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Reflective practice & Librarianship

Alyce Greenwood

Scholarly Services Librarian

Deakin University

Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B

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What is reflective practice?

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Reflective practice can involve learning by doing (strategic action):

‘…managers learn to be effective not primarily through the study of theory and technique but through long and varied practice in the analysis of business problems…’

(Schön, 1983, p. 240).

Strategic action

Present

Future

Past

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Reflective practice and purposeful careers

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?

What are you good at?

What do you enjoy?

What are you passionate about?

How can reflective practice helps us to have a purposeful career? I think I found librarianship through reflective practice. I’ve been a barista, worked in my family’s business, worked in retail, I’ve been a travel agent and a teacher. I love working with people, talking to people, and helping them. As a teacher I loved connecting students with resources to support their learning and made subject book boxes from the school library to support student discovery. As a travel agent I loved asking questions to work out what holiday destinations my clients may enjoy, and connecting them with these places and relevant information. I didn’t know it then but what I enjoyed was a reference interview. I would take time to reflect on what I was good at in different roles I had undertaken, what I enjoyed and reflected on areas of passion. I had always loved libraries and saw them as a key enabler throughout my life. By reflecting on my past I started to take strategic action to look at having a more purposeful career in the future. I started to explore and wondered would working in a library be a good role for me. I took this idea from my reflections and then started to explore different people on LinkedIn and different library related careers, and how people got there. Evaluating where you are at and taking strategic action can help you to work with purpose and to have a purposeful career.

Allowing time for reflection and thinking about what I am good at and what I enjoy enabled me to discover librarianship.

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My experience of reflective practice?

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	Reflecting during classes & modifying		Reflecting before & after classes
	Co-teaching & observing, & seeking feedback		Reflecting during enquiry consultations & then asking different types of questions
	Mentoring from more experienced Librarians in client consultations		Observing how others approach areas I find challenging
	Post reflection actively following up for guidance with more experienced colleagues		TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework has been helpful

I have tried to capture key themes from my experience of reflective practice as a librarian on this slide. In moving to a subject librarian role, I would reflect on enquiries I supported, or classes I delivered and seek out ways to address any challenges I was experiencing. This included following up and discussing with more experienced colleagues and getting their guidance, seeking mentorship from experienced colleagues, co-teaching with other librarians, and attending other librarian’s enquiry consultations. With time and practice, I became more confident with developing my practice through these approaches. I’ve experimented with different frameworks, but as I work in a teaching focussed role in an academic library, I’ve found TPACK to be a great framework for enhancing my practice through reflective practice. TPACK focusses teaching reflection on the interrelationship between the technology you are using, the approach to your teaching, the content you present, your knowledge of these areas and your teaching context.

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How do librarians learn on the job?

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Critically reflecting on their practice

Taking action to address problems of practice

Prioritising taking time to reflect on their work

When we reflect on reflective practice we should consider how do librarians learn on the job? As a Team Leader in an academic library, leading a team of staff with a wide range of skill levels. In implementing a new library chat service, we found that the type of enquires we were receiving were more complex than those we had previously been receiving. We used reflective practice to help upskill the team. Staff would read their chat transcripts and select an example that they found challenging, and we would discuss different approaches to helping our clients weekly as a team. Staff would also be encouraged to talk to peers or their supervisor about challenging chat transcripts or enquiries. Over time I could see staff improving in their reference interview questioning and search skills. Encouraging staff to prioritise taking time out to reflect was important. This process involved looking to the past through the chat transcripts to take strategic action to develop and grow in the job for the future.

Recently the library I work in went through significant organisational change, with many staff now in new roles and taking on new responsibilities. We are establishing a Community of Practice to help support learning on the job. We hope this will support staff to use reflective practice to develop for the future and support knowledge sharing across teams.

In my experience participating in Communities of Practice is an important part of learning on the job as a Librarian. Participation has often involved critically reflecting on my own practice, practices within my library workplace, and reflecting on ideas put forward by other librarians. Today we are using reflections from our practice to look towards enhancing the future. Participating in this workshop or tweeting your reflections contributes to reflective learning on the job.

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What role will reflective practice play in the future?

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Decreasing ALIA accredited courses

ALIA Professional Pathways project

Reflective as professionalism

CILIP Fellowship & Chartership applications require reflective practice

Accreditation through reflective practice ?

ALIA are undertaking a Professional Pathways project. This project involves developing a path forward for the career journeys of library and information services professionals. This is in an environment of decreasing ALIA accredited courses, due to forces outside of the sectors control. In my home state of Victoria there are no further intakes for in person ALIA accredited courses for Librarians and information specialists. The course I once undertook to become a Librarian has been discontinued.

Looking to the future I see reflective practice playing a greater role in professionalism for librarians and information specialist. Within the Professional Pathways Frameworks Project Consultation Paper, reflective practice is identified as an important attribute of Active Professionalism and Behavioural skills. One way this may play out is through accreditation pathways that involve reflective practice. CILIP Fellowship and Chartership in the United Kingdom, already requires applicants to utilises reflective practice to evidence their professional skills.

This may mean that a challenge for the profession going forward, could be balancing the tensions between meaningful and authentic reflective practice and evaluations of competence.

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Reflective practice and accreditation

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Submit an application aligned to a fellowship descriptor and include written referees

Application is assessed by experts

If you can demonstrate meeting the descriptor you will be accepted

Higher Education Academy Fellowship (HEA) reflective practice pathway

I have undertaken a professional accreditation through a reflective practice pathway through gaining a Higher Education Academy Fellowship. A HEA Fellowship can be awarded to those who are able to demonstrate they meet the set criteria for each fellowship type. There are five fellowship types. Each fellowship type has a criteria descriptor that aligns with the UK Professional Standards Framework. The reflective practice pathways to HEA fellowship involves preparing an application using a reflective writing approach, presenting evidence of demonstrating the professional standards through specific examples. Your application must include written referees that attest to the evidence provided in your application, and your capabilities against the framework. Applications are then assessed against the criteria and a decision is made as to whether a fellowship should be awarded.

I found this process to be beneficial to see where I wanted to grow my teaching practice. Through this process I had to reflect on my work and provide evidence of excellence in teaching in the same way you would when preparing a job application. The criteria becomes like a checklist and map for where you may need to develop competencies to enhance your practice.

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Reflective practice and applied research

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Reflective practice

- Reflective practice as research object

- Action research

- Case study research

Research output

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Reflective practice and applied research

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Strengths

Weaknesses

Opportunities

Threats

Your practice

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Reflective practice and applied research

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Research laboratory

Changes to practice

Critical reflection

Your practice

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Further resources

Deakin University. (2023). Critical reflection for assessments and practice. https://deakin.libguides.com/critical-reflection-guide

Greenwood, A., (2023). Librarians as Teachers: A Reflection on Practice. Identity, and the TPACK Framework to Enhance Professional Practice, Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2023.2192893

Greenall, J., & Sen, B. A. (2016). Reflective practice in the library and information sector. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 48(2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.1177/0961000614551450

Miller, J. M., (2020). Reflective Practice and Health Sciences Librarians: Engagement, Benefits, and Barriers. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 108(1), 17-28. https://doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2020.777

Leigh, J., (2016). An embodied perspective on judgements of written reflective practice for professional development in Higher Education, Reflective Practice, 17(1), 72-85, https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2015.1123688

Harvey, M., Lloyd, K., McLachlan, K., Semple, A. L., & Walkerden, G., (2020). Reflection for learning: a scholarly practice guide for educators. Advance HE

Boud, D., Keogh, R., and Walker, D. (1985). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. RoutledgeFalmer.

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. Basic Books.

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