Reflective Practice,Reflexivity, and Critical Reflection in Social Work Education in Australia

Reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection are now widely accepted as important in contemporary social work practice. Despite this, there remain differences in how the terms are discussed within the literature. This results in confusion in how students are instructed about reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection. This paper presents a proposal for clarifying these concepts based on the results from an interpretive study of reflective practice in social work education and practice in Australia. The study utilised three different methods: autoethnography, an archaeological analytic, and qualitative interviews. It found that reflective practice is understood as a capability, a form of critical thinking, a discipline response to a changing sector, and a way of theorising from practice. Conceptual clarifications of reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection are presented.

IMPLICATIONS

• There is a need for clarification about the meaning of reflective practice, reflexivity, and critical reflection within social work.

• Findings from a qualitative study on the meaning and use of reflective practice in Australian social work education may provide conceptual clarification of these terms.

     

A Review of Practice of Teaching and Learning of Communication Skills in Social Work Education in England

There is a renewed focus on skills for practice in the new Social Work degree in the UK, expressed in the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Benchmarks for Social Work and the National Occupational Standards (NOS). Together these make specific a range of requirements for practice which set the terms for what students need to learn in order to work with users and carers most effectively. Of five key areas identified for the new degree, communication skills is the third. In this context, the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) commissioned a review of practice in teaching and learning of communication skills in social work education in England. This article presents the findings from this review. It concludes that, whilst there is significant activity and much good practice, there is little clarity or consensus about meanings, definitions, content and methods between all the stakeholders, including users and carers. Through the lens of current teaching and learning of communication skills it is the contention of this article that social work education needs systematically to address its strategy for replying to the challenge of a greater focus on practice skills.