professional identity reflection essay

Reflection, Teamwork, and Professional Identity

Reflection in a professional setting.

Reflection in a professional setting is an essential skill to build and maintain if you want to succeed and progress in many aspects of life. Reflection is taking the time to pause and think deeply and objectively about our experiences, actions, and beliefs to gain a better understanding and insight. It is a beneficial practice that can be done in various ways, such as journaling, self-reflection, and meditation. Reflecting on past experiences can help you identify mistakes or areas of improvement and make more informed decisions in the future. Reflection is a powerful tool that can help you to build upon your knowledge, develop new skills, and foster personal growth.

Reflection can be a highly advantageous practice for personal growth and development, as it allows us to become aware of our thoughts and feelings, thus making us more conscious of ourselves and our emotions (Bhola et al., 2022). This can then be applied to our decisions and actions, aiding us in understanding which areas may need improvement and recognizing and appreciating our successes and those of others. Additionally, reflection can be incredibly helpful in learning from our mistakes, allowing us to learn from them and taking the necessary steps to prevent similar issues. Ultimately, reflecting can be a great way to gain insight into ourselves and our environment, allowing us to become better versions of ourselves and progress in the right direction.

Reflection is an invaluable skill set that can be beneficial in various professional settings. It can help to create a better understanding of ourselves, which can lead to improved work performance, increased clarity in communication between colleagues, and a more positive working environment. Furthermore, through self-reflection, I can gain insight into how my actions, decisions, and behavior can affect my colleague and team. By reflecting on our behavior, I can become more effective leader, collaborators, and team player, which can, in turn, result in improved productivity and better results in the long run. Additionally, self-reflection helps me identify any mistakes or areas for improvement, allowing me to make changes that can positively impact team and work.

Finally, reflection can also allow us to learn from our experiences to improve our professional practice. By reflecting on our experiences and decisions, we can gain insight into what works and does not, allowing us to adjust and refine our methods and approaches continually. Overall, reflection is an important skill to have in any professional setting. It helps us to become more self-aware and emotionally intelligent and can help us to identify areas for personal and professional growth and development. Additionally, it can help us become better leaders, collaborators, and team players and allow us to learn from our experiences and continually improve our practice.

The Teamwork Component of the Project

Working collaboratively as part of a team can be a precious experience in any professional setting. It requires a great deal of collaboration, communication, compromise, and the willingness to consider different ideas and strategies from one another. Teamwork can be highly beneficial in many ways; it can help to foster creativity and innovation, build strong working relationships, and significantly contribute to more effective and efficient outcomes. Furthermore, working as part of a team can help to develop essential life skills, such as problem-solving, leadership, and the ability to work under pressure. Additionally, teamwork can be incredibly rewarding, as it provides an opportunity to learn from each other, share successes and challenges, and work together towards a common goal. Ultimately, working as part of a team can be a great experience that can be beneficial both professionally and personally.

Working in a team in another discipline has been an invaluable experience for me. I have developed important skills such as communication, problem-solving, and collaboration. Communication is key when working in a team, as it ensures that everyone is on the same page and can work together effectively. Problem-solving is also important, as it allows the team to work together to come up with solutions to any issues that may arise. Finally, collaboration is important when working in a team, as it allows each member to contribute ideas and resources to the project. Overall, working in a team in another discipline has been a great way to build my skillset and gain valuable experience.

One key event that illustrates what I have learned from working in a team is a project in that I was part of a multi-disciplinary team. During the project, I had the opportunity to gain new insight and understanding from the different perspectives of each team member, as well as the various strategies and approaches they brought to the table (Klein & Miraglia, 2021). This enlightening experience gave me a newfound appreciation for different ideas and practices and taught me the value of being open to varying points of view and ways of thinking. It was an invaluable lesson I will take with me as I continue to collaborate with others.

Additionally, I learned the importance of effective communication and collaboration to work together and achieve the desired outcomes effectively. This experience was beneficial when it came to an understanding each team member’s different roles and responsibilities and respecting each other’s ideas and opinions. I gained a greater insight into the different dynamics between team members and how this affects the project’s overall outcome. Through this experience, I understood the importance of listening to each team member’s opinion and then utilizing this to create a successful product (Ewing et al., 2021). Working together, I recognized the different perspectives I’ve had, and by listening to and understanding each other, we started a successful project.

