Reflection on Workplace Learning: A Professional Development Essay

This essay delves into the concept of reflection as a vital component of professional development within a workplace setting. It explores various approaches to reflection, including individual, social relational, contextual, and developmental perspectives, highlighting how these approaches contribute to learning and growth. The essay emphasizes the cyclical nature of the reflective process, encompassing awareness, review, articulation, thought, and feeling, and it discusses the significance of creating a supportive work environment that encourages reflective practices. Furthermore, the essay examines Boud's model of reflection, detailing its three stages: return to experience, attention to feelings, and repeated assessment. It underlines the importance of integrating new knowledge, analyzing emotional dimensions, and applying learning to future activities. The essay also addresses the influence of workplace learning on behavior, attitudes, and the overall environment, emphasizing the role of self-efficacy, error analysis, and the need for motivational forces in driving professional growth. The essay concludes by highlighting how a positive work environment, characterized by trust, safety, and effective leadership, fosters reflective practices and facilitates adaptation to workplace changes. This essay provides a comprehensive understanding of reflection as a tool for continuous improvement and professional success.

1
Reflection
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Instructor’s Name
Assignments due Date
Reflection

2
Reflection is a future oriented process that comprises a review of experiences or
incidents, analysis of the causes and the effects leading to new appreciation and
understanding. It draws conclusions that give guidance for future behaviour and action (Boud,
2010). Reflection represents activities which happen with intent, motions, consciousness and
cognition and are interactive and closely related. Reflection goes beyond thinking of
experiences, feelings and thoughts, people must use some affective and cognitive skills to
perform a successful reflective process. These skills are the ability to critically analyze
situations, self-awareness, ability of describing feelings and thoughts and being able to
integrate new knowledge and have different perspectives (Branch & George, 2017).
Reflections occurs in new situations that are unexpected or challenging. Reflection
helps professionals to acquire new knowledge and skills required in a particular situation
(Morgan et al., 2018). Reflection, therefore helps individuals to exploit the available learning
opportunities in a work place, encourages the acquiring of knowledge and improvement of
performance at work place and develop professional competency (Downham, 2020). The
concept of reflection in a workplace setting can be described using four approaches which are
individual, social relational, contextual and developmental. Individual approach underlines
that learning by 5refelction is a personal experience, since everyone has their own different
experience in the workplace (Holland, (2013). Reflection in the workplace is a cyclical
process that involves awareness, review of a particular experience, articulation, thought and
feeling. Though these stages are linear, they do not generally follow the path. They are no
independent and an individual can start from anywhere in the reflection process. The second
approach emphasizes social relational point of view. Reflection can be embedded in
negotiations and social interactions between professionals, peers and their supervisors. This

3
helps professionals make sensible deductions of feedback and new information in the context
of own experience (Holland, 2013). Reflection is a process that encourages social
communication enabling cooperative negotiation (Bruno et al., 2011). These practices are
interpersonal happening as a social exchange and process of negotiation. Learning from
experience in the reflective practices results to individual mental activity, invisible, and active
behaviour in various social interactions. The third approach sees reflection as learning from
experiences in the workplace as related to the context in which it occurs. Experiences in work
place give valuable learning opportunities and professional development. Several literature
works emphasize the importance of work environment in stimulating and reinforcing learning
experience in the work place (Tynjala, 2013). The fourth approach looks at reflection as
developmental. Reflection has both future and retrospective orientation. Effective learning
results in changed actions and knowledge and behaviour implying consciousness and
intentionality.
Reflection helps one to develop skills and review their effectiveness and not just do
things as they have always been done. It questions in a positive way, what to do, why do it
and deciding if there is a more efficient or better ways of doing something in the future.
Bouds model reflection shows the process of reflection when experience transforms into
learning. The model has three main stages of the reflection process. They include return to
experience, repeated assessment and attention to feelings (Boud, 2010). The model shows that
one way to stimulate learning is by strengthening the interrelationship of learning. It indicates
that reflection is first sought by dialogue after expressing thoughts and acquiring experience
in a group setting. The second step is by writing in which events and experiences are
described. Reflection is stimulated for, instance in case of a successful assignment which

4
initially looked difficult, it can be used to assess other assignments repeatedly to plan other
experiences. Personal sintering of knowledge and validation of knowledge, new state of
emotion and getting involved in an activity can happen as a result of reflection.
The first stage in the Bouds model is the return to experience. Here the experience is
reflected and analyzed by trying to understand what reactions and what reasons induced a
certain behaviour. Identifying and analysis of feelings and thoughts that caused the experience
are essential at this stage. Learners who do not analyses their emotional dimensions in their
experiences can adversely affect the value of their reflection. This limits their reaction to
experience. The second stage of the model is the attention to feelings. Here employing
positive feelings and the elimination of those that are inadequate. Circumstances and
intentions play key roles in the analysis of one’s emotional experiences. This is by coming up
with ways to avoid them or maintain or strengthen the experiences. By experiencing the
positive feelings bot emotional and cognitive parts of learning are developed. It is vital to pay
attention to the effect of the process at this stage to ascertain how one handles their reflective
activities (Boud, 2010). The third stage is the repeated assessment of the experience. This is
deeply examining the experience by comparing new knowledge to the one possessed and
integrating the first one into and individual’s conceptual scheme. This kind of learning is
applied to understand its authenticity and planning future activity or activities at which stage
learning is now implemented as a professional activity. The last stage gives results. Reflection
results can be improved by association, integration, validation and assimilation.
The Bouds model shows that the reflection process can happen consistently. It is
important to note that a lot of other cycles related to repetition of essential components can

