Time Out for Lunch

Using Reflection to Foster Students’ Personal and Professional Formation

Brenda Coppard, Tim Dickel, & Lou Jensen

April 8, 2009

Objectives1. 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 Outcomes1. Disciplinary competence and/or professional

proficiency2. Critical thinking skills3. 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 effectively5. Deliberative reflection for personal and

professional formation6. 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’ well-rounded 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

performance) – Description of talents with a personalized touch– Plants the seed

From Rath, 2007

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/ApplicationReflective 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

(Burns & Bulman, 2000)

•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?

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.