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Reflective Practice in Health Professions Education

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Clinical Education for the Health Professions

Abstract

In health professions, reflection is a central tenet that assists practitioners in development of their professional knowledge and practice. Indeed, for many health professions, critical reflectivity has become a core competency within registration standards. This chapter presents the theory that underpins reflective practice beginning with a historical overview. John Dewey’s seminal work How We Think (1933) paved the way for the current thinking on reflective practice. In presenting the theoretical underpinnings of reflective practice, pedagogical examples are provided. Discussion on the tensions between reflective practice as a pedagogy, service learning, where the reflective learning activity is given lip-service by students, versus clinical practice is provided. We explore how reflective practice in theory can become reflective practice in action. The exciting opportunities that current technologies afford in being creative with reflective practice are presented along with suggested pedagogical activities in scaffolding reflective practice.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rural Health, Melbourne University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Jennifer M. Weller-Newton

  2. School of Nursing, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Jennifer M. Weller-Newton & Michele Drummond-Young

  3. Nursing and Midwifery, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Jennifer M. Weller-Newton

Authors
  1. Jennifer M. Weller-Newton
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  2. Michele Drummond-Young
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer M. Weller-Newton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia

    Debra Nestel

  2. King's College London, London, UK

    Gabriel Reedy

  3. School of Nursing and Midwifery, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia

    Lisa McKenna

  4. Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia

    Suzanne Gough

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Weller-Newton, J.M., Drummond-Young, M. (2021). Reflective Practice in Health Professions Education. In: Nestel, D., Reedy, G., McKenna, L., Gough, S. (eds) Clinical Education for the Health Professions. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6106-7_32-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6106-7_32-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-6106-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-6106-7

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