EXPRESSING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
THROUGH REFLECTION: SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS
CHRIS BULMAN
“I cannot teach anybody
anything. I can only make
them think” Socrates
REFLECTION PROVIDES A ROUTE TO:
• Critically contemplate
and learn from
practice
• Help make sense of
experience
• Develop a repertoire
of experience which
can positively and
actively inform future
practice
REFLECTIVE EDUCATION
• Learning how to learn through the development of
effective thinking skills (Freire 1972)
• Developing ability to communicate
• Part of the ‘project’ of universities and important
elements of graduateness
• Professional reflective education has a role in
developing critical thinkers, and being critical in order to
learn from practice, as part of this ‘project’ (Bulman et al
2012, Barnett 1997).
EXPRESSION OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
• Need to seek out ways to help people to communicate
and express themselves as adequately as possible
(Polanyi 1967)
•
Reflection can provide a means for doing just that.
• Integral to the process of reflective education is helping
students to express themselves and communicate their
practice (Schon 1992).
• This expression of professional practice through
reflection raises a number of interesting issues for
present-day educators:
WHY IS DIALOGUE IMPORTANT?
The teacher cannot think for his
students nor can he impose thought on
them. Authentic thinking that is
concerned about reality, does not take
place in ivory tower isolation, but only
in communication.
Friere (1972.64)
WHY IS DIALOGUE IMPORTANT?
 Essential in order to support as well as challenge thinking
(Brockbank and McGill 1998,Clouder and Sellars 2004,
Harrison et al 2007, Johns 2009)
 Dialogue nurtures criticality, the reflective process can
easily slip into non-critical, self-affirmation without it
(Bulman 2008)
‘Asking a goldfish to perceive
water’ Riddell (2007:122)
HOW ARE WE PROMOTING DIALOGUE
• Ourselves as facilitators,
supportive and challenging
teachers.
• Text and talk – formal and
informal
• Effective and well prepared
mentors and supervisors
• The relationship between
education and practice
environments in
professional education
• Easing and opening up
dialogue
• Skilled helping
• Trust
• Emotionally sustaining peer
learning communities
(Brookfield 1987, 1993, Zeichner
and Liston 1987, Russell 2005,
Harrison et al 2007)
WHAT SORT OF DIALOGUE ARE WE
PROMOTING?
 Reflection as surveillance, confession and correction
(Pryce 2002, Rolfe and Gardner 2006)
 Spirit of reciprocity, sensitivity, humility and curiosity in
skilled facilitation (Bulman 2013).
 Plato’s Paradox of Learning (How do
we know what we don’t know and
how do we recognise it once
we’ve found it!)
WHAT LANGUAGE ARE WE EXPRESSING AND
PROMOTING?
 Language Games - Wittgenstein 1967
 Authenticity -Taylor 2013
 ‘Talk like we do’ - Wackerhausen 2009
CHALLENGES IN A ‘REAL’ AND CHAOTIC
WORLD
• Greater numbers
• Less contact time
• Pressure in the public
sector and others
• Less opportunity and
time for critical
contemplation,
reflection and
discussion.
REFERENCES
 Barnett, R. (1997) Higher Education: A Critical Business. The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press,
Buckingham.
 Brockbank, A. and McGill, I. (1998). Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education. Society for Research in Higher Education and
Open University Press, Buckingham.
 Brookfield, S. D. (1987). Developing Critical Thinkers. Challenging Adults to Explore Alternative Ways of Thinking. Jossey Bass, San
Francisco.
 Brookfield S, (1993) On Impostership, Cultural Suicide, and Other Dangers: How Nurses Learn Critical Thinking. The Journal of Continuing
Education in Nursing. Vol.24: 5, 197 - 205

Bulman, C. (2008). Help to get you started. In: Bulman, C. and Schutz, S. (2008). (Eds) Reflective Practice in Nursing (4th Ed.) Blackwell
Scientific Publications, Oxford.
 Bulman, C. (2013) Getting started on a journey with reflection. In: Bulman, C. and Schutz, S. (2013) (Eds) Reflective Practice in Nursing (5th
Ed.) Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford
 Bulman, C., Lathlean, J. and Gobbi, M. (2012) The concept of reflection in nursing: Qualitative findings on student and teacher perspectives,
Nurse Education Today 32 (2012), pp. e8-e13 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2011.10.007
 Clouder, L. (2000) Reflective practice: realising its potential. Physiotherapy. 86:10, 517-522.
 Clouder, L. and Sellars, J. (2004). Reflective practice and clinical supervision: an interprofessional perspective. Journal of Advanced
Nursing 46(3): 262-269.
 Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Herder and Herder, New York.
REFERENCES
 Gair, S. (2011) Creating spaces for critical reflection in social work education: learning from a classroom based empathy project. Reflective
Practice: International and Multi-Disciplinary Perspectives. 12:6, 791-802.
 Harrison, J.K., Lawson, T. and Wortley, A. (2007) Mentoring the beginning teacher: developing professional autonomy through critical
reflection in practice. Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives. 6:3, 419-441
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14623940500220277
 Johns, C. (2009) Becoming a Reflective Practitioner (3rd Ed) Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford
 O'Donovan, M. (2007) Implementing reflection: insights from pre-registration mental health students. Nurse Education Today. Aug 27:6,
515-664.
 Polanyi, M. (1967) The Tacit Dimension. Doubleday and Co. Garden City New York
 Pryce, A. (2002). Refracting experience: Reflection, post modernity and transformations. Nursing Times Research 7(4): 298-310.
 Russell, T. (2005) Can reflective practice be taught? Reflective Practice: International and Multi-disciplinary Perspectives. 6:2, 199-204.
 Riddell, T. (2007) Critical assumptions: thinking critically about critical thinking. Journal of Nursing Education. 46 (3) 121-126.
 Rolfe, G. and Gardner, L. (2006). ‘Do not ask who I am...' confession, emancipation and (self)-management through reflection. Journal of
Nursing Management 14: 593-600.
 Schon D.A. (1992) The Reflective Practitioner (2nd Ed.) Jossey Bass, San Francisco.
 Taylor, C. (2003). Narrating practice: reflective accounts and the textual construction of reality. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 42(3): 244251.
 Wackerhausen, S. (2009) Collaboration, professional identity and reflection across boundaries Journal of Interprofessional Care. 23 (5),
455-473.
 Wittgenstein, L. (1967). Philosophical Investigations. Blackwell, Oxford.
 Zeichner, K. M. and Liston, D. P. (1987). Teaching student teachers to reflect. Harvard Educational Review. 57 (No.1): 23-48