The Development of the Professional Identity Throughout the Project

The experience of working as part of a team has had a tremendous impact on my professional development (Sarratt & Chadwick, 2020). It has given me an excellent opportunity to gain insight into different perspectives and approaches, hone my communication and collaboration skills, and understand the importance of compromise. Additionally, this experience has taught me the value of problem-solving and conflict resolution and has enabled me to develop my interpersonal skills (Klein & Miraglia, 2021). Through this experience, I have gained invaluable insight into the importance of teamwork, which has helped me build my professional identity further. Overall, this experience has been an excellent opportunity to learn and grow, and I am thankful for the chance to have been part of a team.

Professional identity is something that I have been exploring and developing throughout the course of this project. It is a process of self-discovery and growth (Rousselot-Pailley, 2021). It is important to me to identify my strengths and weaknesses and understand how I can use those qualities to benefit the industry or organization I am involved in. I am constantly striving to learn more and refine my skills, and with each new experience I gain, I can become better equipped to serve as a part of the organization. Taking the time to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses has allowed me to understand better my role within the organization and what I can do to contribute to its success.

Through the skills audit, I have gained a better understanding of my strengths and identified areas where I can improve and develop further. I have a good knowledge of the latest trends and am confident in my ability to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in my field. My communication skills are strong, and I have a knack for articulating my thoughts clearly and concisely. I am comfortable taking the initiative and creating creative solutions to complex problems. I have also been able to identify my weaknesses and create improvement plans to continue to grow and develop professionally.

Certain aspects of my skill set need to be enhanced. Specifically, I need to refine my public speaking abilities and increase my ability to cooperate with other people. Furthermore, I need to deepen my knowledge of the industry and the organization and further my understanding of the goals and objectives of the business. This will require me to undertake additional research and better grasp the sector’s overall landscape. Ultimately, these improvements will help me to become a better professional and a more valuable contributor to the team.

Throughout the course of this project, I have had the opportunity to gain a much better understanding of the industry, its various components, and the organization as a whole. I have observed the different roles and responsibilities of each team member and how they work together to achieve a common goal. It has been invaluable to see the importance of communication and collaboration between all members and the need to stay up to date with current trends to stay ahead of the competition. I have also built relationships with team members, which has been incredibly valuable in developing my understanding of the industry.

Bhola, P., Duggal, C., & Isaac, R. (2022). Reflective practice and professional development in psychotherapy . SAGE Publications.

Ewing, R., Waugh, F., & Smith, D. L. (2021). Reflective practice in education and social work: interdisciplinary explorations (1st ed.). Routledge.

Klein, S. R., & Miraglia, M. K. (2021). Becoming a visually reflective practitioner: An integrated self-study model for professional practice . Intellect Books.

Rousselot-Pailley, Y. (2021). Play nice: The new rule of teamwork . Independently published.

Sarratt, R., & Chadwick, R. (2020). Team work: 13 timeless principles for creating success and fulfillment as a team member . Fidelis Books.

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Personal Identity & Self-Reflection Essay

Personal identity and self-reflection agree well with narrative since it is through language that human beings co-exist. The relationship between personal identity and narrative originates from Hume’s theory, which claims that how we connect with ideas as a product of memory constructs our sense of self. While Hume does not talk about narratives, it is apparent that narratives are ideas that appear as product of memory constructs. Hence, narration is a key way of connecting reflections and offering a sense of identity.

Narratives connect many incidences to create an ideal object such as a historical event. Narration and the selves play a major role in the creation of these ideal objects, although this does not necessarily apply to the creation of all ideal objects. Tolstoy’s narration connects many incidences to explain to us about the death of Ivan Ilych. He starts by showing us the kind of life that Ivan Led.

Ivan led a life that was full of hypocrisy. He lived by the standards of the aristocratic society rather than using his individual reasoning to determine his life. Ivan married because the society expected a brilliant young lawyer with money to have a wife from a good family like Praskovya. “Ivan Ilych married…because his social circle approved of the match (Tolstoy par. 65).

He also purchased a house in the city so that he could have a symbol of material status, as dictated by the aristocratic society. As the story develops, we get to know more about Ivan through his self-reflection.

In the reflection, Ivan examined his past life and the values that he had lived by in all of his life. After self-scrutiny of his life, Ivan recognized the inevitability of death and the hypocritical nature of his past life. Following these realizations, he decided to defend himself but he realized that he had nothing to use for his defense. He had to admit that he had spent all of his life unrealistically and that his perception on life and death was a lie. Apparently, Tolstoy connects all these incidences to explain the death of Ivan.

