David Mitchell
- Jul 26, 2020
- 5 min read

Reflective Practice

Have you ever woken up with an internal voice or thought, “Where are you now?” [1] Have you ever entered a mediation, been in one or afterwards heard the same question? During a mediation have you ever asked a party, “Where are you now?” I have. If you have, welcome to the learning world of Reflection and Reflective Practice.

Reflective Practice is ‘a systematic and conscious process by which we think about or experience what we are doing in practice and why’. [2] This process has been used within management courses, education and learning programs, psychotherapy, social work and medicine as learning has from teaching by rote, example and imitation to self- learning: ‘learning through doing’, ‘learning form experience’.[3]

However, as Arms Almengor cogently outlines, Reflective Practice fits with the learning needs, professionalism and outcomes of mediators. It helps deal with rapid changes, unexpected events, disorder, mis-assumptions, challenging emotions and situations and the professional isolation of many mediators, especially those working as solo practitioners. Twenty years ago, Lang found that: mediators learn the artistry of practice. They learn to take the unexplainable, the seemingly intuitive, and by describing the elements and pieces of knowing and understanding that lead to the "spontaneous, skilful execution of the performance”.[4] Both Arms Almengor and Lang advocate strongly for the inclusion of Reflective Practice in every mediator’s training and continuing professional development. History: the three stages 1. Reflective Practices can be traced back to Confucius, who conceived reflection as combining: a retrospective component (involves hindsight or careful examination of the past and as such draws on previous learning and previously formed beliefs to avoid error) …and a perspective component (foresight, or forward looking, and as such looks to existing beliefs and factors in order to achieve knowledge).[5] 2. Aristotle saw reflection as an essential element of two intellectual virtues: Practical Wisdom/Knowledge and Nous or Intuition. He suggested that what we observe, feel and experience becomes what we know. To this he added the credible opinions and actions of others – scholars, experts, critics, teachers and inspirational figures. With age, continual learning and contemplation/reflection, some of these opinions and knowledge would be discarded and a new understanding, concept or solution would be created within our tacit/implicit knowledge base.

As Aristotle wrote: "As in other cases, we must set out the appearances (phainomena) and run through all the puzzles [by which he meant: questions, changes, ideas, theories....brackets added by author] regarding them. In this way we must prove the credible opinions (endoxa) about these sorts of experiences—ideally, all the credible opinions, but if not all, then most of them, those which are the most important. For if the objections are answered and the credible opinions remain, we shall have an adequate proof."[6]

3. Donald Schön is credited with modern-day Reflective Practice. He wrote that, “the types of problems encountered in the real worlds of practitioners are usually “puzzling, troubling and uncertain”.[6] Schön agrees with Aristotle, in affirming that Reflective Practice must be ongoing, habitual and deep seated. Reflection alone is insufficient. Analysis, changes where necessary and actions must follow. (See Fig.1 Gibbs Model below)

Fig.1 Gibbs Model adapted from Schön (Jorwekar GJ. Int J Res Med Sci. 2017 Apr;5(4):1188-1192.)

Fig. 2 Gibbs explanation of stages in his model …taken from Jorwekar [2|

Schön’s 3 stages of Reflective Practice

Schön initially described two stages in reflection: Reflection-in-action and Reflection-on-action, to which was later added a third, Reflection-for-action. Lang and Arms Almengor suggest that Reflection-on-action is a beginner’s stage consisting of reflection after a mediation. This can be as self-reflection, aided by journal-writing, reading of appropriate, questionnaires or by debriefing/discussion with peers or supervisors. Lang provides excellent guides to this process. Reflection-for-action is thoughtful reflection and planning before an upcoming session/event and helps the mediator balance his/her mood, disposition, assumptions, and any biases, before arriving for the mediation. Mindfulness and meditation are often a part of this stage. Reflection-on-action occurs during the mediation. It can be a wake-up call, an Ah-Ha moment, or an intuitive thought-into-action just when the mediation was stuck (I call this a ‘where did that come from’ moment). Schön thought this was an area for experts. Schön considered reflection-in-action as a way of doing ‘on the spot’ research, action research; being able to both generate a new understanding of the situation and change the situation.

Learning Reflection and Reflective Practices

Reflection, reflectivity, and reflective practice are learnt not taught. Its essence or core lives within us, stored in a database or knowledge bank, as implicit (tacit) knowledge or ‘practical wisdom’. It is part of our singular, unrepeatable uniqueness. In computer terms we are checking the hard drive, defragging it, deleting the junk and reassembling the information into more orderly clusters for retrieval and future processing. This must occur regularly or the computer bogs down or malfunctions. Reflective Practice learning thus is driven by an individual’s drive to function at the best level attainable, and to be able to cope with rapid changes in life, profession, community, culture, and society. It requires regular practice (habituation), using a framework such as Gibb’s model (figs 1 & 2) or Lang’s questionnaires in his book. To that can be added:

Reading on the topic: starting with Arms Almingor’s article or Lang’s e-book.
The web e.g. www.mediate.com or Michael Lang on YouTube
Writing notes, blogging, or keeping a journal
Association with like-minded people
Online community of practice (CoP): Resolution Institute Virtual Practice Groups
Attending appropriate professional development events: e.g. Resolution Institute Zoom webinars and workshops
Self-assessment courses within T.A., Emotional Intelligence, Narrative Theory, Authentic Leadership, and Change Management
Attending Reflectivity courses
Peer group discussion/debriefing
Supervision/mentoring by a trusted expert in Reflective practices
Incorporating Reflectivity into mindfulness or mediation sessions

Conclusion