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Cím:	Using the framework to reflect on your own practice
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Állomány:	Közösségfejlesztési partnerségépítés Közép-Kelet Európában
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Using the framework to reflect on your own practice

The following guidelines and ideas are provided to help you to both create opportunities for reflection and to use such opportunities effectively by developing your own reflective framework.

Establishing frameworks
The framework is intended to be a flexible tool that you may use in its entirety or in part. You may wish to use it as it stands or you may find it a useful starting point for developing your own unique framework – a tool that is relevant and makes sense to you. The framework can be used in a variety of ways both in relation to how you’re reflecting and what you’re reflecting upon.

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide some reference points and suggestions to help you to reflect upon your practice. We anticipate that practitioners have different preferred styles and opportunities for reflection and have therefore outlined approaches that can be taken if reflecting:
· on one’s own
· with a peer/supervisor
· in a group/team situation.

The degree of safety which workers feel in the reflection setting is a key factor in relation to the limits to which effective reflection can take place. This particularly needs to be recognised in supervision and group situations and requires clearly negotiated agreements about both purpose and confidentiality.

While there are common benefits to be gained from all of these reflection settings they each bring something different to the reflective process and may focus on different outcomes. They should not be seen as alternatives but rather as an illustration of the range of situations through we can apply our reflective framework and increasingly develop our awareness and evaluation of the different elements of practice. The main thing is that the framework will only be effective if it works for you and provides an aid to reflection that helps to inform and develop your own practice. It may be useful to have your own checklist against which you can measure the usefulness of your chosen approach to reflection. For example:

ü Am I clear about why I am needed?
ü Am I clear about what I am offering?
ü Is everyone clear what my role is?
ü Have I given sufficient consideration to the wider context?
ü Do I have a clear strategy?
ü Have I identified and reflected upon positive developments?
ü Have I identified and reflected upon any difficulties and issues?
ü Have I identified key learning points?
ü Have I reviewed my strategy in relation to my own learning and current development?
ü Have I got a clear action plan for the future?

Reflecting on your own

Reflection Exercise

1 Focus
Identify the aspect or area of your work on which you wish to reflect. This may be specific (especially if you set aside time to reflect on a frequent basis), such as considering your practice as a community worker in a particular meeting or activity. Or it may be a more strategic reflection on your part in a project or wider programme.

2 Context
Reflect upon the contextual considerations of the work. How does the context inform your strategy and approach?

3 What you bring
Why are you needed? What aspects of your own knowledge and understanding are relevant? How and in what way do you activate your value base i.e. how does who you are and your values impact on your work ?

4 Strategy, approach and role
What are the developments in the work? Why?
What are the difficulties?
What have you learnt?
Should you make any changes in strategy, approach and roles?

5 Action plan
What do you aim to achieve and what will you need to do over the next month, 3 months, 6 months?

Once you have worked through this process you will already have a good idea of the specific headings/themes which make sense to you. As you try it more and more it will start to become increasingly familiar and unique to your practice. Hopefully you will develop your own route map for reflection that has signposts you can follow, to provide a more thorough and directed analysis than intuition alone.

There are some potential barriers to effective individual reflection:
§ lack of awareness (this usually diminishes with experience) – if you are not conscious of an element then you are unable to reflect upon it
§ facing up to exploration of the elements you find most challenging
§ making the space to undertake reflection.
§ lack of effective feed-back.

It is not recommended that reflection of practice should be limited to individual reflection. However the development of effective individual reflection is a key input to and outcome of an equally important reflective dialogue with others.




Helping someone else establish a framework - peer reflection / the supervisory role

This can work well in terms of engaging, prompting and moving another person forward. However, criteria around negotiation, mutual understanding, trust and shared perspectives are critical if the reflective process is to be strengthening of practice. In situations of supervision it is particularly crucial that both parties are clear about the purpose and objectives of the reflective process.


Reflector / Facilitator Exercise

This exercise may provide some structure in situations where one person is acting as a facilitator in helping someone else to reflect upon practice, using the framework. The agenda for reflection is focused on setting the scene, describing practice and developing practice.

The reflector’s role

1. Setting the scene
Outline your community work situation and describe key values, understanding and aspects of self-awareness that underpin all your work.
Identify the area of your practice that you wish to focus on.
In what wider contexts is the focus situated?