5
come up as well. Work place learning helps in effectively meeting and responding to changes
to work and work place. Work place changes enables professionals to take part in learning to
help them adapt to new demands, gain new knowledge and refine work routines and
processes. The richness of learning in the workplaces will be based on a number of things
including behaviour, attitudes and the work environment.
Orientation
Professionals have always been described as being resistant and passive towards work
changes. For instance, individuals with conservative views on work changes prefer to remain
with established work routines. Professional perception on self-efficacy is mostly motivated
by their actions and performances in their work places (Bandura, 2012). Challenging situation
s in the workplace always give rise to errors. Errors interrupt work processes and pose work
and personal challenges. Reflection practice serves as a way to ascertain the worth of such
errors and their overall effect. Several studies done on healthcare professionals have shown
that those who believe errors are valuable learning opportunities will most likely take part in
reflection and in other social learning activities.
Work Behaviour
Facing challenges at the work place increases uncertainty in workers. To control and
reduce the uncertainty individuals are required to take an active approach to workplace
learning in identifying and engaging in the tasks and other learning affordances. This can be
achieved by leaving old work routines, pursuing self-goals, developing effective and new

6
strategies to develop professionally. In the work place learning helps to influence work
behaviour.
Work Environment
Learning needs motivational forces Moon. A work environment gives
professionals with opportunities to meet their basic needs in experiencing autonomy, social
relatedness and competence. These characteristics serves as motivational in determining
quality of work performance by professionals. Studies have shown self-determination has a
critical impact in motivating individuals in a work place. Work environment that is seen as
safe and supporting in handling of errors facilitates the reporting of errors, collective
reflections and interpersonal exchanges. There are four main environmental qualities that
support the reflective practice. This includes good climate, safety feeling in taking risks,
understanding emotional aspects of reflection and helping those who show difficulties in the
reflective practices (Moon, 2013). Trustful behaviour which is also supportive among peers
and having effective leadership comprises one’s psychological safety in a work group. New
challenges in the work places are regarded as prone to errors since established routines of
work become obsolete and workers do not have requisite knowledge and skills to handle the
new changes.
References

7
Bandura, A. (2012). On the functional properties of perceived self-efficacy revisited.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0149206311410606
Boud, D. (2010). Relocating reflection in the context of practice. Beyond reflective practice:
New approaches to professional lifelong learning, 25-36.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Boud/publication/305061053_Relocating_reflection
_in_the_context_of_practice/links/58ed4fc00f7e9b37ed14e6a3/Relocating-reflection-in-the-
context-of-practice.pdf
Branch Jr, W. T., & George, M. (2017). Reflection-based learning for professional ethical
formation. AMA journal of ethics, 19(4), 349-356.
https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/reflection-based-learning-professional-ethical-
formation/2017-04
Bruno, A., Galuppo, L., & Gilardi, S. (2011). Evaluating the reflexive practices in a learning
experience. European journal of psychology of education, 26(4), 527-543.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10212-011-0061-x
Downham, L. (2020). Understanding reflection and reflective practice in high-performance
coach education (Doctoral dissertation, Loughborough University).
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/thesis/Understanding_reflection_and_reflective_practice_in
_high-performance_coach_educa12925211tion/
Holland, L. (2013). Student reflections on the value of a professionalism module. Journal of
Information, Communication and Ethics in Society.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/14779961311304130/full/html?fullSc=1

8
Moon, J. A. (2013). Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and practice.
https://books.google.co.ke/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=8y0LwQxZUf4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR2&dq=moon+reflective+practice&ots=1tYvsv
JReU&sig=ACBJwgb0NGsAVlLQTHWKlFf7cxY&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=moon
%20reflective%20practice&f=false
Morgan, J., Wood, C., & Caldwell-Harris, C. (2018). Reflective thought, religious belief, and the
social foundations hypothesis. The new reflectionism in cognitive psychology: Why reason
matters, 10-32.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Connor-Wood/publication/314300503_Reflective_Thought
_Religious_Belief_and_the_Social_Foundations_Hypothesis/links/58c02db3a6fdcca74cff0c92/
Reflective-Thought-Religious-Belief-and-the-Social-Foundations-Hypothe
Tynjälä, P. (2013). Toward a 3-P model of workplace learning: a literature review. Vocations
and learning, 6(1), 11-36. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12186-012-9091-z