Reflection for learning in doctoral training: writing groups,academic writing proficiency and reflective practice

This literature review highlights the benefits of participating in a doctoral writing group, with specific emphasis on how these learning communities foster reflective practice skills development. In particular, this review proposes that the process of continuous peer feedback and discussion benefits students by helping them verbalise their internal reflective thinking, fostering reflective practice skills development through various authentic learning experiences. Consequently, this review highlights the importance of establishing and supporting doctoral writing groups to further develop doctoral students’ personal epistemology, growth and professional practice.     

Applying problem-solving approaches to school psychological reports

School psychological reports continue to be an important part of the school psychologist's work. The value of reports as a communication tool has been questioned, a criticism that may be the result of the varying objectives by which it is judged. Recently, the literature in school psychology has seen a resurgence of articles on psychological report writing. Some writers are questioning current report-writing practices but at the same time proposing alternative report formats. Empirical support is lacking for these alternative report formats compared to traditional report organization in terms of consumer preferences and the report's ability to meet its intended objectives. Simultaneously, a considerable amount of attention is being given to scientific problem solving as it pertains to school psychology practice. This study examined the preferences of school psychologists and school staff for reports varied in respect to organization as reflected in expert vs. novice problem-solving strategies. The results indicate a preference across all professional groups for the traditionally organized school psychological report. Similarly, the same result was found as to perceived expertise of the writer, readability, problem identification, and understandability of recommendations. The implications of these findings for report writing are discussed in the context of the methodological challenges involved in this research area.     

An embodied perspective on judgements of written reflective practice for professional development in Higher Education

This paper gives an embodied perspective on the use of judgements of reflective practice and reflective writing for professional development in Higher Education. Programmes for professional development in Higher Education and recognition processes for academics have become prevalent in the UK and internationally. These programmes and processes often assume, implicitly or explicitly, development or evidencing as a ‘reflective practitioner’ through pieces of reflective writing which is then judged against competencies or attainments. However, this focus on reflective practice and reflective writing is not always critical, and does not examine the different theoretical and practical interpretations of what it means to reflect, or the impact of assessing such reflections. Taking an embodied stance allows a new view into a contested area that is more habitually connected with cognitive rather than corporeal processes.     

Ethical Principles and the Communication of Forensic Mental Health Assessments

Our premise is that ethics is the essence of good forensic practice and that mental health professionals must adhere to the ethical principles, standards, and guidelines of their professional bodies when they communicate their findings and opinions. We demonstrate that adhering to ethical principles can improve the quality of forensic reports and communications. We demonstrate this by focusing on the most basic principles that underlie professional ethical standards and guidelines, namely, Fidelity and Responsibility, Integrity, Respecting Rights and Dignity of Persons, and Justice and Fairness. For each principle we offer a brief definition and explain its demands. Then we identify ways in which the principle can guide the organization, content, or style of forensic mental health report writing, offering illustrative examples that demonstrate or abuse the principle.     

What I Never Wanted to Tell You: Therapeutic Letter Writing in Cultural Context

Therapeutic letter writing has been viewed by psychologists as a powerful form of creative writing in health care settings. I explore the cultural contexts that have aided its popularization to shed fresh light on debates about its psychological function and efficacy. I draw on the sociologist Frank Furedi's analysis of 'therapy culture' to argue that contemporary ideologies of the vulnerable self have stimulated this practice, particularly in the form of letters written not-to-be-sent. I conclude by considering models of developmental letter writing that attempt to challenge these ideologies, including narrative therapists' provocative method of corresponding with clients.     

Donna Haraway's Cyborg Touching (Up/On) Luce Irigaray's Ethics and the Interval Between: Poethics as Embodied Writing

In this article, I argue that Donna Haraway's figure of the cyborg needs to be reassessed and extricated from the many misunderstandings that surround it. First, I suggest that we consider her cyborg as an ethical concept. I propose that her cyborg can be productively placed within the ethical framework developed by Luce Irigaray, especially in relationship to her concept of the “interval between.” Second, I consider how Haraway's “cyborg writing” can be understood as embodied ethical writing, that is, as a contemporary écriture feminine. I believe that this cyborgian “writing the body” offers us a way of both creating and understanding texts that think through ethics, bodies, aesthetics, and politics together as part of a vital and relevant contemporary feminist ethics of embodiment. I employ the term “poethics” as a useful way to describe such a practice.     