We also argue that observers ascribe identity, as it is not intrinsic in the associated things. Ivan’s peers are the ones who recognize that than Ivan does not like associating himself with unpleasant things. Later in the novel, we see this aspect establishing itself as a central feature of Ivan’s personality. Ivan begins to exclude himself from indecorous elements of life. He leaves his expectant wife when her behavior begins to depress him.

“ ..Ivan Ilych hoped to escape from the unpleasantness of this state of affairs by the same easy and decorous relation to life that had served him heretofore ” (Tolstoy par. 23).

He separates himself from his family and resorts to office life. He starts looking at his marriage life from a formal perspective. “And Ivan Ilych evolved such an attitude towards married life” (Tolstoy par. 45). He only required of it those conveniences. Similar to how he views his profession, he begins to see his marriage as a contract.

He makes sure that he keeps away from his wife by inviting friends whenever he is at home for dinner. Ivan begins playing games with his wife as he unable to handle his personal and emotional life. He strictly adheres to his professional duties and separates his personal life from is profession. However, Ivan is unable to direct his personal life fully.

Personal identity is indissoluble from self-reflection as the observer recognizes it during reflection and not through spontaneous connection of ideas in the mind. From this perspective, personal identity is a product of constant reflections as depicted by Ivan. Ivan was reflecting one day while staring at Gerasim’s face when he started to wonder whether he had lived a correct life. “Maybe I did not live as I ought to have done” (Tolstoy par. 108).

A few minutes later, he realized he had lived a life full of lies. All aspects of his life including his family life, as well as his professional and social life were all full of lies. “And his professional duties and the whole arrangement of his life and of his family, and all his social and official interests, might all have been false” (Tolstoy par. 126).

Following the realization, he decided to defend himself but he realized that he had nothing to use for his defense. He had to admit that he had spent all of his life unrealistically and that his perception on life and death was a lie.

This revelation compelled Ivan to seek for the truth. He approached the doctor together with Praskovya and asked them to tell him the truth about his life. What bothered him a lot was the thought that he might have had led all of his life in the wrong way. Even with the new revelations, Ivan did not wholly dismiss the hope that he might have led a correct life.

From the above discussion, we can see that there exists an in-depth connection between narration, personal identity and self-reflection. A narrative is an informative tool that communicates social expressions of the self. The self is not an object, but a being and a creation that reflects on itself to discover and restructure itself completely through symbols of self- interpretation.

It is only through narrative constructions of memories that we can understand our past because the past is indefinite. The way we connect with past ideas as a product of memory constructs our sense of self. Narratives are also ideas and therefore, a key way of connecting reflections and offering a sense of identity.

Works Cited

Tolstoy, Lev Nikolayevich. The Death of Ivan Ilych . Trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude. New York: Pennsylvania State University, 1886. Web.

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Teacher’s Identity Development Through Reflection

The aim of a person’s professional development is a gradual awareness of one’s own personality, professional and life activity and its planning and perfection, readiness to analyse oneself and find a personally significant meaning in a particular professional activity that defines and forms a person's professional identity. In today's world, the key to successful professional activity is a strong development of self-identity. As reflection makes human actions more meaningful, raises awareness and suggests changes in attitudes, behaviours, actions in individual and professional contexts throughout life, the aim of this study is to reveal how Latvian teachers, working in different educational institutions and with several years of pedagogical experience, understand the essence of teacher’s professional identity by analysing their past, present and future teaching practices. The teaching experience of research participants – 80 Master’s students of Liepaja University, study programme General Education Teacher, are summarized applying a thematic analysis method, which allows to determine the factors influencing one’s own identity, sources of experience, weaknesses, ways for overcoming the obstacles, and specificity of the teacher’s identity. The research questions deal with teachers’ self-reflection, self-perception as educators, and professional activities that shape their professional identity. The research results describe teachers' reflections on their pedagogical activities, revealing several professional identity perfection dimensions, such as social responsibility, attitude change, search for alternative solutions, assessment of progress, and others.

