The contribution of becoming reflective on the employability of teachers and social workers

Abstract

Employability and reflective capacities are key outcomes of higher education. This inter-disciplinary project built upon earlier OLT projects and fellowships on reflection, employability and work integrated learning (WIL). The project aimed to: contribute towards rethinking reflective teaching/learning practices across all aspects of the pre- service social work and education curricula; integrate these with workplace-based needs for professional development; develop creative learning experiences and resources to enable pre-service teachers and social workers across five universities to develop reflective capacities that had been identified as essential by employers; and investigate how reflective capacities impacted graduates\u27 employability. The key stakeholders included: students in pre-service teacher education and social work programs; university staff engaged in teaching reflection and/or practice education; practice educators in schools and human service agencies; employers from schools and human service organisations who will benefit from employees with stronger reflection skills; and relevant professional associations and accrediting bodies. The project proceeded in three stages. Stage 1: an audit of reflective practice; Stage 2: a multi-site case study research focused on the phenomenon of reflective practice; and Stage 3 the development, refinement and implementation of a suite of online and multimedia resources made available on the website for the research project. The analysis of key documents revealed that, while critical reflection is a key criterion of the AASW Practice Standards, The Australian Employability and reflective capacities are key outcomes of higher education. This inter-disciplinary project built upon earlier OLT projects and fellowships on reflection, employability and work integrated learning (WIL). The project aimed to: contribute towards rethinking reflective teaching/learning practices across all aspects of the pre-service social work and education curricula; integrate these with workplace-based needs for professional development; develop creative learning experiences and resources to enable pre-service teachers and social workers across five universities to develop reflective capacities that had been identified as essential by employers; and investigate how reflective capacities impacted graduates’ employability. The key stakeholders included: students in pre-service teacher education and social work programs; university staff engaged in teaching reflection and/or practice education; practice educators in schools and human service agencies; employers from schools and human service organisations who will benefit from employees with stronger reflection skills; and relevant professional associations and accrediting bodies. The project proceeded in three stages. Stage 1: an audit of reflective practice; Stage 2: a multi site case study research focused on the phenomenon of reflective practice; and Stage 3 the development, refinement and implementation of a suite of online and multimedia resources made available on the website for the research project. The analysis of key documents revealed that, while critical reflection is a key criterion of the AASW Practice Standards, The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers include only one reference to reflection: the teaching standards, ‘provide a framework by which teachers can judge the success of their learning and assist self-reflection and self-assessment (p. 3); references to critical thinking were also considered relevant