Reflective Learning in Management, Development and Education

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the ideas surrounding reflective practice, specifically in the areas of learning in management, development and education. This interest has developed in a growing number of professional fields thus making for very diverse understandings of what can be regarded as complex approaches to learning.

In order to understand how reflective practice can support and aid learning it is helpful to acknowledge how we learn. First, all learners start from their own position of knowledge and have their own set of experiences to draw upon. Second, learning is contextual, something which managers need to acknowledge. To make sense and achieve a deep understanding of material and experiences, one needs to relate new information to existing knowledge and experiences. This is best achieved through a process of reflection. Indeed, the underlying rationale for the chapters in this publication is to explore how the role of practice, reflection, and critical reflection are understood and developed within a learning process which is supported through the application of reflective tools.

This book recognises and makes explicit the diverse, yet inclusive nature of the field. By including a range of contributions from both subject specific disciplines and professional contexts, it seeks to enable the reader in documenting some of the current uses of reflection and critical reflection, while also illustrating some of the newer methods in use, as well as the current contributions to thinking in the subject domain. Through this publication the editor and authors hope to provide a basis from which continuing professional development and education can be enhanced.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives.

David Higgins is currently a Senior Lecturer in organisational behaviour/management at the University of Huddersfield, UK. During the last 7 years he has developed as an accomplished researcher and academic, he has written to date a number of peer reviewed articles/conference papers on the mediated nature of practice-based learning and social learning in the small firm. He has been the recipient of 3 ESRC Research Bursaries Awards, is currently a reviewer for the World Conference on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the Institute of Small Business and Enterprise. He is a fellow of the HEA and a member of BAM Research Methods SIG. David’s research interest focuses on the current conceptualisations of learning in the small firm.