1. Nature of Social Work session 6/12/2016
Critical Thinking and Reflection
What is reflection?
What is reflective practice in social work?
What do we mean by the “Use of self” in social work?
What do we mean by impact on self and self awareness?

2. What is Reflection? Attentive consideration Contemplation
To consider meditatively (what, how, why etc)
“A process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and to inform learning about practice”(Reid, 1994)
Returning to an incident or experience and recording it
Consider it in detail at an emotional and cognitive level
Re-evaluate it in light of experience, knowledge and experimentation.
Seek to understand the meaning of the experience
To plan for what you might change. (Boud et al 1985)

3. What is Reflective Practice?
Looking back on what you have done and why
Considering (Thinking) about your actions and outcomes- now that you know what you know
Contemplating (Thinking) and acknowledging the actions, feelings and outcomes of you and of others involved
Evaluating your performance, the outcomes, the learning and the things you may need to change or to work on
Getting the space to determine a way forward and to develop a plan, which recognises all of the things you have reflected on
Planning further action –changing something -putting the learning into practice

4. ‘Reflective practice begins from the premise that human problems cannot be solved by the simple application of technical solutions. People’s problems are far to complex and ‘messy’ to be resolved in this way.’
(Thompson,N., 2009)
Reflection involves identifying how you feel about something that has happened... It leads to emotional intelligence It’s about conscious competence, knowledge and recognition of what is going on, when it is going on . (Goleman 1995)

5. Use of Self and Self Awareness
What is self -awareness?
Understanding of one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs and drives
How we come across to others
Knowing how situations effect us
Knowing how we effect others

6. Exercise 1 to build Reflection
Think about a challenging interaction that has happened to you when you were in practice or a personal situation and work through Gibbs’ cycle as follows:
Description: Describe factually what happened during your this situation.
Feelings: What were you thinking and feeling at the time?
Evaluation: List what you were aware of positive and negative of the experience.
Analysis: What sense can you make out of the situation? What does it mean?
Conclusion: What else could you / they have done? What should you perhaps not have done?
Action plan: If it arose again, what would you do differently? How will you adapt your practice in the light of this new understanding?

7. Exercise 2 on Reflective Practice
Use the following pictures to do the same thing .
Please be aware that following examples include difficult material and, should you need to do so, please do not hesitate to contact your Personal Academic Tutor or Student Support services as appropriate, than you.

8. Declan Hainey A fatal accident inquiry has found the death of toddler Declan Hainey may have been avoided if Care Agencies properly supervised his mothers addiction. His mummified body was found in his cot in March eight months after he was last seen alive. Kimberley Hainey was jailed in 2012 for her son's murder but her conviction was later quashed on appeal. The Inquiry found parental neglect was a factor in his death along with failures among Social Care teams. Social Work did not gain access to the house in that time.

9. Runaway girls leap to their deaths in Erskine Bridge suicide pact Two teenage girls leapt hand in hand from a 125 foot high bridge after running away from a residential care home

10. Runaway girls leap to their deaths in Erskine Bridge suicide pact
Neve Lafferty, 15, was grieving for her boyfriend who died suddenly earlier this year when she jumped with Georgia Rowe, 14, off the Erskine Bridge
The pair had escaped from the Good Shepherd Centre, a residential unit for young women with social, emotional and behavioural problems six miles away.
Witnesses saw them leap holding hands from the bridge. After a major search operation involving police, the girl’s bodies were pulled from the water and flown to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow but they were pronounced dead on arrival.
Strathclyde police said there appeared to be no suspicious circumstances surrounding their deaths.
(The Times, October 6, 2009)

11. Exercise -Again to build Reflection
Description: What's going on in these pictures - Describe factually what you see in this situation.
Feelings: What were you thinking and feeling?
Evaluation: What are you aware of about these pictures and the experience?
Analysis: What sense can you make out of these situations? What does it mean to you?
Conclusion: What else could have been done?
Action plan: If you come across this situation what would you do differently / remember ?
How will you adapt your practice in the light of this new understanding?

12. ‘The impact on self’ Exercise in pairs.
How did the pictures make you feel?
Were you aware of your feelings and emotions at the moment?
What is self awareness?
How would these feelings help you if you were involved in these situation?
What would help you manage your feelings on placement and in qualified social work practice?

13. Self-awareness, reflection –mindful!
Self-awareness -understanding and managing your emotions and the emotions of those around you
Taking notice of what is going on within you and out-with you
Paying attention to what is going on – in detail and with focus
Drawing on and selecting our professional knowledge (formal & informal) to use it purposefully 
Considering, thinking on our feet – imaginatively and creatively to direct our behaviour
Focusing our thinking and to gain emotional control to learn from our experience and change positively 
Being mindful - the opposite is - mindlessness!

