Where, when and by whom is reflection needed?
Reflection is increasingly required in education and employment. More specifically, evidence of reflection is required, for example:
- where students are required to build up 'personal development planning' portfolios, or learning logs, or records of achievement, both as evidence to be able to present to prospective employers, and (more importantly) as a proactive process to help them to deepen their ongoing learning as it happens.
- Where teaching staff are required (or encouraged) to build up records of their reflection on their developing work associated with teaching, learning and assessment, so that they develop their practices in a more efficient and focused way than if they simply left reflection to chance;
- In most areas of professional life, where continuing professional development is required or expected, and where it is important at any stage to be able to show that such development is indeed being undertaken in an organised and professional way.
Some professions have led the way regarding reflective practice, not least nursing and health care disciplines. But for other disciplines, progress has been slower. Hard-nosed engineers, mathematicians, scientists and business professionals have tended to shrug off reflection as subordinate to subject knowledge and skills. But the wider community beyond the campuses of higher education continues to value 'rounded' individuals, who can not only demonstrate subject knowledge and skills, but can develop and grow as circumstances around them continue to change and evolve.