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This paper aims to contribute to an understanding of how individual characteristics and perceived contextual conditions shape reflection in professional work, particularly in workplaces that provide a variety of work experiences related to changes. The authors examine the effects of personal initiative, self-efficacy and perceived psychological safety in work relations with colleagues and supervisors on individuals’ reflection at work.

A sample of 84 client advisors who had recently been affected by major changes in retail banking workplaces participated in the study. The participants completed a questionnaire consisting of instruments to map their self-rated personal initiative, self-efficacy beliefs, reflection at work and perception of psychological safety in work relations with colleagues and supervisors. The data were analysed by performing correlation analyses and hierarchical regression analyses.

The results revealed that both individuals’ personal initiative and self-efficacy significantly positively affect reflection at work. An individual’s perception of psychological safety – particularly among peers – positively predicts reflection.

This paper enriches the research on reflection in professional work, particularly against the backdrop of workplace changes. This is done by emphasising the power of individuals’ proactive role and initiative-taking work behaviour; positive beliefs in their own capabilities, e.g. managing the various opportunities involved in workplace changes; and their perception of a psychologically safe environment within a work group that is characterised by interpersonal trust, mutual respect and supportive cooperation.

The purpose of this paper is to ask how we can think about critical reflection as a pedagogical practice given the “confessional turn”. By the “confessional turn” the author refers to the idea that “subjective, autobiographical and confessional modes of expression” have expanded exponentially across a wide range of social spheres, including education, the legal system, the media and the workplace. Examining these developments, this paper asks what these debates on critical reflection and confession mean for pedagogical practice.

The main approach is a review of key debates in the literature on critical reflection and also in the wider social sciences.

The discussion compares different debates. Thus it shows that for critics, the turn to the “first person” technologies is narcissistic, psychologistic and de‐politicising. On this view, critical reflective practice might be understood as an individualistic and individualising pedagogy in spite of its claims to be critical. The paper discusses how in contrast, others see this move to talk about the subjective and the self as an extension of the feminist project of the personal is political – i.e. that personal stories, feelings and issues have social and political roots and consequences. For them, reflection can be critical, leading to political consciousness‐raising, i.e. a new awareness about social, political and personal processes. It finishes by examining the view that the idea of reflexivity might help us out of the conflict between these debates.

The paper poses a number of questions in relation to critical reflection that can be taken up by practitioners in the field.

The paper brings new literature to bear on the practice of critical reflection and raises important questions relevant to academics and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to explore ways in which learning and development (L&D) professionals use reflective practice to promote the function of L&D and their own professional growth. The claim that L&D practitioners need to develop their reflective ability to make sense of their own practice is well-argued in the literature, but few studies focus on an in-depth individual self-reflection and its impact on professional growth.

An autoethnography and reflective practice design was deployed. The data was collected by sending a semi-structured, pre-set question as a ‘reflective conversation’ to an L&D manager and a 10-hour tape recording of personal reflection over three months.[AQ1] Data was sanitised, transcribed and edited, and a narrative data analysis method was used to analyse the data developed into reflective narratives.

The authors find that reflective practice emerges through gradual reflective patterns that define the circumstances surrounding the reflection, the content, exploration and interpretation and confirming the fulfilling of the reflection.

This paper offers the journey of an L&D manager working in the hotel industry in India. Through a set of reflective practices, including introspection and reflexivity, the manager considers the changes she has experienced. The paper contributes to the literature on reflective practice based on promoting the L&D function as an essential part of the horizontal integration of human resource management in organisations. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This chapter analyzes one teacher educator’s development of a pedagogy of reflection over a period of 25 years. My personal interpretation of the meaning of reflective practice leads to seven principles of a pedagogy of reflection that focus on relationship, listening, metacognition, modeling, and learning from experience. Justification of my pedagogy of reflection includes an account of books that influenced my development as a teacher educator and the insights gained from living and teaching in a different culture. Excerpts from and discussion of the work of two preservice teachers illustrate my pedagogy of reflection and emphasize the importance of replying supportively to each individual who shows awareness of the unique learning process involved in becoming a teacher. The research methodology of Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices supported the development of my pedagogy of reflection and helped me to overcome the conditions that can constrain that development.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of creative activity and storytelling in assisting development of students’ reflective ability and critical thinking.

Eight biomedical science students undertaking year-long work-based placements took part in this action research study. A coding scheme was designed to assess students’ reflections initially and at each stage of the study. Intervention activities involved students using mood boards, images and storytelling to assist development of creative learning spaces with a thematic approach employed to analyse both personal and collective reflections. Post-intervention evaluation considered possible long-term impact on students’ reflective ability.

