Improving the Teaching of Reflective Practice for HR Professionals

Abstract

Despite a strong discourse promulgating the individual benefits and organisational value of reflective activity within management education, there is a lack of empirical data to show that teaching managers reflective processes, in an academic context, has long term and definitive benefits to a majority of learners. Our recent research endeavours sought to engage key participants in a discourse about issues and engagement with reflective practice in order to better understand the different perspectives. As arguably the most influential stakeholder group in determining teaching strategy for reflective practice, our focus here is on ‘faculty’, namely those responsible for managing and teaching reflective practice on professional CIPD accredited HRM programmes. The aim is to generate an enhanced understanding of the tensions of teaching reflective practice to HRM students, in order to better support the transfer of this learning to the workplace and everyday practice. The investigation involved 3 stages: an analysis of the approach of three institutions; a workshop with 48 participants at the CIPD Centres Conference 2013; and 25 explorative open-ended questionnaires. The findings raise questions about the requisite outcomes and expectations of different stakeholders in the teaching of reflective practice. One common theme throughout the analysis is an acknowledgement of the challenges involved in engaging and assessing a diverse range of students in an equitable and ethical way. Finally, the paper raises a number of important questions for future research in this area