Introduction
Reflective Practice is an important skill to learn throughout a social workers career. Reflective Practice is the ‘process of learning through and from experience’ in regard to different insights on an individual and their practice. (Boud et al, 1985; Boyd and Falees, 1983; Mezirow, 1981; Jarvis, 1992) In social work, reflective practice is a valuable skill to perform, as it allows an individual to learn. Throughout their career, social workers can use reflective practice in a variety of ways, depending on the situation and the amount of time they have, to help them better understand their own developmental process. This essay will be exploring the different definitions relating to reflective practice such as; reflexivity and critical reflection. It will also look at the importance of reflective practice in social work practice, and the different theories of reflection that an individual may come across during their social work career.
What is Reflective Practice
Reflective Practice is used across many professionals, as a way to continue the learning process once in the workplace. This is no exception to Social Workers, who use this technique alongside Nurses, Teachers, Managers, and many other professions. The main aim of doing this is so that social workers can ‘gain new understandings and so improve future practice. This is understood as part of the process of life-long learning.’ (Finaly, 2008, p.1) This is a good way of understanding how to apply knowledge that is learned in courses, in practical situations and for the social worker to self-reflect on how successful their application of the knowledge is. This approach originally came from a Civil Rights Campaigner, who has been involved in social work practices throughout his life, called John Dewey. He believed that reflection was a special type of thinking and that it uniquely is related to directly experiencing a situation. One of Dewey’s main arguments involved the fact that individuals ‘think the problem towards formulating hypotheses in trial and error reflective situations and the use these to plan action, testing out our ideas.’ (Finlay, 2003, p.3) Reflective Practice is an approach to practice that helps to promote ongoing professional development, using techniques to not only reflect on oneself but the way in which social workers provide a service to members of society. This process involves learning from experience, which in social work can often seem like the only possible solution to learning about different situations that will be presented in practice. Borton (1970) developed a framework for reflective practice, which consisted of three questions to answer; ‘What? So What? Now What?’ (Lucas, 2012) This was seen to be easy to remember for practitioners, so it was simple to incorporate time to reflect during their days. Social Work Students can use this to determine what went well on placements, how this went well and what they should do in the future to improve their practice, which will help them become more rounded practitioners and allow them to continue their development throughout their placements.
Critical Reflection is another theoretical reflective practice, that is commonly used by social workers during their professional career. Critical Reflection is the act of going into a more analytical process and looking into the reason behind why certain things happen. Social Workers often use this to help provide reasoning for the behaviors and thoughts a service user is presenting. Thompson and Pascal (2012) helped to develop critically reflective practice, which involved going beyond the boundaries and forming a better-informed view of the situation. They believed that in order to successfully achieve a critically reflective practice, social workers would need to develop a critical approach to practice, as well as taking into account of time considerations and the emotional dimension of reflection. During these reflections, it is important to use empowering ways, practitioners engage in order to empower, therefore it is important the reflections mirror this. This type of reflection goes beyond the situation itself but looks at social and cultural influences on the situation, which can help in professions such as social work, where practitioners may need to explore different areas of a service users life, to provide the best support possible. An example of this in social work practice would be that a young person has been causing some problems at home and school, whilst trying to explore the different causes of their behavior, it has become clear that recently a youth club has closed down in the neighborhood. This would be included, when doing an assessment on what has gone wrong in the home, as this would be an influence on the individual and can provide a more accurate picture of the situation.
Reflective Practice can often be confused with other reflective terms such as reflexivity, which is also used in social work practice although there is a clear difference between the two. Reflexivity ‘is the process of becoming self-aware’ (Mills, Durepos and Wiebe, 2010) this process allows individuals to reflect on their thoughts and behaviors in different situations, to better understand themselves. This can be particularly useful when in practice, as when social workers understand their own behaviors, they can become aware of how they may influence others and our perspective on others. In Social Work, it is beneficial to have a good sense of self and be able to understand the way in which our thoughts and feelings impact our practice. It is also important that social workers become aware of their ability to work with other individuals, that are often different to themselves, this is also a benefit of the reflexivity approach. During situations with service users, a social worker may benefit from reflecting on themselves, regarding how they are impacting a situation with somebody. Often as social workers, there are uncomfortable meetings with service users, and without knowing practitioners can create barriers so having this understanding would mean that they could put measures in place to stop this from happening in future situations.
