Springboards to Reflection 1 (Springboards to Reflection: Higher)

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To obtain views of these activities, triangulation of data sources and data gathering techniques proved beneficial. Participants were approached through whole cohort briefings and invited to opt in, providing signed consent. Access to midwives was negotiated with midwifery managers in two maternity units. Information about the study and the voluntary nature of participation was provided, and selection for inclusion was based on their role in mentoring and assessing students. A systematic, interpretive approach was adopted to analyse the data Miles and Huberman, ; Robson, ; Seale et al, and to identify emergent themes.

Understandings of reflection identified in the literature review see Table 1 provided the basis for analysing the data and for judging demonstration of reflective practice in the study context. In particular, viewing reflection as an active, deliberate process, analysing and thinking about actions and making well-considered decisions. Findings Midwives and students considered reflection to be a useful strategy for learning from experience, but in this study context, the means by which it was facilitated was variable.

The key research findings are outlined under these headings.

Later evidence from interview data and scrutiny of journal entries showed that two thirds of these participants only had a superficial understanding of critical reflection: I think [reflection] is a good way of learning especially at this stage I leave a bit of time at the end of the shift to talk I think practice learning becomes more effective when the mentor talks them through things. These comments do not indicate the deep thinking associated with critical reflection as conceived by theorists Schon, , ; Boud et al, ; Johns, However, some elements are present such as making sense of experience, standing back and going over something, and weighing up or evaluating practice and making judgements.

The descriptions are closer to definitions of debriefing — discussion or interrogation after a mission, recapping about events, restating briefly, summarising, giving substance to what has already been said Pearsall, The midwives held similar views to students about the value of reflection.

Arguably, it is natural to ponder on activities. To a greater or lesser extent, individuals spend time going over what they have said or done. Often this involved hindsight in realising how things might have been different: The midwives interviewed had been practising for between two and 30 years, and those qualified for less than eight years stated that reflection had been included in their initial training. Others had become familiar with reflection during post-registration professional development activities.

One student discussed the benefits of group reflection: There was a general perception that discussion achieved the same outcome as written reflection. One midwife indicated how she came to realise the depth of reflective thinking: I was involved in a case about 18 months ago that went quite badly wrong, and as part of my supervision I did a [written] reflection on the experience. I was [reflecting] beforehand, but perhaps not doing it the proper way.

I hope no one has to go through what I did to realise what reflection is about. Interestingly, students interviewed voiced similar sentiments.

Some demonstrated understanding of the need for detailed deliberate considerations of practice issues, adopting a critical approach: I think you have to be quite dedicated to what you are doing I try to include up-to-date research. Writing the reflections has more effect on me because I question things and it spurs me on to look deeper This midwife was an example of the kind of practitioner who is well placed to promote reflective practice, because she was able to articulate how she learnt from the process as well as from clinical experience. One midwife judged the difference between current midwifery training and her own, undertaken ten years ago: For example, I can see from this [journal extract] that she is questioning the fact that one hour is not enough [for pushing during the second stage of labour].

It is not a matter of fetal distress and as such they should have given the women more time. The student could see that. I feel this is more a problem with practice guidelines. I can see the midwife was sticking to the hospital guidelines This does not allow the woman to progress I would have given her more time She also voiced concern about colleagues who appeared reluctant to change or to adopt reflective practice: Differences in approaches to reflective practice Although some midwives had not formally used reflection as a learning strategy in initial or post-qualification training, they had adequate understanding of the possible outcomes.

The extent of the reflective process was not always recognised: At the end of a session, you would actually evaluate to see what you felt was effective or need to improve So I think it is probably that you did reflection but in a different way This midwife outlined a good strategy for evaluating practice, despite it only being a part of the process leading to critical analysis of the experience. Midwives concurred with this view: I heard some different understanding of universal precautions. I know that what some were telling me is not what they do. That is why in some areas the students may not be exposed to ideal practice and we could be confusing them At first glance, these two illustrations appear negative, and also a criticism of fellow midwives.

Actually, both midwives were trying to explain the differences between those who had been exposed to reflection, or some other strategy for developing a critical approach to practice, and those who had been qualified for some time and prepared differently. From the analysis, it appears that the statements were positive endorsements of the strategy to encourage students to reflect.

A significant number of students expressed doubt about whether all midwives reflect on their practice, but appreciated general discussions on aspects of care during a shift: Some midwives are more open to reflection on work than others. The extent to which students found themselves in an environment conducive to reflective practice varied: There was a whole culture of reflecting, looking back over things and seeing where you could have done better At this hospital it is not the same In this study context, lecturers were responsible for supporting students with reflective writing while midwives supervised clinical experience and learning, and this separation of roles was not ideal for promoting reflective practice.

