Summarise theoretical perspectives on reflection in relation to professional development.

There are several theoretical approaches to reflection applicable to professional development. David Kolb’s cycle is one of the learning models based on the step-by-step formation of mental action. According to Walker et al., Kolb’s process of training is a cycle or a spiral of accumulation of personal experience.

The main four stages of the model are:

1. Real experience.
2. Observation and reflection – consideration and analysis by a person of the experience, knowledge.
3. Forming abstract concepts – building a model describing the received information, experience. The person generates ideas and builds links inside the system.
4. Testing in new situations.

Further, it keeps circling back.

The Gram Gibbs model consists of five steps:

1. Description – a person needs to report what is going on.
2. Feelings – to understand what a person feels about happening events.
3. The assessment – is to find positive and negative sides.
4. The conclusion is an analysis of the information received and possible options for improving the situation.
5. Action – in the future, if the problem recurs, the person will be ready for it.

Christopher Johns’ reflexive model is similar to Gibbs’s approach. A person following it needs to describe and reflect on the event, then find factors influencing it and ways to improve it. At the end of the cycle, an individual learns from the actions analyzed. Another approach offered by Donald Schon suggests an analysis of how something is done and what result is obtained from it. However, this concept is not sufficiently reflective, as previously mentioned.

Thus, reflection is a process that can help a person evaluate him or herself for further professional development. This concept includes reflection on an individual mental state, a tendency to analyze own experiences, turning the individual’s attention to self. For application in professional development, it is possible to use any of the models of reflection, as there is much in common between them. The main thing is to remain objective to get a better result in training.