The potential of reflection for learning and development is broadly accepted across the medical curriculum. Our understanding of how exactly reflection yields its educational promise, however, is limited to broad hints at the relation between reflection and learning. Yet, such understanding is essential to the (re)design of reflection education for learning and development. In this qualitative study, we used participants’ video-stimulated comments on actual practice to identify features that do or do not make collaborative reflection valuable to participants. In doing so, we focus on aspects of the interactional process that constitute the educational activity of reflection. To identify valuable and less valuable features of collaborative reflection, we conducted one-on-one video-stimulated interviews with Dutch general practice residents about collaborative reflection sessions in their training program. Residents were invited to comment on any aspect of the session that they did or did not value. We synthesized all positively and negatively valued features and associated explanations put forward in residents’ narratives into shared normative orientations about collaborative reflection: what are the shared norms that residents display in telling about positive and negative experiences with collaborative reflection? These normative orientations display residents’ views on the aim of collaborative reflection (educational value for all) and the norms that allegedly contribute to realizing this aim (inclusivity and diversity, safety, and efficiency). These norms are also reflected in specific educational activities that ostensibly contribute to educational value. As such, the current synthesis of normative orientations displayed in residents’ narratives about valuable and less valuable elements of collaborative reflection deepen our understanding of reflection and its supposed connection with educational outcomes. Moreover, the current empirical endeavor illustrates the value of video-stimulated interviews as a tool to value features of educational processes for future educational enhancements.
This article takes a conversation analytic approach to the often employed notions of 'openended or authentic questions' in classroom interaction. We analyzed the, as we called them, open invitations teachers utter after reading a piece of text during whole-class discussions in 4 Dutch upper primary school classes, of which 2 were followed for a longer period of time. Our data show that these invitations vary in openness. We found 4 different types: 1) invitations projecting (a series of) objectively true or false answers, 2) invitations projecting specific response types, 3) invitations that have a restricted referent but do not project specific response types, and 4) topic soliciting invitations giving room to various contributions. Virtually all invitations resulted in fitted responses. The subsequent interactions following the less open invitations typically resulted in series of parallel responses, whereas the more open invitations typically yielded discussions or the collaborative answering of clarification questions.
ObjectivesAdopting an attributional perspective, the current article investigates how audit and feedback group sessions contribute to general practitioners’ (GPs) motivation to change their practice behaviour to improve care. We focus on the contributions of the audit and feedback itself (content) and the group discussion (process).MethodsFour focus groups, comprising a total of 39 participating Dutch GPs, discussed and compared audit and feedback of their practices. The focus groups were analysed thematically.ResultsAudit and feedback contributed to GPs’ motivation to change in two ways: by raising awareness about aspects of their current care practice and by providing indications of the possible impact of change. For these contributions to play out, the audit and feedback should be reliable and valid, specific, recent and recurrent and concern GPs’ own practices or practices within their own influence sphere. Care behaviour attributed to external, uncontrollable or unstable causes would not induce change. The added value of the group is twofold as well: group discussion contributed to GPs’ motivation to change by providing a frame of reference and by affording insights that participants would not have been able to achieve on their own.ConclusionsIn audit and feedback group sessions, both audit and feedback information and group discussion can valuably contribute to GPs’ motivation to change care practice behaviour. Peer interaction can positively contribute to explore alternative practices and avenues for improvement. Local or regional peer meetings would be beneficial in facilitating reflection and discussion. An important avenue for future studies is to explore the contribution of audit and feedback and small-group discussion to actual practice change.
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