Reflection and the Scholarship of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

Abstract

Position and Rationale. In this article, we focus on the role of reflection in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and briefly expand our discussion to consider the role of reflection in assessment as well. We start with a historical perspective casting back to classic definitions and descriptions of reflection put forth by educational philosophers and theorists like John Dewey, Max van Manen, and Donald Schön.1-5 We then move forward to review contemporary literature on the role, forms, and functions of reflection in adult learning and professional development in general, and the importance of reflection in the SoTL in particular. We provide numerous examples of inquiry into teaching and learning in professional education in a variety of disciplines to illustrate practical applications of reflection in SoTL. Finally, we offer food for thought, suggesting ways that physical therapy educators can build reflective practica into their work as teachers in the classroom or the clinic, with the hope that they will take as one focus of ongoing inquiry their own pedagogy and the learning of the future professionals they teach. To pique curiosity, stimulate reflection, and encourage such inquiry, we pose some simple questions, drawn from the work of Lee Shulman,6 that educators might ask themselves as they encounter everyday challenges and successes as teachers. Recommendations. Our aim is that all physical therapy educators will seek to engage intentionally and reflectively in both scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching, learning, and assessment.