Chapter

Developing reflective
5
practice

Introduction
Throughout this book, you have been encouraged to think
about your own practice and about the effects it has on your
candidates and their experience. Working in a professional
manner demands a continuous process of reflection, which
involves looking at your practices, ideas and actions, then
evaluating their effectiveness in order to make improvements.

The idea of reflective practice is relatively new, yet it can

improve the quality of your work considerably. This chapter
looks at how you can reflect on what you have learnt
throughout this book, as well as during your time as a trainee
assessor, and what this means for you as a qualified assessor.

The idea of reflection is to consider your actions and evaluate

them, thinking about how they may have influenced those
around you and how you might work differently to benefit your
candidates and to develop your style and methods of working.

In Chapter 3, you looked at how to support your candidates and

encourage them to reflect and evaluate their own learning. This
chapter will help you to do the same with your own learning in
order to fully develop your understanding of the role.

This chapter will help you to understand:

• how to reflect on practice
• how to develop reflective skills
• how to use reflection to challenge existing practice.

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 114 Chapter 5 Developing reflective practice

Reflecting on practice
Reflective practice
Reflecting on your day-to-day practice enables you to analyse
The process of thinking
why and how you do things, and to consider whether other
about and critically
approaches might benefit you and your candidates. Reflective
analysing your actions
practice is used as a model for developing your skills and
with the goal of
making sense of the work you do as an assessor. For example,
changing and improving
you might reflect on a specific underpinning knowledge session
occupational practice.
and consider how you could have taught the information
differently to enable better learning for the candidates.
Effective reflection requires you to be open-minded and to
examine, question and assess your own practice, so as to
develop your skills and knowledge. To develop your skills as
a reflective professional, you should:
• listen openly to the ideas of others
• reflect on your own work and on the work of those
around you
• consider and implement ways to develop your practice.

Experiences Outcome
Reflection
Ideas Better practice
Re-evaluation
Understanding Application

The experience shown in the diagram above may be that of

others as well as yourself, and it indicates the three stages of
the reflection process:

1 think about your experience, understanding and ideas

2 reflect on what you have learnt from this experience
3 identify how this reflection will deliver outcomes and better
practice, and how these will be applied.

Over to you!
Reflective practice
Consider how you have used reflective practice previously and how the reflection changed
your outcomes. Think about how your practice improved and any impact this had on others
around you.

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 Chapter 5 Developing reflective practice 115

Working in this reflective way allows you to take control of your

learning and development as an assessor and to make changes
in your practice that will develop your overall role.
Donald Schön (1996) made a remarkable contribution to
our understanding of the theory and practice of learning.
His theory on reflection-in-action has become part of the
key ideology surrounding reflective learning, particularly the
professional’s ability to think on their feet. Schön wrote a series
of books around the processes and development of reflective
practitioners.
This ability to understand and change the situation is one
which develops over time, as you become more confident in
your own judgement. You will begin to reflect with the speed
and spontaneity required by each situation, and make quick
decisions as and when required. As a reflective practitioner, you
would then make time to carefully consider the situation and
response after the event, and question your actions by asking
the following questions.
• What action did I take that worked, and why?
• What action did I take that did not work, and why?
• What could I have done differently, and how will I ensure
that I do this next time a similar situation arises?
Schön describes this as reflecting on your knowledge-
in-practice.
This preparation allows you to be prepared should the same
event, or one similar, occur in the future. It entails evaluating
your initial actions and determining what action you might take
next time.

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 116 Chapter 5 Developing reflective practice

The best person to help you to work effectively within your role
is yourself. Being a reflective practitioner means being aware
of your limitations and the gaps in your knowledge, as well as
your strengths and qualities.

