Potentials of Reflection for Better Practice

This chapter describes how adult learners in competency-based degree programs learn to reflect actively on their learning and performance. Vignettes of adult learners portray what they perceive as the benefits of reflective practice for their personal and professional lives. The author, an adult educator, shares her experience facilitating reflection in two different contexts: reflection that focuses on the individual and reflection that is done in collaboration with others. In the context of competency-based programs, many of the adult learners emphasize reflection on self that includes movement to social action. The chapter concludes with a discussion of reflective practice with regard to frameworks of experiential learning and brain-aware learning.