2. Describing and exploring your practice
Describe the detail of your own practice.
What is your strategy in relation to process, method and role(s)?
What difficulties have you encountered?
What have been the outcomes of your practice?

3. Developing your practice
What have you learnt?
What are the developments, issues and difficulties?
What now? What strategy will help to further progress developments and overcome any issues and difficulties?


The facilitator’s role

Your role is to assist the person who is reflecting – it is not to be judgmental, directive or putting your own opinion. It is also important that the person reflecting gets most of the ‘airtime’ - your role is to listen. Your contributions should help the reflector to:
· Focus on their own practice rather than lingering too long on the collective developments.
· Recognise and explore the interplay of context and self into practice.
· Develop an awareness of their own strengths and achievements.
· Identify and analyse issues and difficulties.
· Explore possibilities for future practice.

1. Setting the scene
Are you beginning to get a clear picture of both where the reflector is coming from and the context within which they are working? If not you may wish to seek clarification or ask some simple prompt questions.

2. Describing practice
Try to relate to the situation being described and to ask the questions which will help the reflector to explore that situation and their practice in detail. Questions beginning with what, why and how will help them to think about what they were doing, why they were doing it and how they were doing it. Share and check out your own perceptions of achievements and difficulties from what you have heard. Help the reflector to recognise positive aspects of practice as much as difficulties. It may be useful to briefly share your own experiences in similar situations as a means of support and ideas (not as “I would do it like this”).

3. Developing practice
Help the reflector to identify areas of learning and development through simple questions and reflecting back possible lessons and developments you have drawn out of their description. Again sharing from your own experience can be helpful. Help the reflector to identify some key areas / issues they wish to address in relation to future practice and to explore options for practical ways forward. It is important that the reflector finishes in a positive frame of mind – having had their strengths as a practitioner affirmed and hopefully some new insights into their future strategy.



Reviewing and improving the process
It may be helpful to jointly review this exercise both to develop the framework and to improve your skills in the reflective process. The following questions should be considered in such a review:

· What does the reflector bring in relation to values, self-awareness, understanding, skills etc which helps them to effectively reflect on their own practice?

· What are the difficulties and barriers that prevent or lessen effective reflection? How could they have reflected differently?

· In what ways does the facilitator help the process of self-reflection? In what ways do they not help? How could they have facilitated differently?

· In what ways does the framework help and provide a useful structure for the reflective process? In what ways does it not help? How could it be changed or improved?


Developing a framework in which teams and groups can collectively reflect

The concepts of shared meaning and dialogue are equally valid in team/group reflection. The storytelling method promoted by Dr Ronald Labonte can offer a structured approach for groups of people to collectively reflect and draw out common ‘insights’ and ways forward. It may therefore be a particularly appropriate tool for community development teams to use as a way of exploring practice in depth. Commitment and understanding of the process from all those involved will be required and one person will need to take on the role of facilitator to direct the exercise.

Story telling begins with a verbal telling of the story. It is followed by a reflective circle, in which the participants reflect upon how the story and the issues it raises and addresses are similar and/or different to their own experiences. Participants then collectively document a number of ‘insights’ based on what they have heard and discussed. The key is that these statements are not judgmental but recognise the experience from which the practitioner is coming. Usually about 10 - 15 insight cards will be generated for each story which, if categorised, should provide additional elements to a developing reflective framework.

Each person’s story is a personal account and therefore no two stories will be the same and each story might only focus on one or two key issues/tensions within an overall theme of ‘Community Development – reflecting on practice and the challenges of the role’.


Collective Reflection Exercise

Facilitators Guidelines
It is important to allocate an appropriate proportion of time to the different stages of the process. The timings in these guidelines are those suggested if the total time available for the exercise is 90 minutes. This is probably the minimum time required for this exercise to work effectively.

1. Introductions 5 mins
Remind the group that they are all active listeners within the group - ask them to imagine the story from the storyteller’s viewpoint while it is being told and to make brief notes throughout. Ask them to try not to make connections with their own experience until after the story has been told. The point at this first stage is to listen. It should be emphasised that confidentiality and respect should be observed.

