Reflective Writing & Reflective Thinking

Abstract

This chapter reports on the use of reflective journals as pieces of assessed work in a recently introduced Doctorate of Pharmacy (DPharm) programme at the University of Bradford, UK. The analysis in this chapter examines the challenges that writing a reflective journal has posed for the students on the DPharm programme. There is a broader context for Pharmacy education as a whole, which this chapter also touches on, as the role of reflection in professional development for pharmacists is a relatively new development. The chapter describes the strategy used by the author to develop reflective writing skills in students whose previous academic writing has been in the style of scientific reports. The author identifies four “interim styles” that students have adopted en route to reflective writing, gives examples of these and offers reasons why these styles emerge. Many of the reasons are in the affective domain. The conclusion is that developing reflective writing requires the development of reflective thinking, and is a personal development issue as much as one of writing development.