Learning from Lerner: reflections on facilitating reflective practice

abstract

This article is based on tutors’ experiences of developing and facilitating a module on reflective practice as an assessed element of a distance learning Masters degree programme in Continuing Education. The article refers briefly to some of the literature on reflective practice and takes issue with the idea that its introduction into an academic programme helps to reduce the accountability of the teacher. It notes that reflective practice is rarely an orderly process; unchecked it can lead to two extremes: ‘therapy’ and ‘institutional challenge’. Reference is made to the role of the academic tutor as critical friend in helping students to steer a path between these extremes; and to the difficulties of tutors subsequently assessing students’ work. The article concludes that reflective practice conducted within the constraints of an academic programme may have to focus on development in the cognitive domain. It stresses that tutors who facilitate such work need also to engage in it themselves and to be very open about the nature of their own practice.