2. Storytelling 15-20 mins
The storyteller will now have a maximum of 20 minutes to tell his/her story to the group. The group may take notes which will include any points for clarification, key insights from the story, or any questions which may arise. Please ask the group not to interrupt the storyteller at this point, as there will be opportunities later to for dialogue and discussion.

3. Reflection circle 10 mins
The purpose is to carefully consider what has been said and then to create some shared dialogue. The group can now begin to connect the storyteller’s experience with their own. So, the first 5 minutes should be to quietly reflect on what has been heard and to read any notes jotted down - this is done on one’s own. Next, everyone should be invited to say a few words about whether the issues raised in the story are similar to or different from their own experience - is this story also their own story? Please consider the following points:
· people should speak one at a time and respect that it is only a few words they have to share at this point - not another story!
· there should be no response or dialogue between people in the circle until everyone has spoken
· people can pass on speaking if they wish - no one should be forced to speak

4. Structured dialogue - 30 mins
This is when people can really begin to get involved in the story and unpack it. The facilitator helps the group to further explore the story which has just been shared by using the following types of open questions:

· descriptive questions - what?
- these invite the listeners to clarify any missing details of the story; eg what were the original aims of the project, who initiated it, how did you start off?

· explanation questions - why?
- these enable understanding of why things happened as they did, and provide an opportunity to discuss the causes which may underlie the story. Eg Whose interests were at stake? What roles were being played? Why do you think it succeeded/failed? What did you find most frustrating in what happened?

· synthesis questions - so what?
- this is the opportunity to draw together what was learned from the storyteller’s experience. Eg In what ways are our own values embedded in our practice? Can any conclusions about process be learnt? Does it deepen/broaden our understanding of community development and our work as practitioners?

5. Creating insights - 20 mins
This stage uses the participants’ notes and subsequent discussions to identify those insights which the group wishes to share and register. Each insight should be written on a separate sheet and should be clear and explanatory.

Insight cards should then be put onto a large space on the floor, or on the wall, so that they can be grouped to draw out and record the development of collective learning and understanding of the theme in question

6. Action Points
By this stage, the group may want to develop positive pointers for future work. The insight cards will have helped to identify significant factors/issues from the story and the dialogue. The question - “now what?” - should enable the development of individual and collective strategies.


Accessible tools for reflection

You may want to develop some practical and simple tools to make it easier to engage with the reflective framework. Here are some ideas that we have tried which you may be able to adapt or add to.

Reflection prompt cards

These provide a visual aid to both self and peer reflection.
You will need a number of small cards or post-its and it may help to have a range of different colours available. You can then use the cards to develop your own reflection toolkit in the following way.

1. On one set of cards record the different elements of what you bring to your work. Each different skill, area of understanding etc should be recorded on a different card. These are your What I Bring cards.

2. On another set of cards (different colour) record aspects of the work context which impact upon or inform your own role. These are your Context cards.

Now identify the area of work you wish to reflect upon and:

3. Select from your What I Bring cards areas of skills and understanding etc. particularly relevant to the area of work you are focusing on.

4. Select from your Context cards the contextual considerations particularly relevant to the area of work you are focusing on. You may at this point wish to add new context cards related to the area of focus itself.

On selecting the relevant What I Bring and Context cards you can spread them on the floor or wall in order to begin to see some of the overall picture. The use of the cards, in this way, helps to focus upon the different input elements of the framework and to begin reflecting upon your practice.

You may wish to develop a further set of Practice cards to record the process, methods and roles you are using.

Finally you can record your own personal learning onto additional What I Bring cards and your observations of changes and developments onto new Context cards. In this way you can develop a live toolkit of prompt cards for ongoing reflection.


Reflection recordings

It is sometimes useful to have a recording form for making notes to aid reflection. The following could be used or adapted as the basis for such a form.

1. Area of work


2. Contextual considerations which may inform or impact upon my practice

a. National, regional and local policy
b. Employers expectations
c. Community issues and developments
d. Individuals involved
e. Funding and resources
f. Other


3. What I am bringing to the work

a. Values
b. Understanding
c. Knowledge
d. Skills
e. Self awareness


4. Existing Strategy including objectives, process, methods and role


5. Positive Developments


6. Issues and difficulties


7. Learning


8. Future plans particularly focusing on any development and changes to my own strategy.

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