Students’ pre-intervention reports showed little reflection focusing mainly on competence demonstration and descriptive situation summaries. During the intervention workshops, all students demonstrated both identification of self as a practitioner and a critically reflective approach. However, this was not maintained long term as initial post-intervention reports tended to revert to a more descriptive style of writing suggesting longer-term support is required.

The importance of further research into the long-term usefulness of creative collaborative learning spaces in work-based programmes is suggested.

This is the first study investigating the approach to supporting critical reflection during work placement in biomedical scientists. It is suggested that the current competence-based training programme provides limited opportunities for developing and embedding critical reflection. Where opportunities are provided, such as creative learning spaces, students’ critical reflection was greatly enhanced. However, it appears essential that this approach is maintained throughout training as critically reflective skills developed during collaborative learning have limited transferability to subsequent reflective report writing.

The purpose of this paper is to study how reflection affects the teacher change with a focus on teaching practices under education reforms in Hong Kong.

This study adopted narratives as the research design to unveil the contents of teachers’ reflection and how the contents affect their change in teaching practices under education reforms.

The study finds that teachers’ reflection starts with completion of curriculum (“technical level”), then consideration of students’ learning needs (“practical level”) and finally, the social justice and equality (“critical level”). The levels of reflection teachers engage have significant influence on their change. The higher the level of reflection teachers have, the more motivated the teachers to explore new teaching practices not only for the learning needs of students in classroom but also for the society outside classroom.

This study underlines the value of reflection in the process of teacher change in their teaching practices.

To describe the use of a Composer’s Cut video as a tool for reflecting on and celebrating one’s experience creating multimodal compositions for personal and social audiences.

Two adolescents designed and produced digital video stories about their prior experience composing a webpage and a multimodal literary analysis hypertext in response to the Vietnam war novel, The Things They Carried.

Each student remixed Camtasia screen capture video, class video, and images, enhanced with text overlays and music, to showcase their unique vision as a multimodal designer and to highlight their composing processes. They viewed the Composer’s Cut video as a powerful vehicle for reflection and appreciated that their videos would have a public audience.

Reflection often tends to be oral or written. Digital video supports students in showing, as well as telling their experience through multiple modes. The Composer’s Cut video is one example of how video might be used for reflection that is both personal and social.

Reflection covers both the cognitive process and the broad range of activities that enhance learning resulting from experience. While much of what we know about reflection is rooted in experiential learning, leadership education programs which frame leadership as an experience could benefit from a richer understanding of the role of reflection in students’ learning. The purpose of this study was to discover how students perceived the role of reflection. This study explored the function of reflection in the formal classroom setting and co-curricular experiences. Findings reveal students make a deep connection between leadership learning and reflection, prefer contemplation to written reflection, and struggle with forced reflections.

The purpose of this paper is first, to test the validity of a new scale measuring the construct of meaning‐making, defined as the ability to integrate challenging or ambiguous situations into a framework of personal meaning using conscious, value‐based reflection. Second, to explore whether meaning‐making is distinct from other personal resources (self‐efficacy, optimism, mastery, meaning in life), and coping (positive reinterpretation, acceptance). Third, to explore whether meaning‐making facilitates work engagement, willingness to change, and performance during organizational change.

Cross‐sectional survey‐data were collected from 238 employees in a variety of both public and private organizations.

Confirmatory factor analyses showed that meaning‐making can be distinguished from other personal resources, coping and meaning in life. Regression analyses showed that meaning‐making is positively related to in‐role performance and willingness to change, but not to work engagement, thereby partly supporting the hypotheses.

The paper focuses on meaning‐making that has not yet been studied empirically in organizational change settings. It shows that the new construct of psychological meaning‐making is related to valuable employee outcomes including in‐role performance and willingness to change. Meaning‐making explains variance over and above other personal resources such as self‐efficacy, optimism, mastery, coping and meaning in life.

The purpose of this paper is to provide first-hand reflective narratives from participants of their involvement in the overall process, with particular reference to the benefits and challenges of engagement.

Five participants agreed to write a reflective piece of approximately 500 words on their involvement in the PhotoVoice project.

The reflective narratives in this paper demonstrate the personal and professional benefits of sustained and meaningful engagement, while challenges such as power imbalances, identity management, time and cost commitments are discussed.

PhotoVoice is a methodology that has the potential to democratise knowledge production and dissemination.

There are scant examples in the PhotoVoice literature of the inclusion of participants involvement in dissemination activities. The reflective narratives in this paper demonstrate the personal and professional benefits of sustained and meaningful engagement, while challenges such as power imbalances, identity management, time and cost commitments are discussed.