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ABSTRACT Physiotherapy, like many other professions, has adopted the notion of reflective practice as a desirable and necessary attribute of the competent practitioner. This article describes how reflective practice is currently conceptualised and interpreted by practising physiotherapists and undergraduate physiotherapy students. The research, which took the form of qualitative interviews and workshops, highlights both contextual differences in patterns of reflection among practitioners and practical differences in modes of reflection of practitioners and students. Findings are contextualised by reference to the demands of the task-oriented culture characteristic of the current National Health Service. The potential of reflective practice as a social and political tool for practitioners in the workplace, if reconceptualised as a dialogical process, is examined. Although these issues are debated and illustrated with reference to physiotherapy practice, they are likely to have wider relevance for other professions and subject areas within higher education.
Introduction
A paucity of professional debate and consequent lack of clarity surrounds the concept of reflective practice within the physiotherapy profession. My aim in this article is,. therefore, to highlight differing perspectives on reflective practice, with a view to promoting a better understanding of what is a complex concept. In its broadest sense, reflective practice involves the critical analysis of everyday working practices in order to improve competence and promote professional development. However, this process is contingent on the acknowledgement that professional action may contain errors, for instance, when practice is based on faulty assumptions. The detection of such errors is important if professional/ethical objectives are to be achieved (Argyris et al., 1985). It was with this assertion in mind that my interest in reflective practice was developed in the context of undergraduate professional education. Closer scrutiny of reflective practice, in both academic and practitioner arenas" seemed vital in order to identify differences in conceptions which may compromise the preparation of students for the workplace.
Inspired by Eraut (1985, p. 118), who suggests that `the quality of initial professional education and post initial on-the-job learning depends on the quality of practice', an exploration of the impact of reflective practice in the workplace seemed to point the way forward. If the work context dominates professional socialisation, as Eraut is convinced it does, the idea that the workplace can teach and inspire...