Project Overview

The Contribution of Becoming Reflective on the Employability of Teachers and Social Workers is a research project funded through the Federal Government’s former Office for Learning and Teaching. The research, led by the University of Sydney, includes research partners from four other Australian universities: Charles Sturt University, Deakin University, Queensland University of Technology and the University of Wollongong. The purpose of this research is to understand the relationship between developing the reflective capabilities of education and social work students currently or about to undertake field and increasing their employability as early career professionals.

The project took place over two stages. During the first stage interviews were conducted with social work directors and school principals (potential employers), academics, mentor teachers, field placement supervisors and early career professionals who have recently graduated. This stage also included the analysis of national standards documents for social work and education along with relevant professional employment criteria. The second stage was designed around an intervention. Final year education and social work undergraduate students from the five partner universities were invited to sign up for four online modules about reflective practice and its relationship to the workplace and to respond to professional vignettes before and after their participation in these modules.

A key purpose of stage one was to examine the role of reflective practice in the professional workplace from different perspectives and to interrogate the way terms such as critical reflection are defined in different contexts. Our aim was to better understand how reflective learning can be integrated across the professional pre-service curricula and the workplace.

Our findings from stage one directly fed into the design of the four online multimedia modules used in stage two. The modules were intended for developing the reflective practice capabilities of the student participants who consented to take part in the research project. The trial program included theory and definitions, short videos focused on specific topics, readings and suggested activities. A sample of the participants from the five universities conducting the study were interviewed after they had completed the modules to discuss their response to the learning materials and this led to further refinement.

These materials are now available to you via this website. The intended users include:

• Students and graduates wanting to develop their understanding of and capacity to be reflective practitioners
• Teachers wanting to use the materials as supplementary resources for their students
• Professional directors, school principals, supervisors and managers wanting to use the materials for their staff as supplementary resources for professional development

The videos included with these modules explore the meaning and practice of reflective practice in educational and workplace contexts. We have sought the perspectives of academics, employers and early career professionals.