Case study Dave Smith

Dave has been an assessor for a private training provider for two years. He thoroughly enjoys
his work with the 16–18-year-old age group, but wants to take on more responsibility. His
manager has asked him to attend a briefing day for internal verifiers with a view to his taking
the V1 qualification. Dave is unsure of whether or not he wants to go. Although he feels
ready for more responsibility, he is not sure if he is ready to be an internal verifier.
Dave agrees to go along to the briefing day and, while there, he enjoys learning about the
quality assurance processes and standardisation. He feels more confident and aware of an
internal verifier’s role and responsibilities. He realises that his lack of understanding was
probably affecting the way he worked with his candidates and internal verifier. Dave asks
his line manager if he can attend a further course on quality assurance.
Think about . . .
1 Why is Dave becoming a reflective practitioner?
2 How might he benefit from becoming more aware of his practice?
3 How will Dave’s candidates benefit from his deeper understanding?

Table 1 demonstrates how reflective practice can develop your

work further.

Table 1 How reflective practice can develop your work further

Addressing candidates’ needs
Working with colleagues
Your role with your candidates
Planning candidates’ learning
Working with external agencies
By thinking about the way you have responded to your
candidates’ individual needs, you can develop new
strategies.
Reflecting on the way you interact with colleagues can
help you to create better relationships. This can help
you to enjoy your work more.
By thinking about the effectiveness of the way you work
with candidates, you can tailor your approach to suit their
needs and interests.
By considering the effectiveness of your plans, you can
help to develop new systems of planning and recording
that are faster and more effective.
By thinking through how you work with external agencies,
you may be able to develop stronger partnerships.

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Benchmarks
Best practice
Good practice requires time to evolve and develop and it is
benchmarks
therefore important to evaluate your performance against
Standards that are widely
best practice benchmarks. This is why it is essential that
agreed as providing the
you continuously update your professional competence and
most advanced,
undertake training to ensure that you are aware of changes in
up-to-date thinking and
legislation and standards.
practice against which
you can measure what you
Developing reflective skills are doing (not minimum
standards). They may
In order to fully develop your skills as a reflective practitioner,
be statutory/regulatory
you need to question what you do and why you do it, rather
or based on other
than just doing what you have been told to do. You may find it
requirements or research.
helpful to consider the different elements of your job role and
to look at them individually.
There may be times when you feel you are making good
progress and working efficiently. At these times, you should
ensure you think about what it is that is working well. What
skills or knowledge have assisted your work? Are there any
particular practices within your setting which have helped you
to work successfully? Considering these things will allow you
to reflect on the progress you are making and what it is that
is helping you to progress. You may also have days where
you feel nothing is going right. Again, you should consider
why this is. Is it a lack of knowledge, lack of resources or poor
understanding that has made things difficult for you? Are there
certain practices within the setting that are difficult to conform
with and, if so, could you come up with alternative methods of
working?

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 118 Chapter 5 Developing reflective practice

The diagram below demonstrates how you might approach

reflective analysis.

Keep an open mind Avoid assuming

that a different way of working will
not work and be ready to have a go
at changing the way you work

View things from different perspectives Seek alternatives

Consider different people’s points of view, Explore and research
including those of children, parents different ways of working
and other staff

Think about consequences Think about Question the way that you do things
how changing practice might affect other Are some things done in a certain way
aspects of your work (e.g changing Reflective simply because that is how they have
routines may affect parents, children analysis always been done?
and colleagues)

Identify and resolve problems

Test ideas Try out new Be proactive in making things work
practices or visit settings and taking a problem-solving
that work in contrasting ways approach to any difficulties

Ask ‘what if?’ Be confident enough Synthesise ideas Be ready

to try out new ideas and to think to look at ideas and then
about things in different ways adapt them to work in your setting

By using reflective processes as a tool for development, you

will not only move forward in your own thinking, but may also
support your colleagues to do the same.
You may occasionally find areas where there is only one
appropriate response or approach; however, these are rare, as
working with people demands flexibility and understanding
of others’ needs. The ability to reflect means considering
other opportunities, approaches and possibilities, even if
they are strange and unfamiliar. You may have come across
professionals or colleagues who do not appear to like change
and who say, ‘But this is the way we’ve always done it.’ It is
important to recognise where things are going well; however,
it is also important to understand that new curricula have been
developed as well as new legislation and theories.