Why is it important?
Reflective Practice is extremely important for social work practice and can be helpful in understanding ourselves and others. It allows individuals to continue to develop their professional and personal skills, through different life experiences. Kolb (1984) developed a key model for reflection, called the experiential learning model. This model was originally created with the intention of teachers being able to use this, but other professions have used this model and adapted it to suit the needs of that particular career. It is likely, that during social work practice, an individual will use this model to help reflect the different situations that they come across. The Idea of this model involves looking at four main sections of reflecting; Reflect, Conclude, Plan and Do. Once this has completed, the cycle repeats and you continue to do the same, giving the sense that reflection is an ongoing process that can help with long-term development. Gibbs (1988) added to Kolb’s Model and created 5 main stages of the cycle. This was the ‘Learning by Doing’ Model and involved; Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Conclusions and Action Plans. Gibbs believed it was important for individuals to be in touch with their feelings, and that it was important to take care of themselves in order for them to progress. Therefore, he made sure to include feelings onto the cycle, with the importance of taking a break and implementing self-care being prioritized. Through the Learning by Doing Cycle, it is easy for those to understand the different situations they have been in, and how their actions affected the situation, allowing them to make improvements if needed.
As Social Workers, it is also a part of the Britain Association of Social Work Values and is one of the responsibilities that all social workers agree to perform, therefore as part of their professional responsibility Social Workers are expected to reflect regularly in practice. This can be through a variety of different methods, and it is important to record the outcome of reflections accurately depending on the situation and agency that they are working for. PCF 6, on the Social Work Standards, involves Critical Reflection and Analysis, which in order to be able to climb the ladder of social work employment, individuals will need a basic understanding of, and be able to demonstrate skills involved in reflecting. This represents how important critical reflection and reflective practice is to social work placements. It is a fundamental skill, that allows social workers a different perspective in piecing together different pieces to achieve a full view at a situation.
During Placements, Social Work students are required to keep an updated journal regarding their different experiences on placements and reflecting on themselves and the practice they provided, this helps to ensure that the student is continuing to learn throughout their placement and develop through experiences. This type of reflection is also encouraged throughout the career, reinforcing how important it is to regularly reflect on an individual and their practice, so that the individual can provide the best care possible for service users.
Overall, Reflective Practice is one of the key learning experiences during Social Work and is important in order to keep a practitioner’s development throughout their career. This is enforced during the Social Work Standards, and it is expected that practitioners engage in reflective practice regularly so that they can maintain a high level of practice.
Criticism of Reflection
Although, reflection is often seen as a good thing and something that is necessary for good practice, there are some theorists that believe that reflection can be bad for professionals to use and believe that there are still limits to reflecting. One of the main criticisms of reflection is the dark side of reflection theory (Finlay, 2008) who argued that professionals are often too busy to complete reflective tasks, as they are often things that take up a lot of time and effort. This is particularly the case when working in a child protection team where time can be difficult to find, therefore it may be more difficult to reflect on the different situations in practice. They also argue that the social work frameworks can become a routine rather than something that is a meaningful practice and therefore loses the importance, as it is often seen as a checkbox during a visit. Reflective Practice should not take away from the actual practice that is taking place in a social work setting, and the support the service user is getting. Therefore, they believe that social workers should be able to help assist and support service users rather than spend too much time reflecting on their practice skills. There is also evidence to suggest that reflective practice is not able to be forced, Hobbs (2007) discussed this with ‘Faking it or hating it’ and it is important to remember that reflection is a very personal process and that individual’s need to feel safe in order to engage with the process. It, therefore, could have different effects depending on the individual, and how comfortable they are with reflecting on themselves and their practices. Smith and Lev-Ari (2005) and Roberts (1998) also researched the consequences of reflective practice being forced upon people, and the effectiveness of this. In their findings, they found that students who were taking part in teacher training, had negative attitudes towards the exercises that required reflection, as this was forced upon them and they were unable to complete this in a safe, comfortable space.
