Scaffolding reflective learning in clinical practice: A comparison of two types of reflective activities

Abstract

Background: The development of reflective learning skills is a continuous process that needs scaffolding. It can be described as a continuum, with the focus of reflection differing in granularity from recent, concrete activities to global competency development.

Aim: To explore learners’ perceptions regarding the effects of two reflective writing activities designed to stimulate reflection at different degrees of granularity during clinical training.

Methods: Totally 142 respondents (students and recent graduates) completed a questionnaire. Quantitative and qualitative data were triangulated.

Results: Immediate reflection-on-action was perceived to be more valuable than delayed reflection-on-competency-development because it facilitated day-to-day improvement. Delayed reflection was perceived to facilitate overall self-assessment, self-confidence and continuous improvement, but this perception was mainly found among graduates. Detailed reflection immediately after a challenging learning experience and broad reflection on progress appeared to serve different learning goals and consequently require different arrangements regarding feedback and timing.

Conclusions: Granularity of focus has consequences for scaffolding reflective learning, with immediate reflection on concrete events and reflection on long-term progress requiring different approaches. Learners appeared to prefer immediate reflection-on-action.

Acknowledgements

We thank the students and recently graduated midwives of the Midwifery department of the University College Arteveldehogeschool Ghent for their participation in this study. We also thank Tracy Embo for translating students’ quotes and Mereke Gorsira for editing the final versions of this manuscript.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.