Critical Reflection: A Powerful Way to Add Depth and Breadth to Student Learning

Critical Reflection Adds Depth and Breadth to Student Learning

Critical reflection- a powerful tool in our active learning armory. I've come to understand this over the years as I've taught nursing students in the clinical setting. I came across a discussion of critical reflection today in a Faculty Focus posting by Mary Bart, and it got me thinking about the power of this tool. 

“Critical reflection is not a neat and tidy exercise that closes an experience with a nice, tidy, little bow. Rather, reflection is ongoing, it’s often messy, and it provides more openings than closings,” said Barbara Jacoby, PhD., senior scholar at the University of Maryland, College Park. “This is one of the challenges that faculty who engage students in critical reflection find all the time. We don’t know where students will go with their reflection, and … we have to let go of thinking of ourselves as the expert in a certain topic, because critical reflection opens questions that we are not necessarily going to be the expert on.”

And yet, critical reflection continues to gain momentum as a powerful way of adding depth and breadth to learning by asking students to analyze, reconsider and question their experiences within a broad context of issues and content knowledge, Jacoby said.

In Roger's concept analysis of reflection the author identifies factors common to reflection, summarized in the table below. 

The outcomes of reflection are learning and enhanced personal and professional effectiveness. 

Critical reflection has been an important tool in my teaching in the last few years. I've used with students in the classroom, in having them summarize and apply the concepts we've learned, 

I have also used critical reflection teaching in simulated patient care situations, where students are put in a realistic, challenging situation and they have to make decisions, act on those decisions, and do this while working as a team, They see the patient outcomes based on what they do, and they see how well (or how poorly) they actually function in a team. After they've had a chance to see some outcomes, we pause  the scenario, and discuss what was happening. In most cases, at this point they are very critical of their performance (probably more critical than I would be). This is GOOD! They are critically reflecting, figuring out how they personally and as a team can improve, and what they would do differently next time. We then restart the simulation with scene 2, which is usually a few hours or days later. Almost universally, after the critical reflection, the students do so much better! This year, I was able to also see that what they learned is a lesson that is maintained over time, when they go into other simulations. 

Critical reflection has been particularly effective tool in my clinical teaching with undergraduate nursing students. A reflective journal is part of their weekly assignment for me, requiring them to reflect on what they saw, did and learned that week. They have to write about what went well and what they would do differently in the future, setting progressively greater goals for their development. One of the keys to success in the critical reflection process, is that there is no "right answer". Students need to be able to be honest and to grow without worrying about how this will impact their grade, and enabling you to constantly guide and motivate them forward in their growth and development.