Faculty Reflection In Nursing Education
Whats Is Faculty
Reflection
Faculty
reflection is the thoughtful consideration and critical analysis of an
educator’s actions, thoughts, and feelings. Faculty reflection involves time
spent analyzing an educational situation before, during, or after the
encounter. This thoughtful examination of teaching may lead to the exploration
of methods to resolve issues and development of new perspectives or ideas, which
may bring about change in teaching or improved performance (Freshwater,
Horton Deutsch, Sherwood, & Taylor, 2005; Schon , 1983; Shellenbarger,
Palmer, Labant, & Kuzneski, 2005).
Faculty Reflection in Nursing Education
Faculty
reflection is an important part of practice for nurse educators as it enhances
personal and professional development in the role of educator. This
self-improvement process requires faculty to examine a situation and recognize
and record salient events. actions , and activities. Faculty reflection can be
enhanced through a number of self monitoring activities, many of which involve
the creative expressions of ideas. Activities that can be used for reflection
include writing/ journaling, creating audio, video, or digital recordings;
drawing poetry; or other personal expressions that allow for the review of
teaching, faculty reflection can be an individual activity done in isolation,
but it can also be enhanced through dialogue with others.
The use of discussion
and questioning by others can help faculty explore their thoughts and feelings.
Colleagues may pose questions for faculty to examine their educational behavior
and practice. Educators can consider questions as follows: What did you do or
say? Why did you do it? What does it mean? What were you feeling? or What will
you change? The use of these questioning approaches and further dialogue about
the teaching allows for the exploration of what happened, who was involved,
what role the faculty played, and the feeling related to the experience.
Regardless of reflection being done in isolation or with peers, it must involve
a critical analysis of the activities so that the faculty can examine
knowledge, challenge assumptions, explore alternatives, and create new ideas
(Bridgen & Purcell, 2013).Faculty
may face a number of barriers when engaging in faculty reflection. Those
barriers include the unfamiliar aspect of reflection, lack of time, lack of
structure, lack of support, or conflict with cultural norms and expectations.
Faculty can implement a number of approaches that will promote reflection.
These include being mindful of teaching, remaining open to ideas, expressing
ideas freely and without restraint, allowing spontaneity, and engaging with
colleagues to promote and support a culture of reflection (Taylor, 2006).
Additionally, setting structured time aside to reflect is important so that
reflection occurs. It is also important to complete faculty reflection
activities soon after a teaching session so that ideas are clear and other
distractions do not interfere with the reflection (Reflection, 2010).
After
critical examination and thoughtful consideration of the actions, thoughts, and
feelings involved in teaching, faculty may choose to make changes to their
practice or may continue with effective current approaches.
Impact of Faculty Reflection
Dewey
(1933) described reflection as the active, persistent, and careful
consideration of any belief or knowledge (p. 9). He also suggested that the
faculty may not be motivated to reflect unless there is an issue or dilemma
that needs to be addressed. Additional scholars have expanded upon Dewey’s
work, suggesting that faculty reflection is a process of looking at a situation
with careful thought, inquiry, and attention (Mezirow, 1998; Schön, 1987).
Others suggest that faculty reflection involves critique of assumptions and
analysis of the experience from different viewpoints (Brookfield, 1995;
Mezirow, 1998).
There are three phases of faculty reflection: awareness of
feelings and thoughts, critical analysis of the situation, and development of
new perspectives (Freshwater et al., 2005, Freshwater, Taylor, & Sherwood,
2008) The literature discusses the timing of the reflection activities and
refers to reflection before action, or thinking in advance;
reflection-in-action, used in the moment; or reflecting-on-action, reflection
that occurs after an event (Sherwood & Horton Deutsch, 2012).
Successful
reflection faculty should be structured, guided, purposeful, regularly
occurring, intentional , focused, and involve active inquiry and critical thought.
Faculty reflection may lead to professional growth and awareness of educator
actions and interactions. Through reflection, the faculty may gain a sense of
meaning and purpose while also. helping to create personal solutions to
teaching problems.
Outcomes of Faculty Reflection
Much
of the literature related to faculty reflection is based on personal experience
and individual activities. Educators do not have a strong evidence base to
direct and support the use of faculty reflection activities. Research related
to faculty reflection is essential to guide professional educator practice.
Studies can be aimed at understanding the usefulness of faculty reflection
strategies and best practices for faculty reflection.
Additional research could
also evaluate faculty reflection and its relationship with educator practice
improvements, thus answering the question: Does faculty reflection lead to
effective practice changes? Further work is also needed to understand the
optimal timing and approaches of reflective activities. The literature suggests
that faculty reflection influences teaching and professional development but
further research is needed to evaluate this concept.