Clinicians use reflection to provide a space for students to connect with their experiences, inform their decision-making process, and gain a deeper understanding of the self and others. Reflection is one of the “signature” tools of the clinical pedagogy. Numerous clinicians have written about reflection, emphasizing the connection to the development of skills, values and professional judgment.
The idea of advancing justice in our current environment demands an update to even the best tools we have used, including our use of reflection. In a world where our students, our clients, and ourselves confront regular assaults on our individual and collective well-being, we must develop new modes of thinking and acting that will aid our quest for justice.
This session aims to refresh our thinking about reflection. The first part of the session will review “old” ideas about reflection - our recollections - from journaling to staged models of reflection. The second part of the session invites “new” thinking about reflection, including recent improvements to our understanding of mindfulness and well-being, and the use of different media, such as video or audio, to enhance the reflective capacity of students and teachers. The third part of the session will feature an interactive exercise where participants develop a new approach to reflection based on specific characteristics of each participant’s experiential program.