Keywords: Reflection , self-conception , teacher’s experience , teacher’s professional identity

Introduction

Reflection is a key to learning and also to formation of one’s identity. It is a strategic instrument that leads to understanding the professional I-concept, allows using different reflection frameworks allowing analyzing one’s own pedagogical activity, giving opportunity to work independently ( Avraamidou, 2014 ; Brooks, 2016 ; Davey, 2013 ; Mikelsone & Odina, 2016 ).

Globalization of education and personal experiences contribute to modernization of the teacher’s profession, mobility, new values and methods and effects of commercialization and privatization ( Arber et al., 2014 ; Luk-Fong, 2013 ; Ospina, & Medina, 2020 ). The changing policies demand adjustment to the new vision, accountability, management and effectiveness ( Edwards & Edwards, 2017 ). Meanwhile, the teachers can either have faith and hope in the reforms proposed, or oppose them – undoubtedly it will affect the learning outcomes as well as reflection and professional identity; moreover, at the same time teachers as agents of innovations should be loyal to the schools, children and authorities ( Bower & Parsons, 2016 ; Buchanan, 2015 ). Every generation of teachers re-introduces the following questions: what kind of teacher am I; how can I be a ‘good’ teacher; what is the teacher’s scope of responsibility; how can I assess the quality of education. These questions are directly linked to reflection ( Bukor, 2015 ). As Dewey ( 2012 ) has stated: “We do not learn from experience – we learn from the reflection on experience” (p. 35).

The teacher’s professional identity and status have to be defined by the teachers themselves. It is usually difficult to measure the long-term impact of any teaching. Davey ( 2013 ) suggests that the identity of a teachers’ educator is even more complex, and the self-understanding of identity is rooted in reflections, which are, indeed, very common when it comes to the goals and dispositions of teacher’s profession. The historical, economic and political context of a particular country must always be taken into the account ( Bates et al., 2011 ). When developing the individual approach to professional identity, it is important to respect also its wider context. It can take place through listening to oneself, writing and re-storying, but imaging and revisioning is also possible.

Hanna et al. ( 2019 ) have developed an overview of quantitative identity measurement methods and have summarized them under six domains, such as self-image, motivation, commitment, self-efficacy, task perception, and job satisfaction. In another study, the same authors ( Hanna et al., 2020 ) consider the teacher’s identity as a second-order construct (deconstructed into motivation, self-image, self-efficacy, and task perception), and they use through learning, teaching, practicing and autobiographical reports, interviews and observations quantitative and qualitative approaches allowing a factorial design experiment. Although diverse identity theories use different terminology, they usually support solid and strong, emotional and enthusiastic teachers, and speak about role anticipation, occupational values, and feelings of intrinsic satisfaction ( Hanna et al., 2020 ). Another important instrument for exploring teacher’s professional identity is a narrative analysis, which enables understanding of the teacher’s unique multifaceted personality, never applying the existing solutions in the same way, but inventing new ones every day; narrating helps self-positioning and understanding of the ongoing events ( Sultman & Brown, 2019 ; Taylor, 2017 ).

Discourses, longitudinal and life-history studies are instrumental for strengthening teacher’s identity. The personal narratives of teachers, revealed during the teaching, learning, autobiographical reports, interviews and observations reveal the essence and specifics of professional identity, which are essential for teacher’s profession. Also, metaphors are recognized as efficient tools for developing teacher’s professional identity ( Erickson & Pinnegar, 2017 ; Mikelsone & Odina, 2016 ).

Teachers’ interactions are often filled with tensions, and they become aware of the necessity to look at themselves through a critical lens and rebuild their identity while evolving as human beings ( Jenlink, 2014 ). Unfortunately, many early career teachers drop out, and this is often related, among other factors, to their personal identity, which must be supported, reinforced and acknowledged ( Johnson et al., 2015 ; McIntyre & Hobson, 2016 ). Becoming a teacher and continuing to keep up with self-development is a never-ending activity ( Olsen, 2016 ).

The issues of teacher’s identity formation and reflection in the context of Latvia are explored by Silova et al. ( 2010 ); there are studies dedicated to formation of Latvian music and language teachers’ identity ( Fernández & Manuel, 2010 ; Ivanova & Skara-Mincāne, 2016 ). As Mikelsone et al. ( 2014 ) suggests, the self-awareness in teacher’s profession is growing, although the society does not always support the teachers.

