Reflections on Reflectivity: Implications for Supervisors

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Reflections on Reflectivity Implications for
Supervisors

• Rod Goodyear
• Rossier School of Education
• University of Southern California
• goodyea_at_usc.edu

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Foundational observations
1. Supervisors are responsible for (a) fostering
supervisee development and (b) monitoring the
quality of their work.
2. This level of external support and monitoring
typically ceases upon licensure when the person
can practice independently.
3. Therefore, we need to enable the supervisee to
function without us to be self-sustaining
(Lowe, 2000) or self regulating. to
self-supervise
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Self-Supervision..
involves assessing, modifying, and monitoring
ones professional skills and enables
counselors and counseling trainees alike in
recognizing and changing ineffective response
patterns and improving their clinical skills
(Dennin Ellis, 2003, p. 69)
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Examined Practice
Socrates The unexamined life is not worth living
Can be amended to
An unexamined professional life is not worth
being engaged in (and likely is unethical)
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How we Get There Experiential Learning
In all professions novices attain mastery of
their craft through experiential learning (i.e.,
the use of first-hand experience as the vehicle
for learning).
That learning should integrate the persons
actual experience with the phenomena of interest
with more formally learned knowledge (e.g.,
psychological science psychotherapy theory).
Dewey (1938) "all genuine education comes
through experience" (p. 25).
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Two Models for Fostering Experiential Learning
1. Feedback-driven model
2. Reflection-driven model
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The Feedback-Driven Model
In House of Cards, Dawes (1994) asserted two
conditions for experiential learning
1. a clear understanding of what constitutes an
incorrect response or error in judgment and
2.immediate, unambiguous and consistent feedback
when such errors are made.
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The Feedback Driven Model Feedback
A term borrowed from electrical engineering by
Kurt Lewin
(a) information provided to a person
(b) from an external source
(c) about the persons behavior or its effects.
Feedback has
A descriptive component heres what I see you
doing
An evaluative component heres how well I see
you doing it
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The Reflection-Driven Model
A person becomes aware of uncomfortable feelings
and thoughts in response to a concrete experience
The person critically analyzes his or her
thoughts, feelings and knowledge salient to that
experience
The person forms a new perspective on that
experience
Other terms such as meta-cognition or self
regulation Also are used to describe this process
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Loganbill, Hardy, Delworth
Integration
Stagnation
Confusion
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Ellis and Kagan video
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Reflectivity is not discovery learning
In discovery learning, the person approaches the
situation as a blank slate and then discovers
the meaning of that situation -- and so two
different people might reach two very different
conclusions in looking at the same phenomena
Mayer (2004) concluded that the research evidence
would make any reasonable person skeptical about
the benefits of discovery learning.as a
preferred instructional method (p. 14).
In considering reflectivity, Schön suggested that
the situation will talk to you. But he assumed
that the person would have a developed framework
though which to understand that conversation.
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Neufeldt et al (1996) Sources of Understanding
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Reflection is not merely thinking about something
Thinking is not necessarily directional nor does
it need to have a particular quality or outcome
In reflecting, though, the person pays deliberate
attention to his or her experience, critically
analyzing feelings and observations
Its intended outcome is a new perspective about
the particular situation the person initially
found puzzling or surprising
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Neufeldt et al (1996) Stance

• Reflective Stance
• ----------------------------
• Intention
• Active inquiry
• Opening to understanding
• Vulnerability versus

• Nonreflective Stance
• -----------------------------
• Lack of purpose
• Lack of questioning
• Search for verification
• Defensive self protection

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What supervisors teach in the two models
In the feedback-driven model, the supervisors
role is to teach the trainee the craft
In the reflection-driven model, the supervisors
role is not only to teach the craft, but also to
teach the trainee how to learn from his or her
experience.
Give a person a fish you have fed him or her
for today.  Teach a person to fish and you have
fed him or her for a lifetime
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The Focus of Supervision Bernards Model
Skills and strategies
Personhood issues
Reflection on
Conceptualization(s)
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An Elaborated Reflection Model
Schöns temporal conception
Types of Experience
Reflection Process
Skills/Strategies
Awareness of uncomfortable feelings and thoughts
in response to a concrete experience. Awareness
can focus on
Personhood
Conceptualization
Reflection on action
Critical analysis of thoughts, feelings and
knowledge salient to that experience
Reflection in action thinking on your feet
A new perspective on that experience
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Feedback and Reflection-Driven Models as
Complementary
Both models provide essential learning
Feedback-based learning is more prominent
earlier reflection- based learning is more
prominent later.
In fact, it is reasonable to assert that
feedback-based learning lays the groundwork for
reflection-based learning
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Feedback and Reflectivity Models A Developmental
Perspective
Novice
Expert
Feedback-driven model supervisor as teacher
Reflectivity-driven model supervisor as
consultant
Self-Supervision
passive role for supervisee
active role for supervisee
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Framing a Problem to Examine
Reflective Thought
New Understanding Of the Problem
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Models of the Reflective Process
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Motivation Attitudes
Knowledge Skills
Knowledge of what to expect from this situation
Framing a Problem to Examine
Self awareness
Curiosity
How to seek/use data
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Motivation Attitudes
Knowledge Skills
Theory, research and other formal knowledge
Skepticism
Reflective Thought
Accrued clinical wisdom
Willingness to ask nonconfirmatory questions
Feedback from others
Skill in integrating all this