Developing Applied Sport and Exercise
Psychology through Reflective Practice:
Explorations of Professional Practice, Issues
with Reflection and Modern Research trends
Welcome
Convener: Dr Zoe Knowles
@SpExPsych
E: z.r.knowles@ljmu.ac.uk
The programme and team
9.15: Introduction: Dr Zoe Knowles (LJMU)
9.25: Reflecting back and forwards: The ebb and flow of reflective
practice research in sport
E. Huntley, Edge Hill University; D. Gilbourne, University of Hull; A. Sparkes,
Leeds Metropolitan University; B. Cropley, Cardiff Metropolitan University; Z.
Knowles, LJMU
9.40 The role of reflective practice in delivering psychological support to
a professional sporting organisation
S. Mellalieu, Swansea University
9.55 The utility of reflective practice during the provision of sport
psychology support
T. Devonport, A. Lane; University of Wolverhampton
10.10 Emerging from the swampy lowlands: Critical issues in the theory
and practice of reflection
B. Cropley, Cardiff Metropolitan University; G. Picknell, UAE Armed Force; J.
Peel, Cardiff Metropolitan University
The aim
• We hope the symposium (as a collective of
critical thinking) will challenge, provoke,
disturb and excite those who practice sport
and exercise psychology.
• We hope today will encourage reflection
and open a critical space through which
delegates may question their own
approaches and maybe re-evaluate their
own personal development needs.
The journey
• We have faced challenges and been required,
frequently, to defend our ideas at conferences,
through journal reviewer feedback or via personal
communications.
• In the spirit of critical reflection these interjections and
questions have been/continue to be welcomed today.
• In our collective view facing critique, even scepticism,
has forced us to think through our ideas carefully, and
we appreciate the need to always be under scrutiny
from colleagues and practitioners.
The topic: ‘why, what, how’
• Making sense of our knowledge-in-action through reflective
practice allows practitioners to make more informed
decisions in practice and about practice, and in doing so
helps them to better understand and cope with the
complexity imposed by the context of practice in sport and
exercise (Cropley & Hanton, 2011).
The topic: ‘why, what, how
• A purposeful and complex process that facilitates the
examination of experience by questioning the whole self and
our agency within the context of practice. This examination
transforms experience into learning, which helps us to access,
make sense of and develop our knowledge-in-action in order
to better understand and/or improve practice and the situation
in which it occurs.
Knowles, Gilbourne, Cropley & Dugdill (2014)
• Becoming a reflective practitioner is more than a collection of
techniques, and instead involves an all-encompassing attitude
to practice that requires the practitioner to commit to
professional and personal development.
Anderson et al (2004).
The book
• First text on reflective practice in the sport
and exercise sciences
• Jan 2014
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415814935/
The self
• Children have the capability to move beyond description
of experiences to that of reflection.
• By engaging in reflection children can become active
agents who express themselves and offer valid views to
influence decisions and the world around them.
• For children, reflection needs to be facilitated by adults
who role-model this process and engage children in
structured, developmentally appropriate techniques that
are reflective in origin but creative by design.