Problem Statement

In the times of change the teaching requires new vision. Changes in education system create changes for teachers’ professional activity, as well as identity. The role of teachers has changed; therefore teachers must constantly work on their self-development. Often teachers professionalize and commercialize their work in order to survive these changes, but reflection remains crucial for developing this new professional identity. In other words, changes in education bring on changes in teacher’s work and professional identity, and this can take place through reflection.

Research Questions

The research questions deal with teachers’ self-perception as educators, self-reflection, and professional activities that shape their professional identity. The research questions are:

• What are the main concerns of teachers in Latvia?
• What experience influences teacher’s professional identity?

Purpose of the Study

The goal of this study is to gather and present the ongoing processes related to the Latvian teachers’ understanding of the development of their professional identity through self-reflection. The obtained results help to understand the teacher’s identity within its development.

Research Methods

The data for this phenomenological research study was gathered from analyzing focus group discussions and participants’ essays employing content analysis method. The participants of this qualitative study are 80 Liepaja University Master’s level students, practicing teachers, mostly women (3 men), aged from 23 to 65, working in different parts of Latvia – in big cities, small towns and villages, teaching the regular curriculum, afterschool activities, and different disciplines from pre-primary to higher education levels including life-long education sector. In the process they participated in pair and group discussions, performed video-analysis of their own work and work of others, discussed the content of books, articles and episodes of films. Then they presented short sketches on themes borrowed from everyday events of teaching practice. Later, they wrote essays about their professional career and reflected upon their understanding of teacher’s identity. While perfecting their own professional knowledge, teachers had to retrospectively reflect upon the gains and losses, as well as compare their experience on various stages of professional development working in diverse fields and in various circumstances. They also demonstrated the assessment methods they use in everyday teaching encounters and engaged in the role-plays.

The answers are coded and grouped around the key themes, generalizing ideas and supporting the selected points through the excerpts from the essays. The data will be summarized in following sections: Self-perception of what it means to be a good teacher, Self-perception of teacher’s professional identity, Sources of experience for development of teacher’s professional identity, The factors hindering the development of teacher’s professional identity, The impact of the school environment on teacher’s professional identity, and finally some practical remarks related to teacher’s professional identity, employing teacher’s professional identity components described by Rivilla and Mata ( 2009 ). The obtained results help to understand the teacher’s identity within its development.

According to Rivilla and Mata ( 2009 ), the teacher’s professional identity is formed by 1) knowledge about profession, 2) professional knowledge of how to be a teacher, which includes attitude, morals, professional values; 3) involvement in pedagogic activity, and 4) practice - to know how to act professionally. The results help to understand the teacher’s identity within its development. The research data shows that teachers mostly link their understanding about professional identity with professional knowledge of how to be a teacher or examples of good practice. They rarely talk about their own involvement in pedagogical activities, although it can be sensed when they describe their satisfaction with work and their ideals. When characterizing oneself as a teacher, the respondents tend to describe more the real self – how I perceive myself, and less the reflective self - how I am perceived by others, and the ideal self – how I want to be in the future ( Horney, 2013 ). From 80 respondents, 50 were focusing on the real self.

Further we will illustrate the findings with ideas and quotes from focus discussions and essays written by the respondents reflecting of teacher’s professional identity.

Self-perception of what it means to be a good teacher

For children a teacher is the important Other who differs from their family members but collaborates with them as well as with colleagues. According to the respondents, it is not fair if the child considers the teacher as his/her second mother (or father). The teacher must be tough and nice at the same time, should have authority, and the children should listen to him/her and obey. Pupils feel who loves them and who enjoys being with them. They recognize the value of justice and equality of treatment.

Everybody, and especially teachers, must learn new things all the time because everything around is changing so fast. Teachers can learn from their pupils and pupils’ parents, from colleagues, courses, books, films, etc. When discussing a problem, they learn from a spectrum of opinions and become richer and more flexible than before. Teachers should be ready to detect the specificity of every child’s learning process, to encourage and motivate him/her to overcome the obstacles. Therefore, one should never say that he/she knows how to teach or how to solve a difficult issue, but to continue acquiring new knowledge about the essence of human development.

Questions make pupils think. Photographs taken by the teacher are more interesting than those downloaded from the Internet. Personal views and stories stimulate more than texts from the textbooks. Whenever it is possible, the connection to literature, drama, and improvisation should be established. When children attend school with joy and willingness to learn, it is a success.