Pretending to be authentic: challenges for students when reflective writing about their childhood for assessment

Critical reflection potentially allows social work and human service (SWHS) students to understand how past experiences can shape their future practice. This study of 20 Australian undergraduate SWHS students with a history of childhood adversity found reflective writing for this purpose was not a useful pedagogical practice. Rather than developing skills in critical reflection students found the task performative, linked to academic requirements, where they needed to display emotional containment. Consequently, SWHS academics need to examine reflective writing about childhood adversity for assessment as this process may not enable students to build skills in critical reflection that drive professional development.     

Documentary Visions,Theological Insights

In an attempt to engage students' higher‐order thinking skills, we developed a documentary filmmaking project for our introduction to theology course. By documenting certain aspects of the theology of John Wesley and John Henry Newman (God, creation, revelation, Jesus, the church), students were able to delve deeply into these themes, better understanding them and their interrelationships. The project helped the students to actively practice historical theology, rather than passively learn about it through lectures. In addition, the project emphasized research skills, quality of writing and creative production, and a professional presentation at a screening.     

Software review

Summary TheWPPSI-R Writer is a useful tool for accurate and quick scoring and interpretation of the WPPSI-R. It will serve psychologists and educators well by reducing the amount of time spent in collecting data, allowing more time for analysis and report writing. The information provided by the computer generated report can be helpful in writing reports when combined with professional judgment and other sources of data. It is the opinion of these reviewers that professionals not rely too heavily on the impersonal computerized reports, due to concerns about validity for individual cases.     

Megatrends in personality assessment: toward a human science professional psychology

Societal megatrends have assessment counterparts--superempiricism, biopsychosocial perspective, person-centering, population-specificity, self-assessment--which are used to examine the contemporary status of professional psychology. A human science approach to research, training, and practice can exemplify a profession that acknowledges these megatrends. The nurture of competent professional psychologists requires a reinvestment in Boulder Model ideology, a human science that is shared with consumers on the basis of values which communicate caring and understanding.     

当代美国行政伦理的理论与实践

当代美国行政伦理的基本价值理念在个人价值上重视诚实和正义;在职业价值上重视专业和敬业;在组织价值上重视效率和规则;在合法价值上重视依法和守法;在公共利益价值上重视为公共利益服务。美国行政伦理规范经历了一个制定、修订和演进过程,并始终重视其管理和实践。美国行政伦理50年的建设经验,对我国社会主义行政伦理建设具有重要启示意义。     

Introducing dental students to reflective practice: a dental educator’s reflections

There is growing consensus that being reflective and developing reflective practice is an important part of becoming a healthcare professional, adding to and enhancing our everyday professional values, knowledge and skills. For dentists, reflective practice is an essential part of dental training and professional development with dental undergraduate curricula creating and scaffolding opportunities for students to be reflective and develop reflective writing skills. This article describes the introduction of a reflective portfolio to the undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Science (BDS) programme at the University of Bristol. This will be followed by the author sharing some personal reflections, as the faculty member overseeing the assessment of these reflective portfolios, on the first year of this initiative. Lessons learned from the exercise as well as areas for future work and improvement will also be mentioned.     

Reflective writing: I wouldn’t start from here – examining a professional development initiative to enhance the scholarly activity of English HE in FE lecturers

This paper explores the nature of reflective writing through the experience of the researchers in running a series of writing workshops with a group of higher education practitioners working in a UK further education college. The focus here is on reflective writing, which was chosen to start the sequence of workshops, as it was perceived as a form of writing with which the participants would be familiar, given its role in the education and development of teachers within the sector. Our assumption was that this familiarity would facilitate the writing process and participants would readily respond by engaging in reflective writing. However, in practice this proved not to be the case, despite being introduced to a variety of different forms of writing over a series of workshops, it took the participants longer than we expected to begin to write. This led us to question our assumptions about the starting point for the writing workshops and what they might achieve. The paper draws on field notes made during the writing initiative and data gathered through focus groups and interviews with the participants, as well as extracts of their writing to examine their experiences. Different conceptualisations of reflective writing are identified and their implications are explored in relation to the participants’ engagement with writing and their experience of professional development.     