14. Reflection and Social Work
Reflection is fundamental to learning and that it provides a basis for future action.
We cannot learn from our actions unless we are aware of the consequences of our behavior.
There can be a gap between what we think and what we do- 'espoused theory'- and what our behavior shows- 'theory in use'
(Argyris and Schön, 1978).
Emotional intelligence can be learned – reflection can be learned!

15. Where Does Self- Awareness fit in?
It’s the foundation of professional practice
The Origins of Self. (values & conditioning)
The Current Self. (Personal development)
The Thinking and Feeling Self.
The Helping Self.
Self-View of Others.
Others View of Self.
Self as a Social Worker.
Self in Relation to Power and Authority.

16. Self-Awareness and Social Workers
A lack of self-awareness can be damaging and disempowering when working with vulnerable individuals
It can lead to a lack of reflective skills and ability which constitutes dangerous practice
Each individual (student) social worker has to establish
how we are seen by others
and
how we come across to others
As this impacts on the helping relationship and can create barriers to the work
Self- awareness leads to building more reflective skills and conscious competence.

17. Why Reflect?(Lishman, 2002; Cree & Macauley, 2001; Payne, 2002)
acknowledge our value base
improves practice
assist in evaluation of practice.
helps us be self-aware and consider our own needs.
motivation for social work
helps us manage complexity and uncertainty
assist personal learning and development
manage feelings, pain, stress etc
manage change.
encourages greater accountability
identify limitations, gaps and areas for improvement
relies upon use of range of knowledge
encourages experimentation with alternative approaches
To aid transferability

18. Reflection-In-Action and On-Action
 Reflection-in-action- thinking on our feet, as we do it.
Being aware of what is going on in us and around us
Being present
It relies upon a developed knowledge base
Developed skills
Analytical skills
Professional confidence and judgement
 Reflection-on-action-reflecting upon our practice after the event
Stepping back and pausing to look, listen and contemplate -not simply accepting what we read or hear at face value.
Making the connections between thoughts and actions
Consciously looking at something and considering our experiences, actions, feelings and responses and analysing them to learn from them or change something

19. So Why Reflect? To avoid mindlessness
To avoid routinised mechanical practice, as this can:
Standardise users and approaches
Leads to a lack of awareness and analysis
Produces incomplete information on which to act
Produces stereotypes
Leads to oppression
Limits, learning, change and growth
(Thompson, 2000)
To avoid mindlessness

20. Reflection avoids. Defensive, Defeatist and Dangerous Practice will:
Defensive Practice
Defeatist Practice
Dangerous Practice
Defensive, Defeatist and Dangerous Practice will:
Limit engagement with service users and other professionals
Stifles Empowerment  
Puts undue emphasis upon risk and unprepared to take risks.
Means you have incomplete information upon which to act. 
Creates no learning and limits your own development.

21. Avoiding Dangerous Practice.
To avoid Defeatist practice
  accept limitations on our practice.
  change may be small or take time.
  sometimes we succeed by merely keeping things stable.
  celebrate our successes.
  talk about failures and seek support.
  be realistic and do your best.
To avoid Dangerous /chaotic practice
  manage time and workload.
  set priorities.
  keep people informed.
  be realistic about achievements.
Check facts- use emotional intelligence
To avoid Oppressive practice
  recognise discrimination and how we/agency contribute to it.
  avoid stereotyping.
  use appropriate language.
  appropriate use of power. (Thompson, 2000)

22. Last Word
“In the varied topography (environment) of professional practice, there is a high, hard ground where practitioners can make effective use of research-based theory and technique, and there is a swampy lowland where situations are confusing “messes” incapable of technical solution.
The difficulty is that the problems of the high ground, however great their technical interest, are often relatively unimportant to clients or to the larger society,
while in the swamp are the problems of the greatest human concern.”
Donald A. Schön, The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (New York: Basic Books Inc., 1983) at 42

23. What does all this mean! Reflection helps build emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence builds self awareness
Self awareness protects us and avoids dangerous practice
Helps builds our emotional resilience
Helps us to handle feelings/emotions in social work
Promotes mindfulness of what's going on when its going on!
Builds our conscious competence .

24. References
Cree, V. & McCauley (2001) Transfer of Learning. Handbook for Social Work Trainers, East Sussex, Psychology Press
Gould, N. and Taylor, I(1996) Reflective Practice in Social Work Arena
Goleman, D . (1996) Emotional Intelligence. Bloomsbury, London
Kolb, D. A.(1984) Experiential Learning. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall PTR
Lishman, J (2002) Personal and Professional Development in Adams, R., Dominelli, M. & Payne, M (2002) Social Work: Themes, Issues and Critical Debates, 2nd Ed, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan
Schon, D.(1983) The Reflective Practitioner, Basic books, Temple Smith, London
Thompson,N., (2009) People Skills, (3rd Ed), Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan
Thompson, N., (2000) Understanding Social Work. Preparing for Practice, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan