MAQUINARIA Y EQUIPO Maquina de ordeño 2 puestos
8.5.1 RAZAS DE VACAS PARA LA PRODUCCION DE LECHE
Donald Schön first coined the term ‘reflective practice’ in the mid-1980’s. Since the publication of his seminal work (1983; 1987) many definitions of reflective practice have been proposed across several fields which has resulted in a lack of clarity about terminology and understanding of the concept (Atkins & Murphy, 1993; Bannigan & Moores, 2009; Grimmett, 1988; Mann et al., 2009; Rogers, 2001). In addition, the terms reflection and reflective practice are often conflated
4 The reader is referred to Kinsella (2006, 2007a, 2007b, 2010) for an in-depth discussion of these theoretical underpinnings.
and this contributes to conceptual confusion surrounding interpretations of
reflective practice (Kinsella, 2007a).Schön (1987) describes reflective practice as a form of inquiry by which practitioners make connections between general
knowledge and particular cases when faced with problematic situations. He goes on to describe reflective practice as “a dialogue of thinking and doing through which I become more skillful” (p. 31) or the process of thinking and acting together in the “context of reflective inquiry” (Schön, 1983, p.69). Therefore, reflective practice is a dynamic process.
Other definitions from authors who have discussed the concept of reflective practice include that proposed by Jarvis (1992) where reflective practice is seen as “actions that are carefully planned in relation to the theory known to the professional and consciously monitored, so that outcomes of the action will be beneficial to the patient” (p.177). Reflective practice has also been defined by Osterman and Kottkamp (1993) as the “means by which practitioners can develop a greater level of self awareness about the nature and impact of their performance” (p.19). Another definition by Moon (2004) suggests:
… a form of mental processing – like a form of thinking – that we may use to fulfil a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome or we may simply ‘be reflective’ and then an outcome can be unexpected. Reflection is applied to relatively complicated, ill-structured ideas for which there is not an obvious solution and is largely based on the further processing of knowledge and understanding that we already possess. (p.82)
Essentially, reflective practice draws attention to the process of what practitioners learn through reflection on experience in the midst of complex professional
practices and considers how professional actions are informed and how implicit and explicit professional knowledge is developed.
Closely related to the concept of reflective practice is the process of experiential learning. Kolb depicts such learning as the “process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb, 1984, p.38). Several theoretical conceptualizations of experiential learning directly incorporate processes of reflection (e.g., Dewey, 1933; Kolb, 1984; Mezirow, 1981). For example, the experiential learning process in Kolb’s theory (1984) is described as
a four-phase cycle in which the individual learner: (1) encounters a concrete experience or a specific activity that provides a basis for, (2) observation and reflection on the experience and his or her own response to it; these reflective observations are then (3) transformed into an abstract conceptualization (i.e., they are integrated into a conceptual framework or related to other concepts in the learner's past experience and knowledge from which implications for action can be derived), and then (4) further tested through active experimentation and applied in different situations to make decisions and solve problems. Although Kolb’s experiential learning cycle comprises reflection as one of its four
components (experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation), it is Schön’s theory of reflective practice that distinctively elaborates the process of reflection in professional practice in relation to the generation of professional knowledge. One way to view knowledge derived from practice is to consider an experienced practitioner who helps a novice practitioner to acquire a new skill. The instructions, knowledge, insights, and rationale provided to the learner by the experienced practitioner constitute the kind of critical knowledge that may then lead to appropriate and successful performance in everyday practice. One may not only view this knowledge as a blend of different sources of knowledge, but also as types of knowledge that evolve from clinical situations that are not often found in textbooks or journals.
In his seminal book “The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action”, Schön (1983) explores the different sources of professional knowledge and inquires about the kind of ‘knowing’ in which competent practitioners engage. He contends that ‘technical rationality’ (i.e., the application of scientific theory and technique to the instrumental problems of practice) is important, but that it has been overemphasized (Kinsella, 2007a). He posits that there is a different kind of knowledge embedded in professional practice, one that is different from the kind of knowledge presented in textbooks, scientific papers, and professional journals. In his words, “knowing-in-practice” is often tacit and “competent practitioners usually know more than they can say” (1983, p.viii). Schön subsequently calls for inquiry into the ‘epistemology of practice’, a request for practitioners to attend to,
document, and test models of knowing that arise from reflection both “in and on” practice. He posits reflective practice as a way for practitioners to learn from experience, but also as a way to generate knowledge from practice. Thus, practice itself provides a platform for learning.
Schön’s work pays close attention to knowledge revealed in professional performance. His work calls for an increased consideration of the kind of knowledge that emanates from and is generated through practice. This is of contemporary relevance for many reasons. For example, a number of scholars note that knowledge gained from experience in professional practice remains largely ignored in the contemporary evidence-based health care system (Higgs, Titchen, & Neville, 2001). Higgs and Titchen (2001) argue that a sole emphasis on evidence-based practice may limit the perceived value and consideration of different types of knowledge that clearly are embedded within practice. In the field of Speech-Language Pathology, Beecham (2004) comments that evidence- based practice attributes power to the practitioner as a ‘knower of knowledge’, thus, potentially limiting consideration of the values and preferences of clients which may then be detrimental to optimal care. Also in the field of Speech- Language Pathology, McAllister and Lincoln (2004) discuss the possible loss of competent practitioners to “burnout” as a consequence of the lack of attention to knowledge derived from work and life experience. When such knowledge is neglected or discounted, it may be dehumanizing for both clients and
practitioners; this in turn may influence the quality of care they provide and ultimately the retention of health professionals as practitioners. Reflective
practice draws attention to the various types of professional knowledge as well as to the different, but nevertheless rigorous, ways in which such knowledge informs and may be generated from practice (Schön, 1983, 1987).
In summary, reflective practice is a theory that attends to the centrality of
practitioner experience in the generation of knowledge relevant to practice. The information presented highlights the intimate relationship that exists between the practitioner’s learning processes and his/her reflection through the model of
experiential learning. Reflective practice is a process that recognizes the value of knowledge generated from practice experience and acknowledges such
knowledge as an epistemology of practice. Some have suggested that such knowledge derived from clinical and practice experience should be considered as part of the evidence for evidence-based practice (e.g., Roulstone, 2011). As such, reflective practice has the potential to offer an important complement to evidence-based practice in our conceptualization of professional knowledge. In the next section, I will examine four assumptions about knowledge proposed as being central to understanding the concept of reflective practice.