Good teaching is comprehensive, systematic, based on humane principles and sustainable development, broad and versatile, without borders, specific, focused on meaningful understanding of the material, which is pragmatically applicable in the future. Self-confidence hatches when a professional is confident in the teaching material, and thus he/she earns respect from the students. The best educators have a charisma, they are confident, they do not need to “buy” attention from the class, they do not concede to provocations, and they work with all pupils.

“As a teacher I do not just want to be a person who helps others (children, teenagers and adults) to obtain some new knowledge, I want to give to my disciples professional skills and to prepare them for their future, to promote their self-development, both physically and mentally, as well as to teach self-evident life skills. I want to be an example for my students helping to find the right way in everything – polite manners, behavior in society. I want them to be interested in education, improve their knowledge, and promote their self-growth and to help them to achieve their goals reaching them as fast as possible. I want to be like a friend to my students, so they feel free to come to me and tell me what is suppressing them, or explain things they don’t understand. Therefore, it is important that children communicate with their peers and adults, not just be with themselves.”

The outer image of the teacher must be calm, self-confident, polite, and emotionally intelligent, but the communication style should be firm, peaceful and friendly. “The strongest teachers were those who put their pupils ‘in place’ but manage to do that gently and without threats.” Teachers should keep the record of everything they do in class and be accountable for their actions because children are watching, judging, copying, imitating, generalizing, or rejecting the world around them.

In participants view, a teacher is not just a profession; teacher is a supportive friend, a trustful and attentive person. Students must realize that they are learning for themselves and for their own future, and the teachers should be aware of the pace in which they demonstrate this road. Moreover, teachers must show how the goals can be achieved and how the knowledge is acquired, so that pupils can organize these processes themselves. Visualization and self-employment are important part of bootstrapping.

Self-perception of teacher’s professional identity

The data analysis shows that often teachers link their self-perception with their memories from the time they were pupils at school. About their past teachers speak with emotions, but often generalizing and not providing particular substantiations and facts. It can be explained with unwillingness to talk about themselves, but others, for example, by saying that “dutiful pupils gained more from school than the rebels who constantly expressed their opinion”.

Several respondents admitted that not all of their educators have been good, but with some they had positive relations. The need for communication in the pedagogical process is acknowledged also for development of self-identity. Respondents stress that the chance to talk and discuss, not only to acquire knowledge, was appreciated. They liked teachers who were interested in their students and who gave positive feedback. Good teachers adjusted their assessment criteria to the interests and abilities of students; they changed along with the new generation and new instruction tools, striving to attain quality, to respect children, to promote their well-being in the society and to love their job. Their inner motivation stimulated the growth of their students, leading to the achievement.

Teachers must be tolerant towards innovations. The participants point out that every teacher has many roles, and a novice educator must try to build simultaneously multiple connections, acquire ways of self-regulation and control over the events. There are no ready-made formulas; open-mindedness, adaptability, endurance, and readiness to try out innovations help a person to evolve as a teacher. Textbooks are not enough; the university gives only guidelines, yet, teachers continue to learn, otherwise they risk becoming boring and using outdated methods. Teachers’ curiosity never ends, as well as their desire to show the joy of discovery to other people.

“I think I am fortunate that the teaching process has gone smoothly. It is probably due to being a dad myself and being an assistant coach for some time. Since I was not associated with the school at the beginning of my teaching career …, it was other teachers who encouraged me to move forward. My family and friends, who often said - I need to become a teacher, also provided a valuable support and encouragement. Of course, before starting my teaching, I studied in-depth various sources and watched different videos about conducting classes in schools. Prior education also played an important role, providing me with the theoretical insights into social interaction, communication, work groups and more.”

Teachers should meticulously observe pupils during all their activities, discovering new ideas, understanding what is going on and comparing already established views to the reality. Teachers need a sense of humor, but also they need to understand the peculiarities of the developmental stage – thus the teachers must be careful when choosing and telling jokes. They give to their audience at least as much as they had once received themselves. “If the teacher has lost his/her pedagogical conviction, he/she has to walk away from this work. No child will benefit from a teacher who does not understand what his/her own job motivation is”.

Sources of experience for development of teacher’s professional identity

The very first childhood encounters relationships in the family, educational institutions and in the playground may reveal the type of personality. Childhood experiences are often transferred to one’s career, as well as role-plays to the profession. Many children like to play ‘schools’, they try out teacher-pupil roles, developing empathy, cooperation skills – skills needed for the teachers. Later, the childhood experiences gain a new quality. Very often, the best students start their pedagogical careers already during their studies: when they succeed in learning, they are involved into teaching as assistants to the main teacher. Moreover, students explain to each other how to solve problems and discuss various subjects. The teachers who treat their pupils with respect continue to be the role models for their former pupils.