They felt that reflection had continued influence on their practice. To varying degrees, they all referred to questioning and thinking more about practice: It has given me a new role and also confidence in my practice. As a student, reflections can be tedious and appear meaningless when vast amounts are required. Regular, thorough and relevant reflections have initiated a lasting enthusiasm to use the skill. For instance, when you make a mistake, you go and read about the current evidence on it, you talk to colleagues and think about how to improve on that area of care Using a reflective diary, I can see the improvement in care that I give, now I have worked six months.

Paget found that reflective practice was highly regarded and most participants could identify significant changes to clinical practice resulting from it. In this present study, newlyqualified midwives recognised the benefits of reflection, particularly during the transition from student to qualified midwife. In relation to reflective journal writing, one midwife said: The need for ongoing support and in-service education, including reflective discussion, was identified strongly by participants.

Overall, newly-qualified midwives responded positively to reflective practice. However, there was a gap between how students were facilitated to develop reflective skills — through journal writing — and the support available to practising midwives to develop such skills. Students shared reflective writing with lecturers, who encouraged them to think critically about practice, consider alternatives and justify their actions through journal writing, while midwives did not always mirror reflective practice.

Although some mentors did not model reflective practice or fully understand reflection as defined in the literature , they asked questions, clarified situations and challenged students in a constructive way. Discussion Practice forms the basis for professional learning and development, but simply because students have experienced something does not guarantee learning. This study identified differences in the emphasis on reflective practice between the academic and practice contexts, and this was equally problematic for student midwives who experienced inconsistency in the adoption of reflective practice.

Yet in this study, readiness to utilise reflection was variable. Some midwives and students demonstrated only a superficial understanding of reflection when compared to key features noted in the literature. From the evidence, there is need for a better understanding of reflection per se, and particularly for continuing professional development if a shift towards reflective practice as a lifelong learning strategy is to impact upon care provision.

Clouder would support such a strategy because she argues that the introspective nature of reflective practice means that it denies benefits to the profession at a wider level. Clouder believes that the internal deliberations promoted by proponents of reflective practice ignore the potential for dialogue to enhance learning among a community of practitioners. On the contrary, midwives in this study did not perceive students to be constrained, but questioning.

The findings concur with Jones and Cookson who discuss how paramedics, like other practitioners, assert that they apply reflection as a matter of course. While acknowledging that informal reflection has its value, they suggest that such a view was simplistic, postulating that true reflection on practice is not automatic, but a deliberate focused activity pursued with the intent to examine, learn and develop practice in a more structured way. Some of the evidence portrays an appropriate learning environment where practitioners generally adopted a critical approach to their work.

Students might not recognise when the critical thinking required for making clinical judgements was taking place, and reflection may result in a decision to continue as before. Glaze found that, for advanced nurse practitioners, reflection was sometimes affirmative, often justifying planned action and decisions. Eraut provides an explanation for the above view that some midwives do not think about their practice. He identifies the problematic nature of tacit knowledge, with respect to both detecting it and representing it. He identifies three types of tacit knowledge that come together when professional performance involves sequences of routinised actions punctuated by rapid intuitive decisions, based on tacit understanding of the situation.

An external observer can only guess at the cognitive activities and may wrongly assess that reflection had not taken place while the midwife concerned might have made a conscious decision not to change her practice in a given situation. Development of reflective skills is a complex process Moon, ; Glaze, and the rationale for implementing reflective journal writing during this midwifery course was to lay the foundation for habitual reflective practice, once reflective skills had been embedded.

Having implemented journal writing for a similar reason, Wellard and Bethune later questioned the process, concluding that reflective practice was possible, but that time and space to develop the skill must be afforded in nursing courses and beyond. Glaze concurs with this view.

Reflection in midwifery education and practice: an exploratory analysis | RCM

She found that students needed to overcome misconceptions of their reflective abilities before realising transformation. Students described perspective transformation and viewed reflection as part of their lives, assisting them with the implementation of their advanced practitioner roles. The habit of reflecting in day-to-day practice was also found to have been formed. As they model reflective practice, it places them in a good position for supporting learners.

This is important because, firstly, if students are encouraged to reflect on practice experiences, midwives need to utilise critical reflection as a learning strategy when mentoring students. How could they carry out this function with the superficial understanding evident in some? Secondly, the perceived differences highlighted by participants will be perpetuated if both the philosophy and practicality of reflective practice does not fully infiltrate the practice-learning environment.

