Authenticity in Reflection: Building Reflective Skills for Social Work

Abstract

This article reports on a collaborative pilot study that aimed to improve final year social work students' capacity to reflect on the learning process through the use of an online journal. The ability to reflect on practice is widely regarded as a key skill in social work and journals are seen as a valuable aid in the process. At the same time, there are legitimate reservations about the authenticity of some learning through reflection, given the difficulties of measurement and the potential for dissimulation. Traditional journaling also has a number of limitations and is open to a superficial approach. Students and the social work teacher in this study found that factors such as immediacy, intimacy and convenience of online access improved both the quality of journaling and its recognition as an authentic learning tool, with life-long applicability. The indications are that reflective practices need to be taught in one academic course only as the processes are highly portable and independent of specific content. Asynchronous online journaling, however, should be accompanied by opportunities for students to engage in interactive activities with their peers in order to consolidate their learning and validate their experiences.

Keywords:

• Social Work
• Journals
• Online
• Reflection

Notes

^[1] We retain the use of the term critical reflection in this article as it was applied throughout the research project. More recently, however, Ruch (2005) has suggested convincingly that reflection can be re-categorised into two main groupings—technical and holistic reflective practice, with the relationship-based and risk-tolerant nature of the latter being emphasised.