced by deep reflection. In an ideal world, all experienced practitioners in
teaching institutions would be consciously seeking to ‘role model’ reflections on
teaching practice for their less experienced teaching colleagues, as well as role
modelling reflection on acupuncture practice for their students.
The following notes illustrate a chain of thought that links the concepts of a
profession and professional knowledge to those of professional education and
reflective practice itself.
What is a ‘profession’?
· Paid Work (not amateur)
· Specialised Work (not unskilled)
· Complex Work (not predictable)
· Good Work (not inconsequential)
The relationship between the ‘professions’ and the rest of society is complex. On the
positive side, the professions are known to serve important social ‘goods’ like justice,
knowledge and, of course, health. Professionals still have some status in society.
But in the public arena there are many negative perceptions around the level of
autonomy and the amount of trust that the professions used to expect and enjoy. We
live in a less trusting, more cynical age. Are all professions ‘a conspiracy against the
laity’, as Bernard Shaw suggested? How should they be regulated?
What is professional knowledge?
Professional practitioners deal with a particular type of knowledge over and above
their specialist expertise and specific skills. Much of this cannot be listed in a
syllabus: it needs to be teased out and experienced personally by each new
practitioner; hence the significance of reflective practice. The following list is merely
suggestive of the complexity and problematic nature of professional knowledge. It
does not attempt to define it.
Professional knowledge is:
· Shared and collaborative, part of a ‘tradition of conduct’.
· Never complete, often uncertain, sometimes a mystery.
· ‘Situated’ in a particular, if not unique context.
· Ethicallyinformed,
works ‘with’ not ‘on’ clients.
· Practical above all, but relies on theory and creates new theory.
Professional knowledge in this deep perspective is derived from what professional
practitioners actually do. It has to be acquired, as if for the first time, by each new
practitioner. It cannot be comprehensively covered in any list of occupational skills
and competences. Such knowledge is not, therefore, what most of the public believe
or what governments would like it to be. It is not evidencebased;
it is not easily
transferable; it is not based on solid and dependable factual knowledge.
If they are to learn from each experience of practice, professionals must be able to
theorise from their own practice. This means deep reflection in order to create a
personal theory.
All professionals frequently have to make judgements about what to do for the good
of a client without knowing all the facts of the case. Because they are fallible,
mistakes will be made, but these are often the source of further learning and
theorising. Reflection never stops.
Professional knowledge also embraces a form of artistry, i.e. intuitive, tacit and
sometimes inexpressible knowings. This personal artistry of practice can develop
over time, as a result of the right kind of reflection. It may become what we mean by
wisdom?
What are the characteristics of professional education, underlying all formal
syllabuses and assessments?
Ø Professional education is essentially practical
Whilst theorists may know something, practitioners must do something.
The curriculum for a profession needs therefore to be grounded in professional
practice itself. Theory is essential, but it is always in the service of practice. It is
practice that determines the value of any theory, rather than theory that determines
the value of any practice.
Ø Professional learning is multifaceted
Knowledge and understanding of practice are acquired in a variety of interactive
ways within complex traditions and institutions. A practice is learned first and
foremost by engaging in that practice: “learning by doing and making sense of what
you did”. Imitation, trial and error, apprenticeship, mentorship, classroom teaching,
supervision, scholarship and research all play a part.
Ø Professional education, like practice, is a moral endeavour
Because professions serve human interests having consequences that are open to
debate as to ends and means, professional education, like professional practice, is
bound up in questions about what ought to be done as well as how to do it.
Ø Professional educators as role models of personal reflection
Professionals working in the practice of their profession and in the education of the
next generation of practitioners need to be selfcritical,
independent learners
developing knowledge for themselves, as well as helping student practitioners to do
so.
How is knowledge for practice developed through reflective activities?
Becoming deeply reflective can be compared to becoming literate in a new language.
Literacy, or meaningmaking,
in any language is achieved through listening,
speaking, reading and writing. A language for individual practice can be honed by
talking about your own practice and listening to other practitioners talking about their
practice, in relationships like mentorship and supervision. Reading about other
people’s practice and research of practice, and writing about your own practice, are
also part of the process. When you have tried these things for yourself it is easier to
encourage students to do the same.
Some Do’s of good reflective speaking and writing
Ø Discuss concrete situations and reallife
persons and issues.
Ø Use the first person singular, because thirdperson
accounts do not engage
people as whole persons.
Ø Adopt a narrative style, because stories do engage and involve people as whole
persons
Ø Stay “in the moment” and include the intentions you, as practitioner, had during
each significant “moment”
Ø Demonstrate an ethical awareness and commitment to professional ideals
Ø Describe your actions and
the context or situation in which some action needs
(or needed) to be taken
Ø Illustrate how knowledge and new understandings are embedded in action, and
how they can arise from reflection on action
Ø Attempt to get below the surface of what has previously been taken for granted
Ø Show evidence of any learning/deeper understanding that has occurred as a
result of reflection
Ann Hopper and Allen Parrott Accreditation
Officers, BAAB