In other words, midwives need to understand and believe in reflection as a useful strategy for development, encouraging such practice among colleagues and students. The importance of reflective practice in enhancing professional development requires reinforcement within both the educational and practice contexts. The study highlighted different understandings and approaches to reflection. Some midwives recounted recapping on a situation, debriefing and reflection as if they were the same activities.

All are purposeful, but the meaning attached to reflection and reflective practice indicates deeper thinking with an intention to improve practice or justify decisions made. Inconsistency in embracing reflective practice was identified as an area for improvement in the practice context studied. Crucially, the study showed that where the discipline of structured reflection was encouraged in this case, through journal writing during the programme of study, these practitioners continued to embrace reflection as a necessary part of their midwifery practice. We also comment on how the authors gauged overall learning to have proceeded and the inferred links to adaptive management.

This helps cover the full organisational perspective of the cycles represented in Figures 1 and 2 , including assessment, reflection and integration, and their influence on and from decision making. In this way we hope to illustrate whether, through decision making, learning leads to improved action, and action to further learning, as described by Kolb From Tables 3 and 4 it becomes clear that cycles of both assessment and reflection are asserted to have led to learning, albeit at different scales and paces and with varying time frames for decision making and management implementation.

Effective adaptive management, however, does require a timely response to learning. This has not always been the case in the KNP examples, and assessment, reflection, and response times have often been decoupled.

Reflection in midwifery education and practice: an exploratory analysis

This led to reduced effectiveness, which is probably related to either lagged learning or lagged responses to learning. However, not all lags are undesirable; in fact, they can allow for adequate reflection Cilliers Discussion of the learning duality approach as applied to the case studies.

The examples illustrating the learning dualities highlight circumstances which emphasised assessment or reflection, how they appeared to inter-relate, and allude to some obvious gaps Tables 3 and 4. This strongly suggests that it is meaningful to distinguish between assessment and reflection, because they appear to have different roles and can lead to different outcomes and are apparently often decoupled.

In addition, the intuitive impression that assessment precedes reflection seems not to be well supported by these narratives. We believe that in order to span the various needs of the complex challenges in natural resource management, both assessment and reflection are needed, perhaps concurrently. Intuitively, we seem to want them to be complementary or even synergistic, although our case material suggests they do not often tend to feature'naturally' in the same initiative. The relationship between them is often complex Tables 3 and 4 and it may require explicit effort to create any such synergy or complementarity.

It seems that assessment is often linked to acting on the answers that emerge, whilst reflection may generate more depth by asking more questions. The challenges we face may need both action and concurrent contemplation if we are to stay both responsive and resilient in future. Is it possible that reflection is meant more to consider our actions and interventions, whilst assessment is meant to trigger more immediate interventions? Assessment and reflection can be considered to constitute an overarching duality required for effective learning and, where they lead to decision making, also then for adaptive management.

Kolb's learning cycle refers to observations and reflections following from experiences, with reflections then being distilled into abstract concepts for re-testing in reality. He details different learning styles, of which a rework by Honey and Mumford as cited in Businessballs [n. We suggest that assessment may be something carried out more by activists and pragmatists, whilst reflection is an activity more related to reflectors and theorists. Importantly, these four styles together constitute a full learning cycle of Kolb , possibly implying that what we interpret as a duality between assessment and reflection could also and perhaps better be expressed as assessment and reflection complementing each other in a dovetailed way.

This might also explain why we interpret the preliminary data Table 2 as suggesting a disjunct between assessment and reflection. One likely explanation is that if they are not executed together in the right dovetailed way - that is, if there is an imbalance between them as there often seems to be in our case studies - learning is in some sense incomplete. We accept that under the circumstances that unfold in the situations we normally deal with there may be a need for later studies to try to re-align the correct balance between them, and hope that this paper may have contributed in this way.

Conversely, we suggest that if one can design complementary use of assessment and reflection appropriately from the outset, learning may be more effective. As with the learning dualities, or in the same way that learning styles Kolb are seen as mutually exclusive at one instant, there is a necessary tension between assessment and reflection Roux et al. Presumably, shifts in emphasis between them over time are, or should be, adaptive.

A generalised schematic of the inter-relationship of key elements of assessment and reflection, supported by our analysis, is presented in Figure 3. Whilst this represents the existing tensions, striving for an improved relationship should also include issues of scaling. With some exceptions, reflection conventionally tends to involve coarse-scale issues and assessment finer-scale issues, as seen in our examples.

