The Social Work Pocket Guide to...: Reflective Practice

By Siobhan Maclean

Kirwin Maclean Associates is delighted to be launching a new series of books. Social Work Pocket Guides are an entirely new concept in social work. They are designed to help busy practitioners to get to the bottom of the What? Why? and How? of the chosen subject. The first Pocket Guide is available to buy now. The Social Work Pocket Guide to Reflective Practice summarises theory and research in an accessible way and offers practical suggestions for skill development. Reflective practice is a key component of social work practice. This Guide explores what is meant by reflective practice and why it is important in social work as a profession. Recognising the need for social workers and students to both develop their skills in reflective practice and to produce critically reflective assignments, a range of tips and guidelines are provided for the reader. This is a book which everyone in social work should have.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kirwin Maclean Associates Ltd
• Release date: Oct 31, 2010
• ISBN: 9781912130665

Siobhan Maclean

Siobhan Maclean BA CQSW PQSW (Company Director). I am a registered social worker and have a passion for our profession. I qualified in 1990 and have held various social work positions

Book preview

WHAT?

It is generally agreed that reflective practice is an essential aspect of good practice in social work and increasingly in social care. However, there is very little agreement on the concept and defining reflective practice is not straightforward.

This pocket guide therefore begins by exploring the following questions:

•     What is reflection?

•     What is reflective practice?

•     What is critical practice?

•     What is reflexivity?

•     What are the origins of reflective practice?

Thinking through these questions should help you to be clear about perhaps the most important question of all:

Reflection is:

the mental process of trying to structure or restructure an experience, a problem or existing knowledge or insights.

Korthagen (2001 : 58)

a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice.

Reid (1993 : 305)

active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.

Dewey (1933 : 118)

A reflection in a mirror is an exact replica of what is in front of it. Reflection in professional practice, however, gives back not what it is, but what it might be, an improvement on the original.

Biggs (1999 : 6)

Reflective Practice is:

In its broadest sense, reflective practice involves the critical analysis of everyday working practices to improve competence and promote professional development.

Clouder (2000)

something more than thoughtful practice. It is that form of practice that seeks to problematise many situations of professional performance so that they can become potential learning situations and so the practitioner can continue to learn, grow and develop in and through practice.

Jarvis (1992 : 180)

Critical reflection is:

In social work the meaning of critical practice is complex and implies an enrichment of ideas going beyond reflective practice.

Adams (2007 : 37)

The important difference [between reflection and critical reflection] is that critical reflection places emphasis and importance on an understanding of how a reflective stance uncovers power relations and how structures of domination are created and maintained.

Fook (2002 : 41)

A window through which the practitioner can view and focus self within the context of his/her own lived experience in ways that enable him/her to confront, understand and work towards resolving the contradiction within his/her practice between what is desirable and actual practice.

Johns (2000 : 34)

Reflexivity is:

a process of looking inward and outward, to the social and cultural artefacts and forms of thought which saturate our practices.

If something is taken for granted, if we are no longer aware of it, how may we open it up for study? This links to a larger, recurrent question from social science and philosophy – to what extent can we know ourselves?

White (2001 : 103-104)

a form of self reflection, or other reflection and a processual way of making sense of social circumstances and social life.

It contains three elements:

•     selt reflection

•     search for explanations of our actions

•     monitoring actions of ourselves and others

Sheppard (1995 : 173)

Reflexivity is a concept from research. Very simplistically it could be seen as researchers being critically reflective about their work. In many ways social work can be viewed as a form of action research and so the ideas behind reflexivity can be usefully applied to reflective practice in social work.

It is generally agreed within research that there are two forms of reflexivity:

•     Personal reflexivity (exploring the way that our values, experiences, interests,