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Case study College inspection

A local FE college recently went through its annual inspection. Overall the results were good,
but the sector leader of the childcare department, Sally, was disappointed to find that their
work with candidates with individual needs was only graded as satisfactory. Sally felt that
this was a real strength. The staff in the childcare department had worked very hard and
prided themselves on their hard work and dedication. Sally’s first reaction was to blame the
inspectors but, after a couple of days, she began to consider the practice within the team.
She realised that there had been very little staff training or development on working with
candidates with additional needs, and the Additional Needs Policy had not been updated for
some years. The reason why this area had been overlooked was mainly that she had assumed
that it was a strong area.

Think about . . .
1 Why is it important to regularly review your work?
2 How might the sector and the wider college benefit from reviewing this area of work?
3 How might individual staff benefit from focusing on this area of work?
4 What might be the benefits to the candidates?

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Over to you!
The reflection process
Look into how your centre has changed over the last five years and consider the reflection
processes that might have been carried out in order to make these changes.

Using reflection to challenge

existing practice
Working within the training and development sector allows you
to work alongside colleagues and professionals, rather than in
isolation. For this reason, you may need to consult with others
before changing and developing your own practice. This may
involve using tact and diplomacy, as other staff may feel happy
with their current practice.
You could begin by talking through your ideas with your
internal verifier or line manager, asking for their opinions and
support with implementing any changes. You could agree to
review and evaluate any changes that you make so that their
effects can be discussed with the rest of the assessment and
verification team. Staff meetings or standardisation meetings
may be a good place to present your ideas and proposals.

Keys to good practice

Challenging existing practice
• Talk through changes with the rest of the team.
• Listen to others’ concerns and ideas.
• Explain reasons for and benefits of changing practice.
• Avoid making personal comments.
• Review and evaluate changes to practice.
Adapted from S/NVQ Level 3 Handbook in Children’s
Care, Learning and Development, published by
Heinemann

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 Chapter 5 Developing reflective practice 121

Over to you!
Are you a reflective practitioner?
As you have seen, it is important to reflect on your own practice. Take a look at the
statements below to assess whether or not you are a reflective practitioner. You might like to
use this task with your candidates, as the statements all refer to the Performance Criteria for
CCLD Level 3, Unit 304.1.

Table 2 Are you a reflective practitioner?

Statement Always Sometimes Never

I monitor my processes, practices and the
outcomes from my work.
I evaluate my own performance using best
practice benchmarks.
I reflect on my interactions with others.
I share my reflections with others and use
their feedback.
I use reflection to solve problems.
I use reflection to improve my practice.

Listening to others can provide you with vital information to

assist you in reflecting upon your own practice. You should
aim to listen carefully to feedback, and not become defensive
or take the feedback personally. The key focus is to improve
practice.
Being a reflective professional requires you to take the time to
consider your work, reflect on its objectives and evaluate its
outcomes. You should be learning from your experiences and
applying this newfound knowledge to future situations. This is
exactly the same message as the one you will be trying to send
to your candidates while you support them through their award
and encourage them to become reflective practitioners too.

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Check your understanding

As you have reached the end of this chapter, you may find it
useful to consolidate all that you have learnt by answering the
following questions. You will find suggested answers in the
back of the book on page 185.

1 What is meant by the term ‘reflective practitioner’?

2 Why is it important to continuously update your skills and
knowledge?
3 Give two ways in which you might gain feedback about your
practice.
4 How might colleagues benefit from reflective practice?
5 How might your candidates benefit from reflective practice?
6 List three things you might do to develop your skills as a
reflective practitioner.
7 What are the three stages of the reflection process?

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