Challenging this 'convention of scale' by also reflecting at finer scales and assessing at coarser scales, and interlinking assessment and reflection across these scales, could lead to more useful feedbacks. If better understood and linked, a well-conceptualised and tailored combination of assessment and reflection i. Perhaps we have not made the differences between them sufficiently explicit to be able to exploit the opportunities of this fuller learning. This paper illustrates that they do not have a fixed, linear or unidirectional relationship.

Even when used independently, but particularly when used together, they appear to underpin learning and, when they result in decision making, also adaptive management. Emphasis on one or the other leads to different types of learning duality 5, Table 3 and evoke different adaptive management feedback loops highlighting loops and 5 for assessment, and loops 4, 6 and 7 for reflection; Figure2a.

So, there appears to be a need for both to complete the adaptive management cycle, similar to how different learning styles produce a full Kolb learning cycle. Our impression is that assessment tends to provide, broadly, the basis for the inputs through output stages, and reflection the basis for the outcome through inputs stages Figure 1. This may be a consequence of managerial and scientific groups in the KNP being more involved in the implementation and planning phases, respectively, although older staff recall an era of the so-called 'House 31' meetings and the first adaptively planned management plan in the late s when managers and scientists appeared to share assessment and reflection more equitably than after the staff restructuring of Our challenge appears to be, for each case, to couple assessment and reflection more productively by ensuring enough of each there is often too little reflection at scales appropriate to the case, and ensuring that they complement each other in the most useful way.

The outcome stage Figure 1 is a particularly critical step at which considerable reflection is possible. This leads to consequences for implementation, which may, through re-visioning, influence planning in the next iteration. Examples where the feedback loop is thought to have been completed, such as rivers and fire management in the KNP, share a key bridge that allows for learning from doing.

Reflection at implementation and output stages, shown in elephant management and TPC examples, is also helpful but more to refine technical aspects of management. In addition, thought experiments depicted in Figure2b and modelling can help identify and improve options and enhance the possibility of successfully learning from anticipated doing. In particular, thought experiments that involve both scientific and managerial stakeholders and include elements of both planning and implementation, may assist in coupling assessment and reflection at multiple stages and scales of the cycle.

This should lead to more purposeful reflection and learning. Decoupling of operational and conceptual issues highlights a known tension in natural resource management. This is illustrated in the threatened species example Tables 3 and 4 , where specific knowledge and a lobby for a particular aspect, in this case an individual species, oppose the need to conceptualise ecological frameworks into new management paradigms, which in this case refers to management for overall ecosystem heterogeneity.

Assessment at the level of managing an individual iconic species was translated into objectives that were not necessarily in line with the overall park vision. No persistent holistic reflection emanated from either the outcomes phase or the emerging changes in context such as climate change. The reflection that did take place, on the other hand, resulted in an abstract conceptualisation of heterogeneity, which was unacceptable or disconnected from on-the-ground-realities in that it appeared to undermine preservation goals for charasmatic species.

The examples show that when multidisciplinary, multi-institutional teams come together to reflect in the outcomes stage in the fire and rivers management programmes and also to some extent in the elephant and alien species invasion programmes and fully connect the adaptive management cycle though decision making, both learning and adaptive management are deemed more successful. However, these should be accompanied by sufficient assessment. Such perceived success is partly lacking in the current relatively inert threatened species programme and the 'stop-go' artificial water provision programmes, although impressive individual initiatives may have contributed a great deal e.

Adaptive learning seems to have been deeper and easier when a clear and jointly agreed goal was set, without other conflicting goals, which enabled decision making and implementation. This has not been the case for the threatened species programme in the KNP. Neither was it the case for the artificial water provisioning programme until fairly recently, when a re-evaluation of context and principles including acknowledged overriding importance of the heterogeneity paradigm and of climate change led to consensus for implementation SANParks Is the Kruger National Park good at learning in adaptive ecosystem management?

Whilst it is encouraging to note that many narratives in this paper suggest this to be the case, there appear to be major gaps and opportunities. The evidence presented suggests that assessment-type learning predominates and is inadequately linked to reflection. Assessment appears amenable to, and can even be effectively driven by, codification, which enables some stability for decision making. This may be appropriate under conditions of relatively unchanging, or assumed unchanging, contexts, but could result in 'blind-siding' and a 'dulling of the senses' when confronted with changing and newly emerging contexts.

Reflection, on the other hand, is often spontaneous or emergent, although, clearly, some structured processes can also be enabling and can lead to more fundamental changes in decision making. The KNP may be guilty of often falling back into a narrowly defined version of adaptive management, which may tend to assume a given context.

