Learning outcomes

After this chapter you will be able to:

• 1 have an overview of the most important ideas and authors in the literature on reflective practice;

• 2 define and describe reflective practice (definitions, types and levels) and some connected concepts (reflection, reflection-inaction, reflection-on-action, critical reflection and thinking, theory, practical theory, practice learning);

• 3 look at how in social work reflective practice is connected with decision making, emotions and creativity;

• 4 possess the theoretical frame for the use of the tools and strategies described in the next chapters.

Introduction

Reflective practice is an essential skill across the helping professions, but what is it? This chapter will introduce and define reflectivity and reflective practice, presenting the key ideas from leading theorists, including Schon, Dewey, Kolb, Rogers and Habermas. From different perspectives (philosophical, psychological, educational, sociological) they have given the theoretical background for understanding how human beings can learn while doing.

The so-called experience–reflection–action (ERA) cycle is examined in its three components and their mutual interactions: experience (what happens to people), reflection (all the processes enabling people to learn from these experiences) and action (undertaken because of the newly gained perspective). Reflection, as a process towards a deeper understanding and awareness, constantly feeds action and deeper focused thought towards becoming a more competent professional in the interest of the service users. Using Goodman's levels of reflection (first, description and evaluation; second, conclusions transferrable to other situations; third, acknowledgement of the wider context and influences the event under scrutiny is connected with), it is possible to lead reflection towards different depths of understanding.

Decision making is also involved in this topic, and how the human mind assesses and makes decisions, combining the contribution of intuition and reasoning, using the two-systems model of Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman. These two systems process the same contents (concepts) but in two different ways described by the dichotomies fast–slow, parallel–serial, automatic–controlled, effortless–effortful and others.

In this chapter metaphors are proposed to help bring theory to life, allowing readers to understand the issue in full: in the first section, voices; in the second, cycle and iceberg; in the third, exploration by diving and walking; in the fourth, Mr Spock and Charlie Brown and; finally, in the fifth section, ghosts talking to a scared child as in the film The Sixth Sense.