1. Time Out for Lunch Using Reflection to Foster Students’ Personal and Professional Formation Brenda Coppard, Tim Dickel, & Lou Jensen April 8, 2009

2. Objectives 1.Gain a broad understanding of University Learning Outcome that is focused on deliberative reflection for professional and personal formation. 2.Gain some tangible exercises for use in promoting student reflections. 3.Discuss the value of reflection on personal strengths as a measure of personal and professional formation. 4.Describe additional strategies to promote reflection during experiential learning.

3. Welcome Who’s in the audience? Overview of materials – Power Point – Reference Sheet – Review of development theories – Young Adult Development Project

4. University Level Outcomes 1.Disciplinary competence and/or professional proficiency 2.Critical thinking skills 3.Ignatian values to include, but not limited to a commitment to an exploration of faith and the promotion of justice 4.An ability to communicate clearly and effectively 5.Deliberative reflection for personal and professional formation 6.An ability to effectively work across race, ethnicity, culture, gender, religion, and sexual orientation.

5. Deliberative reflection for personal and professional formation What does this mean to you?

6. Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm – from International Center for Jesuit Education Through students’ context, faculty create an environment for students to recollect their past experience and help them to assimilate new experiences. Faculty help students learn skills and techniques of reflection, which shapes their consciousness. Faculty challenge students to action in service. “The evaluation process includes academic mastery as well as ongoing assessments of students’ well- rounded growth as person for others” (Taub, 2004, p. 12)

7. Deliberative reflection for personal and professional formation Ignatian or Jesuit Pedagogy (by Robert Newton) Instrumental (to serve God and others) Student centered (adapted with learner in mind) Flexible (freedom of exchange & self-direction) Eclectic (variety of methods and techniques) Personal (whole person) Goal: “develop men and women of competence, conscience and compassion” (Traub, 2004, p. 12)

8. Tangible Exercises for Use in Promoting Student Reflections

9. Personal Strengths as a Measure of Personal and Professional Formation Doctor of Occupational Therapy Program has a total of 44 weeks of fieldwork, or experiential learning, in the curriculum “strategically arranged experiences yield articulated knowledge, which is then metacognitively examined through reflection for meaning” (Schell & Schell, 2008, p. xiii)

10. Model adapted from Schell & Schell, 2008

11. How Does Reflection Tie to Personal and Professional Formation? In many professions, personal and professional formation is one in the same In occupational therapy one term we use for this therapeutic use of self Classroom instruction, experiential learning, & structured reflection are used in the OTD program to facilitate personal and professional formation

12. StrengthsFinder: An Example of Infusing Reflection on Self and Practice Students in their first year of the OTD program attend a fieldwork preparation seminar Completing StrengthsFinder Profile is an assigned task StrengthsFinder was created by Gallup scientists led by the late Father of Strengths Psychology, Donald Clifton Basic premise: People have more potential for success and growth when time and energy is invested in their natural strengths or talents instead of correcting areas of weakness (Rath, 2007)

13. StrengthsFinder (cont.) StrengthsFinder Profile allows students to discover their top 5 talents (out of 34) Guest lecturer from the Gallup Organization – Talent (natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving) x Investment (time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base) = Strength (ability to consistently provide near perfect performance) – Description of talents with a personalized touch – Plants the seed From Rath, 2007

14. StrengthsFinder (cont.) Students engage in first week-long fieldwork experience and are asked to write a reflection and discuss with peers how talents were utilized: How was your personal and professional development enhanced through this experience? How do you see your top five talents incorporating into your professional identity? Give some examples.

15. Several times later in curriculum, students revisit their talents to make choices about their future: – Choosing practice settings for 12-week fieldwork placements – Creating plans for their Professional Rotation, a 16-week self-directed learning experience which allows students to explore an area of occupational therapy that is of particular interest to them – Reflection on how talents and strengths help craft their image of a leader in a Leadership class

16. Future Directions Research on students who select occupational therapy as a career Longitudinal studies connected to talents at selected points in time (e.g. knowledge & use of strengths) Emphasis on strengths based psychology & reflection resonates not only in occupational therapy, but also in Jesuit education Building personal strengths has a natural connection with an Ignatian value: Magis

17. MAGIS Latin meaning the “more”. Embodies the idea of discerning, “What is the best choice in a given situation to better glorify or serve the Lord”; e.g. choosing between options encountered in life with a primary focus of being “God centered”. The Magis does NOT mean to always do or give “more” to the point of personal exhaustion. It is a value central to Ignatian spirituality and encompassed by the Latin phrase “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” meaning “For the Greater Glory of God”. (Motto of the Society of Jesus).

18. Other Examples of Weaving Reflection into Experiential Learning StrategyDescription/Application Reflective Diaries/Journals Use as a foundation and then progress to higher level strategies Reflect on client, day, professional interactions, theory to practice link, performance, curricular themes as seen on fieldwork, etc. Critical Incident Analysis (Burns & Bulman, 2000) What are your thoughts about the incident? What was your response or intervention? What might you do differently? What additional knowledge would you need in the future? How have your values/feelings have changed as a result of the incident? Case Studies/ Videotaping Guided questions with peer collaboration Explicate clinical reasoning, evidence supporting plan of care, etc.

19. Other Examples of Weaving Reflection into Experiential Learning (cont.) StrategyDescription/Application Peer LearningCollaborative supervision models, discussion groups, online discussion boards, debriefing at end of day/session with supervisor or peers, etc. Evaluation Reflections Reflect on performance and supervisor feedback Develop an action plan and timeline to address deficit areas Electronic Portfolios Learning artifacts and reflections collected and presented electronically over time (Barrett, 2000) Electronic portfolios have been found to showcase evidence of learning and link academic and experiential learning through reflection (Hayward, et al., 2008)

20. Discussion/Questions

21. References Barrett, H. (2000). The electronic portfolio development process. Retrieved March 15, 2009, from http://electronicportfolios.org/portfolios/EPDevProcess.html Burns, S., & Bulman, C. (2000). Reflective practice in nursing: The growth of the professional practitioner (2 nd ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell Science. Hayward, L.M., Blackmer, B., Canali, A., DiMarco, R., Russell, A., Aman, S., Rossi, J., & Sloane, L. (2008). Reflective electronic portfolios: A design process for integrating liberal and professional studies and experiential education. Journal of Allied Health, 37, 140-159. Rath, T. (2007). StrengthsFinder 2.0. New York: Gallup Press. Schell, B. A., & Schell, J. (2008). Clinical and professional reasoning in occupational therapy. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. Traub, G. W. (2004). Do you speak Ignatian? Cincinnati, OH: Xavier University.