Reflective Practice

Reflective Practice

What is Reflective Practice in a Portfolio?

Reflection is a helpful strategy in development as practitioners and especially with regard to reasoning processes. It involves describing, analysing and evaluating our thoughts, assumptions, beliefs, and actions. It includes:

  • Looking forward
  • Looking at what we are doing now
  • Looking back 

Reflective Portfolios

Watch this video about reflective practice as part of portfolio development.

Critical reflection takes place in many areas of professional development and practice, including health care education, teaching, management, and research, as it encourages practitioners to gain insight into their own professionalism through their experiences.

The process of reflection increases competency and enhances professional growth leading to expanded employability.

A portfolio is an important space to reflect upon personal and professional identity with a goal of creating an online representation of the narratives around these.

Fook and Gardner’s approach to critical reflection

Fook, J. & Gardner, F. (2007). Practicing critical reflection: A resource handbook. Berkshire: Open University Press.

Gardner, F. (2014) Being critically reflective. Palgrave MacMillan.

The following stages of reflection are from Gardner (2014)

Critical reflection 1a
Critical Reflection 1a
Critical reflection 1b
Critical reflection 1b
Critical reflection 1c
Critical reflection 1c
Critical reflection stage 2
Critical reflection stage 2