Trauma, Regression, and the Intensive Group Experience

Ferenczi contributed a theory of trauma and regression that has application in the contemporary practice of group therapy. This article seeks to present an extension of these seminal ideas in the form of interventions based on therapist induced regression. The Intensive Group Experience (I.G.E.), a time extended group format found to be necessary for extensive emotional reliving and working through of trauma is described. A clinical case example is then discussed in detail and concludes this report.     

Letter writing as a reflective practice: understanding the shuffling,shifting, and shaping of a researcher identity

This article presents letter writing as a form of arts-based inquiry and reflective practice. The author argues that letter writing can be employed to develop a reflective space for autobiographical reflection. The letter featured here captures and demonstrates the shuffling, shifting, and shaping processes of the author’s researcher identity through letter writing, and is informed by the theoretical underpinnings of reflective practice. It records and investigates the experiences that the author underwent during a compulsory course in the first year of a doctoral program at a North American university. Three interrelated themes are identified in the letter: the researcher identity in crisis, the nature of research, and future researcher identity. It is concluded that letter writing can facilitate the self-evolution, self-introspection, self-awareness, and identity change that emerges with, and through, reflection. Letter writing as a reflective practice offers the benefits of developing self-knowledge, independent thought, critical thinking, and deconstructive understanding of one’s experiences.     

Prevalence,Prediction, and Prevention of Psychologist Misconduct

Studies of psychologist misconduct generally focus on unethical sexual behaviours. In contrast, the following study reports on all complaints by the public against psychologists reported to the New South Wales Psychologists Registration Board over a 4‐year period. There were 248 independent notifications of misconduct about 224 registered psychologists, out of a total sample of 9,489 registered psychologists. The most frequent type of misconduct reported was in relation to poor communication standards (35.5%). Other complaints were in relation to professional incompetency (16.5%), poor report writing (14.1%), poor business practices (12.5%), boundary violations (9.7%), poor character (5.6%), registration status (3.2%), impairment (1.6%), and the inappropriate use of specialist titles (1.2%). Males were 2.5 times more likely to have a misconduct complaint made about them than females. Senior highly qualified psychologists attracted a greater number of complaints, but these were generally of a less serious nature. Over a 30‐year career, about 20 out of every 100 psychologists can expect to receive a complaint from the public, and two will receive a serious misconduct complaint that might lead to deregistration. Strategies for preventing malpractice arising from these results include regular peer consultation, developing quality practise standards, and maintaining professional boundaries.     

Psychotherapy. Can the practitioner learn from the researcher?

Psychotherapy research has often been criticized by practitioners who believe that it has little to offer that can be used in professional practice. However, there is increasing evidence to show that contemporary research in psychotherapy is becoming increasingly relevant for practice. In this article, drawing on extensive research experience, I cite examples illustrating this thesis. My collaborators and I have called particular attention to the damaging consequences of communications that are experienced by patients as pejorative, and we believe that the development of therapist's skills in dealing with patients' negative transference should receive particular attention in training programs.     

On the Persistence of the Genealogical in Contemporary Theology

There is a persistence of genealogical discourse in a certain strand of contemporary theology. Opting for the genealogical shapes the theological task of remembrance and engagement with the historical tradition in important, but also problematic, ways. In this article I discuss how genealogical discourse was appropriated by theology, and then uncover its implicit assumptions and tendencies. Analysing some encounters between theological genealogies and various Hegelian thinkers, I draw a contrast between Nietzschean genealogy and Hegelian ‘phenomenology’. This comparison brings to light some fundamental ways in which the genealogical might distort theological writing and practice.