How might a social worker engage in reflective activities
There are many ways in which a social worker could engage in reflective activities, depending on the type of work they are completing and how much time they have available. They can do these tasks by Reflecting on Action or Reflecting in Action which can often have two different pathways in the way in which a social worker carries out a reflection (Schon, 1983).
Reflection on Action involves doing the reflection after the situation and reflecting back on what happened and why it happened. This can often be done in a variety of ways such as reflective journals or diaries, where a social worker speaks about what happened and their thoughts and feelings behind the action. An example of this in practice would be, if a service user had a meeting with a service user regarding their current situation, they could then leave the meeting and reflect on it later that evening, by writing a reflective journal entry about what happened in the meeting, what went well and why it went well or did not go so well. This would allow them to reflect on the support the service user received, as well as be aware of the difficulties they faced so that in future they can prevent the same barriers from getting in the way. Discussion with collogues after difficult situations can also be a great way for social workers to reflect on situations they have experienced, although remembering to keep within the Data Protection Laws against Confidentiality. This will allow them to explore alternative options, as well as evaluate what they did or did not do so well during the situation so that they can improve in the future with the help of those around them.
Reflection in Action refers to the different reflections that an individual can do whilst in practice, to make improvements during the practice. This would refer to social workers completing ongoing reflections during a meeting with a service user. This can involve thinking about what the next action would be, and where the different questions could lead, to help improve the way in which the session is going. This type of reflection can be extremely limited when in practice due to the barriers practitioners build to avoid the emotional impacts of the role and concerns they experience. (Ferguson, 2018) Reflecting in Action can include planning for the interviews or assessments, that social workers are taking part in so that they are able to ask questions and lead on from the response. It is important that this takes place so that the social workers are prepared to have difficult conversations with service users and be able to find a mutually agreed solution. During a Foster Placement Assessment, this could involve the social worker preparing activities to complete during the assessment, and questions that they would be able to ask in order to get the best result. This type of reflection should help social workers reach an action plan for further action, weighing up the different outcomes of the situation as well as the needs of the individual at the present moment. For example, if a social worker planned before an assessment, and used the reflection techniques to help them guide the conversation and remove any barriers that were being presented during the assessment, this would be helpful to get an accurate picture of the family and assessment being taken.
Another way in which social workers can use Reflection during Practice is by applying Gibb’s Model of Reflection to social work scenarios, as mentioned earlier, this model is separated into different stages of Reflection. Whilst using this model, the practitioner can go through the different stages, in order to learn the most out of the situation, starting with identifying the goals of the family, making sure to identify what is working well with the family or not working so well, and why this is happening. This allows the social workers to eliminate different options to make sure that they are making the right changes to suit the family or child’s needs. It is common practice, during social work placements, to be required to undertake a Social Work Journal. This allows Social Work Students to keep an ongoing reflection on the different tasks that they complete during their placements, as well as what they have learned throughout their practice. Many Social Workers continue on this practice as, although timely, reflective journaling is a way to engage in the different lessons that have been provided as a result of the practitioner’s experiences. However, this method can be difficult to use during everyday practice, as it often requires focus and time, which can be rare to have as a practicing social worker.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, Reflective Practice is the act of learning through experience during different practical situations, this reflection can be in regard to oneself, or in regard to the practice that an individual provides. It is used throughout Social Work Practices, as one of the key methods of developing a practitioner’s skill set. It is also included in the main social work standards by the HCPC, that all social workers must conform to, in order to maintain the registered job title. There are many ways a social worker can engage in Reflective Practice such as; Reflection on Action, Reflection in Action and using different techniques such as diaries or journals to reflect on their everyday practices. As Students, Social Workers are taught the importance of engaging with Reflective Practice, with it being mandatory at placement level, and encouraged throughout an individual’s social work career.