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.
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