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Reflective practice has become part of the discourse of nursing education classrooms, conferences, and journals, and are popular features of nursing continuing education programs. Yet, the idea of reflective practice has become increasingly more disparate. This critical analysis examines data-based studies and provides an overview of reflective practice, discusses common themes that emerged from the studies, and identifies implications for reflective practice in the field of nursing education.
During the past decade, terms and phrases such as reflection, reflective practice, reflective teaching, and the teacher as a reflective, inquiring professional have become part of the discourse of nursing education classrooms, nursing conferences, and journals, and are popular features of nursing continuing education programs (Boud & Walker, 1998). When these terms and phrases are heard, they can bring about a range of responses from excitement and positive enthusiasm to gross ambiguity and bewilderment (Burton, 2000).
Since Dewey introduced the concept of reflective practice to the field of adult education more than 60 years ago, various investigations and theoretical critiques have been completed to explore the role of reflection and reflective practice in nursing (Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 1985; Mezirow, 1990; Schön, 1983, 1990; van Manen, 1977). In addition to data-based (both quantitative and qualitative) and theoretical studies, a growing body of instructional literature suggests how nurse educators may become more self-reflective and foster reflective practice in their students.
In the broadest sense, reflective practice is a means of self-examination that involves looking back over what has happened in practice in an effort to improve or encourage professional growth. It is an imaginative, creative, nonlinear, human act in which educators and students recapture their experience, think about it, and evaluate it. Boud et al. (1985) stated that "we experience as we reflect, and we reflect as we experience" (p. 18). Reflective practice helps remedy what T.S. Eliot meant when he stated, "We all had the experience but missed the meaning" (cited in lbmlin, 1988, p. 42).
Although the rhetoric of reflective practice has permeated education literature in recent years, the idea of reflective practice has become increasingly more disparate. Authors and researchers define reflective practice by using their own lenses, worldviews, and experiences. In addition, various related concepts exist, such as action theory, critical social...