Potentials of Reflection for Better Practice

Reflection/Reflective Practice: Individual Focus

Despite their years of workplace experience, many SNL graduate students claim initially not to be reflective: “I don’t do reflection”; “I don’t have time for reflection”; “I don’t know what reflection is.” However, when asked to describe times when they have wondered about something that happened, why it happened, what they did or did not do, and how they might handle a similar situation differently in the future, they exhibit capacities of being reflective practitioners. A SNL undergraduate alum expressed her comfort with reflection: “I had the benefit of going to SNL for undergrad and to me it was all about reflection….it was great.” Students who do not enter through SNL’s competency-based undergraduate program often find the emphasis on reflection rather foreign, as this student expressed: “I have never put much stock on reflection. I scoffed at the idea of journaling or spending quiet time thinking about my feelings or experiences…. Who has time for all this froufrou?” Fortunately, his conclusion, less than a year into his graduate studies was, “It turns out, I do. The difference a little simple reflection can make is astounding. Reflection is now part of my daily life.” (Marienau, in Lyons, 2017).