Reflective practice - tips and resources

One of the most powerful ways to learn, reflect and make sense of our lives is through journal keeping.
This book presents the potential uses and benefits of journals for personal and professional development--particularly for those in academic life; and demonstrates journals' potential to foster college students' learning, fluency and voice, and creative thinking.

Reflective practice is at the heart of becoming a competent and confident social work professional. This book demystifies the reflective process and provides a straight forward knowledge base to enhance professional development. Whether you are a qualifying social work student, a practitioner with supervisory responsibilities, or are engaged in professional post qualifying education and training, this book will help you to understand and evidence your development as a reflective practitioner, and guide the assessment of others' ability to reflect.

A leading M.I.T. social scientist and consultant examines five professions - engineering, architecture, management, psychotherapy, and town planning - to show how professionals really go about solving problems. The best professionals, Donald Schön maintains, know more than they can put into words. To meet the challenges of their work, they rely less on formulas learned in graduate school than on the kind of improvisation learned in practice. This unarticulated, largely unexamined process is the subject of Schön's provocatively original book, an effort to show precisely how 'reflection-in-action' works and how this vital creativity might be fostered in future professionals.

Written for anyone working in the field of early years education and care, this book encourages students and practitioners to consider their own practice and to examine practice in a wide range of early years settings. The four sections link closely to the principles of the Early Years Foundation Stage, and support the reader in developing a critical and reflective approach to their own work. Issues covered include:Play in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in EnglandThe Foundation Phase in WalesSafeguarding childrenThe healthy childLeading a team at a Children's CenteRHow caregivers are working with the EYFSLeading and managing a multi-agency workforceContinuing Professional Development for early years practitionersIdeal for those working towards Early Years Professional Status (EYPS), this book is also a must-read for students on any early years course, and will help the professional development of all practitioners working with the Birth to Eight age range.

This handbook acts as an essential guide to understanding and using reflective and experiential learning - whether it be for personal or professional development, or as a tool for learning. It takes a fresh look at experiential and reflective learning, locating them within an overall theoretical framework for learning and exploring the relationships between different approaches. As well as the theory, the book provides practical ideas for applying the models of learning, with tools, activities and photocopiable resources which can be incorporated directly into classroom practice. This book is essential reading to guide any teacher, lecturer or trainer wanting to improve teaching and learning.

Learning Journals offers guidance on keeping and using journals and gives step-by-step advice on integrating journal writing on taught courses, in training and professional development and in supporting personal development planning (PDP) activities.
Learning Journals is invaluable reading for teachers and students in higher education, for all professionals, particularly those working in the health services and business and training and for all those who want to learn more about keeping a fulfilling personal journal.

eflective practice is at the heart of becoming a competent and confident social worker. It′s both a key element of learning and development on social work courses and an important aspect of social work practice.This accessible and introductory text explores a range of approaches to reflective practice to help students become more confident in answering key questions, including ′what is reflective practice?′, ′how do I develop as a reflective practitioner?′ and ′how do I maintain reflective practice in key contexts?′. There are many useful resources such as Writing reflective journals, Communicating well with service users and carers and Reflective practice while on placements.