Flexible learning strategies provide logistical and pedagogical flexibility to students and faculty. Reflective practice is one strategy for promoting personal and professional growth. This presentation will discuss applications for reflective practice: how to guide deeper learning, and how to evaluate the depth of student learning. One reflective practice research project will be described in detail. Seventy senior nursing students collaborated on practice-based projects with healthcare leaders from different sectors (e.g.., acute care, community, mental health). These projects enabled students to appreciate the extensive roles and accountabilities of nurse leaders. Student project work was totally conducted outside a class setting: students used a number of online tools to coordinate their work, and to produce agreed-upon project deliverables within a three-month period of time. Specific project learning objectives included students’ synthesis of knowledge from critical inquiry/research; relational practice/communications; leadership, ethics and policy; and professional practice. Structured reflective practice papers were intended to: a) deepen students’ appreciation of knowledge synthesis/application through project work (Mezirow, 2006); and b) stimulate identity development with respect to the richness of nurse leader roles within health care (Moje, 2008). Guided reflective practice questions and a reflective practice rubric were given to students before their assignment, and the rubric was used by faculty to assess the depth of student learning related to project work. The probing questions and rubric are based on Ryan (2012). Results from reflective paper analysis will be reviewed, particularly the “ah ha” new learning moments from this one flexible learning activity.
References:
McGuire, L., Lay, J., & Peters, J. (2009). Pedagogy of reflective writing in professional education. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 9, 93-107.
Moje, E. (2008). Foregrounding the disciplines in secondary literacy teaching and learning: a call for change. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96-107.
Ryan, M. (2012). Conceptualising and teaching discursives and performative reflection in higher education. Studies in Continuing Education, 34(2), 207-223.