The KNP may even have become trapped in a fixed context, which has become inappropriate over time. This is akin to the way in which attitudes around elephant management eds. On the other hand, there is generally also an urgent need for effective assessment processes, as depicted on the left side of Figure 3. The way forward appears to be, as the dualities suggest, that assessment and reflection should coexist with their complementary function playing out at various scales and with varying strengths.

Recognition of dynamic complexity, linked to a system that supports policy-oriented decisions, seems crucial. Such interlinking requires diverse teams working together on problems holistically. For example, in SANParks this could include, in a stereotypic or conventional interpretation, 1 managers who often tend to focus on finer-scale implementation and assessment issues, 2 scientists who tend to have a broad, theoretical view, focus on planning and outcomes and, intuitively, like to reflect, and 3 'bridging' regional ecologists who have an understanding of both planning and implementation components.

It has been stressed before that more shared functionality across these cadres results in better integration. The prescription should therefore also include stretching, within the reasonable capability of people, these stereotypes outside of their immediate operational comfort zones and promoting engagement by at least some individual team members across all aspects of the adaptive management process as illustrated in Figure 1.

This, in itself, will lead to enhanced achievement of the original dualities or paired options Roux et al.

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How should scientists respond to this? This paper describes that, in reality, several different classes of feedback exist, of which only some are based on hard evidence. This suggests that a mix of these change drivers is inevitable even if hard evidence plays an increasing role and that reflection at different scales may help improve decision making and learning amidst this uncertainty, with changing ideology often but not exclusively manifesting itself through policy option choice.

Our case histories showed some examples of assessment patterns being driven by decisions made subsequent to reflection, often after a lag period, which may not always be undesirable Cilliers These reflections appear, in turn, to have been driven mainly by changing paradigms. The changing paradigm itself is a consequence of primarily, but not entirely, scientists' reflection and these changed paradigms prompt further management reflection. We have also described how assessment contributes to further reflection, but individually these effects seem to reach triple-loop standing only occasionally Roux et al.

Thus, a combination of altered expert opinion including that of managers and changing values, in some cases together with the appearance of a certain amount of new evidence, appears to lead to change. All three these drivers may co-evolve or be brought together in a more conscious process.

Is the overlap of striving for the same goal, although perhaps for different reasons, a key element of practical progress in many cases? A way forward may be to target several key questions: These may be addressed in an enlightened way by using one or multiple approaches to evaluate our success at adaptation and learning, as discussed by several others e.

Such initiatives could even re-use the case data mentioned in Table 1. Although they have much in common, each of these approaches also has a unique slant. We propose that sufficient reflection on one or more of these approaches perhaps emphasising their commonalities and not only the learning dualities on which this paper has focused, may yield startling and useful consolidations in our particular context of natural resource management. We have shown that both mindful assessment and reflection are necessary for purposeful learning and adaptive management, and that there is much scope for improvement throughout this interacting system.

Consideration to both learning theory and the correct contextualisation of adaptive management helps to determine the dynamic coupling we observe in natural resource management: With this paper we have made a start by looking at empirical evidence available after more than a decade of adaptive management in a park, and relating the patterns to meaningful theory.

We hope the review can serve as a springboard for more exact work of this kind and hence further enhance learning. We thank Alice Schwarz Brunold Office of Marketing and Communications, University of Queensland for professional assistance with compiling Figure 1 , Eureta Rosenberg for insightful discussions after reading an earlier draft of the manuscript, and the two reviewers for their painstaking efforts to help us generate a clear, well-grounded and useful product.

Why regional scale adaptive management is not blooming', Environmental Management 36 3 , Research and Applications 15 1 , Ecology and management of savanna heterogeneity, pp.

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Stability, memory and hysteresis in complex systems', Emergence: Complexity and Organisation 8 3 , Ecology and management of savanna heterogeneity , Island Press, Covelo. Harvard Business Review 71 4 , Muir, , Evidence-based health care , Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh. State of Biodiversity report: A Century of Management and Research', in J. Narrative Lab, , 'Investigating appropriate performance measures. Experiences from managing the rivers of the Kruger National Park.

Balancing strategy options in public sector organizations', in M. Water Research Commission, n. Pollard, Water Research Commission, Pretoria. Harry Biggs Postal address: This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License. All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. Services on Demand Article. English pdf Article in xml format Article references How to cite this article Automatic translation.

Cited by Google Similars in Google. Methods We reviewed as many earlier initiatives that had focused on the operation or performance of adaptive management in the KNP as possible.

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