Compare and contrast two theory of reflective practice Free Essay Example, 2000 words

Compare and contrast 2 models Graham Gibbs and Chris John theories of reflective practice. Reflective practice involves throwing back thoughts and memories and cognitive actions such as contemplation, thinking, viewing past experiences objectively, empathy, valuing past strengths and weakness are involved (Taylor, 2000). Through refection, practitioners view the world differently based on past experiences and this helps them to act differently as a changed person (Boyd and Fales, 1983). Reflective practice can also be defined as examining ones thoughts and actions. For clinical practitioners, it involves looking on how they interact with other people and with environment in order to obtain a clear picture of their own behavior. Through this process, practitioners are able to understand themselves better, take the right actions and discover many techniques which can help them develop both their personal and professional competences (Somerville, 2004). Reflective practice plays a vital role as it enables professional practitioners to have practice based approach as opposed to having formal learning or theoretical approaches. Donald Schon is the one who first introduced reflective practice in his book called The reflective practitioner in 1988.Since then many people have written on this subject and John Dewey is among the first people to write on it (Dewey, 1933). There are two fundamental forms of reflection which are; reflection on action and reflection in action. We will write a custom essay sample on Compare and contrast two theory of reflective practice or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Reflection in action involves examining your behavior and that of others in situations that provide learning opportunities. It also involves making connections between what you see and feel, focusing on ones responses and connecting with previous experiences. On the other hand, reflection on action is the commonly used form of reflection and it is characterized by careful re-running of events that have occurred in one’s mind. It helps a person to evaluate his/her strength and establish a different or more effective way of acting in the future events (Somerville, 2004). Reflection should be viewed as a way of exploring approaches to clinical supervision, governance and clinical effectiveness. Historically, reflective practice has been applied mostly in medical and educational fields. There are a number of reflective models that have been explained. Chris John and Graham Gibb’s models are examples of such models and they have helped professional practitioners to learn from experiences. Reflective models are important as they function as a structural framework within which clinical and other management practitioners can work.