Becoming a Reflective Practitioner, 6th Edition

CHAPTER 4Engaging the Reflective Spiral: The Second Dialogical Movement

Christopher Johns

Having written a description of the experience, the practitioner moves into the second dialogical movement to reflect on the experience guided by the model for structured reflection (MSR) with the aim of learning through gaining insight.

The Model for Structured Reflection

The MSR is used worldwide, especially in healthcare professions, for example, NovelestskyRosenthal and Solomon (2001). It is designed to enable practitioners to access the depth and breadth of experience necessary to gain insight. It moves through a reflective spiral from significance to insight. Significance lies on the surface of experience, whereas insights lay deep within. Insights are learning that change the practitioner in some way towards realising their vision of practice as a reality. Insights may be expressed as ‘what I learn from reflecting on this experience?’

The first version of the MSR was constructed in 1991 through analysing the pattern of dialogue in guided reflection, framed within Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory paradigm model (Johns 1998). Since then, it has evolved through reflection on its efficacy. Table 4.1 sets out the 18th edition. It is structured through six distinct phases that mirror the six dialogical movements: preparatory and descriptive [1], reflection and drawing insight [2], deepening insights through dialogue with literature and guides [3 and 4], presentation [5], and communication ...