The Importance Of Reflective Practice

What is reflective practice? In short, it’s a practice that helps you become an active learner. Many of us, including myself, may be considered or interpreted as passive learners. Passive learning goes a bit like this: we read textbooks, we follow everything our instructor or teacher tells us (sometimes we tune out), we write exams and then…we forget what we learned. It’s common and though not everybody goes through this, historically, it happens more often than not. However, with active learning we engage in conversations with our classmates and teacher, we ask questions, we figure out answers, we contribute and learn and teach each other. And ultimately, we engage with ourselves (and seldom tune out as a result). Oxford dictionary defines reflection as “a serious thought or consideration…an idea about something, especially one that is written down and expressed”. Reflective practice facilitates coping. From a personal perspective it is different for each of us like writing personal journals or talking on the phone with family/friends. From a professional perspective this is usually mores structured like when we complete our weekly log after a clinical day and reflect on what occurred during our time on the unit and reflect on a single moment and how we felt about it. Donald Schon, an influential thinker in developing the