{"id":24548,"date":"2025-04-24T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=oasis-news&p=24548"},"modified":"2025-04-15T14:55:34","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T06:55:34","slug":"the-art-of-reflective-practice","status":"publish","type":"oasis-news","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/oasis-news\/the-art-of-reflective-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"The art of reflective practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Reading time: 3 minutes<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The professional standards of most occupations often state the need for continuing professional development (CPD) and ongoing reflective practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CPD tends to have specified parameters and is often self-explanatory. Reflective practice on the other hand, can be a little more ambiguous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, let\u2019s explore what reflective practice means and how you can develop it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflective practice requires self-awareness, as well as the ability and willingness to critically examine your experiences, behaviours, emotions and thought processes in order to inform your future actions. It is encouraged because of the opportunities it allows for professional and personal growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Awareness of an experience or behaviour is always the first step – once you\u2019ve reflected on your understanding of why you behaved in a particular way, you can then consider what you might do differently (or the same) next time. By paying careful attention to yourself, you can recognise patterns and be more mindful of enacting your preferred behaviour in future experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a professional or educational context, you can preform this honest analysis on your own or alongside a supervisor or mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help you build your self-awareness, check out the Self Awareness module<\/strong> in the Skilled Professional Challenge<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can you ensure your reflective practice is precisely that – a regular practice?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing a structured reflective practice is key, it enables you to set aside time to reflect on an experience not long after it has happened, perform an analysis, and determine future steps. Structured reflective practice can include writing in journals, establishing and contributing to a community of practice or group of like-minded professionals, engaging in group discussions online or in-person, or seeking out mentoring programs and opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s a few ideas to get you started:<\/p>\n\n\n\n