Reflective Practice: A Critical Component of Professional Life

This essay delves into the critical role of reflective practice in professional life, emphasizing its significance in skill development, decision-making, and continuous learning. The introduction defines reflective practice as an evaluation of one's work, highlighting its importance in fostering critical and constructive thinking, leading to improved skills and better organizational outcomes. The essay discusses how reflective practices are essential in various professions like health and teaching, where professionals constantly evolve to provide better solutions. It explores the connection between reflective practice and learning, the importance of communication, and the role of thinking in generating innovative ideas. The conclusion reiterates the value of reflective practice for professionals across all fields, fostering self-awareness, cognitive knowledge, and adaptability. The essay references various sources to support its claims, underscoring the importance of reflection in enhancing professional growth and success.

REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IS
CRITICAL FOR PROFESSIONAL
LIFE

INTRODUCTION
The term reflective practice is an act which depicts a person's outcome of a particular
work. Reflective learning is vital so as to increase practical knowledge and values based on
theories. It helps in developing critical, fictive and constructive thinking which helps in
development of skills. From organisations point of view, reflective practices helps in making
better decisions and controlling of activities. In today's world reflective practices plays a crucial
role in professional career thereby developing their skills so as to carry out work efficiently and
effectively. This is also know as work-based learning which evolves new and better ways of
performing.
Reflective learning in its simple form is known as checking the work performed by you
through evaluating it closely (Beauchamp, 2015). It helps people to learn from their mistakes
through experiencing. Reflective practice is dynamic set of skills and abilities which needs to be
undertaken by a procedural method. Reflective practices could be clearly seen in professions like
health and teaching where the tutor or doctor continuously evolve himself to present best results
or solutions to the problem (Blasco, Moreto & Pessini, 2018). It also helps in development of
society and community by acquiring better ways of responding to changes.
These practices help professionals to take challenging tasks and work on it through
improvising it with time and practice. It focuses on learning and development through evaluating
tasks performed previously so as to implement corrective measures (Johns, 2017). Both
reflective practice and learning goes hand-to-hand and are a complex process. Learning through
experience and reflective practices helps in exploring theories in a structured way which helps in
developing skills. Reflective skills could be gained through various acts of an individual which
needs to be evolved.
Reading theories, books and journals helps in developing reflective skills which helps in
responding creatively. Professionals should continuously involve in communicating their
working skills and abilities by taking response from colleagues, superiors etc. (Hébert, 2015).
Crucial and close watch should be kept while performing as it helps in identifying any deviations
and take corrective measures as instincts never go wrong. Professionals and business people
should continuously talk about work which will help in learning process and systems (Eaton,
2016). Thinking is another crucial process involved in reflective practices and emphasizes on
generating innovative and creative ideas so as to resolve problems and find solutions.
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Reflective practice is now used in all segments and fields as it has become an important
concept to evaluate yourself. It is a psychological process of learning which enhances skills and
expertise through discussion as well as writing exercises. It has evolved drastically over last few
years and has been a part of professional system helping in taking decisions and making
judgements. These practices help professionals to take challenging tasks and work on it through
improvising it with time and practice (Johns, 2017). It focuses on learning and development
through evaluating tasks performed previously so as to implement corrective measures (Farrell &
Ives, 2015).
Reflective practices could be clearly seen in professions like health and teaching where
the tutor or doctor continuously evolve himself to present best results or solutions to the problem.
It also helps in development of society and community by acquiring better ways of responding to
changes (Redmond, 2017). It is a continuous process of learning and measuring various theories
or experiences. Reflective practice is termed as a form of working in which critical measures
need to be considered and understand. A professional who uses reflective practices needs to be
aware about new situations and techniques and find out measures to use them in day to day
working. Thus, reflective practice incorporates experiences which should be applied to enhance
knowledge or training provided by various professionals. It helps in learning which will increase
growth of a person as it is a self-regulated and unstructured process (Johns, 2017).
Reflective practice plays an important role in lives of professionals by teaching them
from their own experiences and theories of others so as to mange their work properly (Farrell &
Ives, 2015). The act of reflective practice is vital in today's world as it help someone to enhance
their knowledge base from past experiences and mistakes. The professionals helps in
encouraging and incorporating reflective skills as they know their importance in someone's life.
The reflective practice is engaged in increasing learning capacity of a person through past
experiences and understand one's motives, perceptions, values and ethics as well as attitudes and
feelings towards a particular work (Knott & Scragg, 2016). The professionals has undertaken
reflective practice as a discipline which needs to be taught so as to learn something valuable.
There a several strategies which needs to be implemented for a successful reflective process so
as to enhance skills and abilities.
In teaching profession , teachers continuously evolve themselves so as to give better and
enhanced lectures to motivate students as well as to increase their knowledge base (Johns, 2017).
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On other hand health practitioners, evolve themselves daily so as to treat patients correctly by
taking various measures through reflective learning from experiences. Health professionals needs
to study new thesis and health related books so as to enhance their knowledge base while dealing
with patients (Redmond, 2017).Thus reflective approach plays a vital role in lives of
professionals by impelling them to learn new techniques and effective ways of thinking
creatively and constructively. It also motivates them to carry out work in a more enhanced
manner by learning through their own experiences and gaining knowledge (Knott & Scragg,
2016).
CONCLUSION
Reflective practices are vital for professionals in any fields irrespective of their levels. It
helps in evaluating self awareness based on experiences as well as theories which has evolved
with years. It foster a feeling of cognitive knowledge amongst people and practitioners will
impel them to learn new ways and techniques of their profession. It is a challenging process
which is time consuming, needs full commitment and support, ongoing professional
development and supervision to mature. Reflective learning is an approach which helps
individual gain new knowledge as well as new techniques to manage their work effectively.
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REFERENCES
Beauchamp, C. (2015). Reflection in teacher education: issues emerging from a review of
current literature. Reflective Practice.16(1), 123-141.
Blasco, P. G., Moreto, G., & Pessini, L. (2018). Using Movie Clips to Promote Reflective
Practice: a Creative Approach for Teaching Ethics. Asian Bioethics Review, 1-11.
Eaton, C. (2016). “I don’t get it”,–the challenge of teaching reflective practice to health and
care practitioners. Reflective Practice. 17(2), 159-166.
Farrell, T. S., & Ives, J. (2015). Exploring teacher beliefs and classroom practices through
reflective practice: A case study. Language Teaching Research. 19(5), 594-610.
Hébert, C. (2015). Knowing and/or experiencing: a critical examination of the reflective
models of John Dewey and Donald Schön. Reflective Practice. 16(3), 361-371.
Johns, C. (2017).Becoming a reflective practitioner. John Wiley & Sons.
Knott, C., & Scragg, T. (2016). Reflective practice in social work. Learning Matters.
Redmond, B. (2017). Reflection in action: Developing reflective practice in health and social
services. Routledge.
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