It is important that different pedagogic methods and approaches are utilized to avoid uniformity. Despite of old or new teaching methods applied, the teacher’s personality, his/her manners and the language that he/she uses is more important. Another methodological question remains: which teaching is more effective – the one that tries to teach everything to everyone and prepare the pupils for the final examinations or the one that steers up curiosity and fun? The participants mostly endorsed the second approach but could suggest only a couple of cases when it really was implemented.

It is a privilege to be born in a teacher’s family. When growing up, interesting dialogues take place at home. Discussions with one’s own parents, sharing of knowledge, observations of their behavior and explanations they give become an important investment. It is useful to watch educational videos, workshops, blogs and webinars on certain topics. When some tips and hints are needed for solving complex situations, one can start chatting to those who are in the same field to get the clues, ideas and instructions, most of which can be implemented immediately.

Teachers’ own children make them to understand what the teaching means, especially if one has a child whose health is not perfect. A lot can be learnt from the colleagues when they exchange memories of all the that they have had as novice teachers. It helps to take the videos of lessons and watch them alone or in a group analyzing what was successful and what need improvement. Some books, movies and Internet resources may open new horizons.

The factors hindering the development of teacher’s professional identity

According to the respondents, many good initiatives stumble upon limited time, absence of wisdom, deficient willpower. A poor skilled teacher is not able to make decisions, has no compassion, cannot admit errors or refuses to explain them. Such teacher has no ability to notice every pupil’s individual capacities and to engage with pupils in in-depth conversations. The teacher must work with the pupils towards their growth, protecting and nourishing their abilities and their minds.

It shows lack of professional mastery, which manifests itself in lack of methodical knowledge ( Rivilla & Mata, 2009 ). A weak teacher is inconsistent and incoherent, he/she promises and forgets, gives too much of useless homework, punishes and praises without explanation, shouts when children do not listen to, and is simply too lazy to search for new information or to do something outside of his/her obligations. The absence of pedagogical skills manifests itself in handling serious cases, showing helplessness in front of the class. Thus, the obstacles for professional teaching are the lack of academic knowledge and poor understanding of organizational culture.

The learning communities can be oriented towards gossiping and not self-development. It is tricky to work in a small town where people know each other and keep gossiping about everyone. Additional challenge is to work at a school where one of your parents is a teacher and all others know everything about your family; or to work in a school where you studied yourself. The difference between the levels and quality of education that the teachers received before in the same educational establishment can also cause mutual disagreements.

“I think it is important to work on the motivation of pupils, the development of self-motivation, because motivated pupils feel the need for quality education. I am aware that there are many gaps in our education system, and pupils must learn things that later will not be applicable. Neither the assessment system is friendly to them. I've had a lot of tough moments in my life. My hard life experience as a child allows me to understand other children. In the past, my way of thinking was similar to many others. It was easier to see the bad things around than to weigh the situation and act. For self-improvement, I try to attend different courses in which I learn to understand the pupils. I have improved my own way of thinking because I believe that the change in education starts with the teacher. I also read unconventional literature that expands my thinking. In order to be a good educator, one does not need to read purely pedagogical literature. There is also a need to read what children are reading today, because it helps to understand the pupils, as well as address the inner child in yourself”.

Impact of the school environment on teacher’s professional identity

Educational establishment is a place for innovations. Besides, the school must feel like a confident and comfortable space where a common life takes place for the children and teachers. Even if we know some stories about the others, we should every person as individuals. When a class functions like a team and the school is like a second home, the synergy of many souls achieves the best results.

The classroom environment influences the degree of involvement and successful learning. It is much easier for a subject teacher to have his/her own classroom arranged in a way that the children may learn from the environment. A clean, bright, good, informative, joyful atmosphere helps promoting the progress. Too much decorations, games, posters restrict freedom. Structured purposeful teaching aims to lighten the burden of everyday planning; with the help of reflection it is possible to organize the process, to set the rules, to develop the content, to decorate the everyday routine, to liven up the imagination, and to relieve the load of work.

Some practical remarks related to teacher’s professional identity

All parties involved in the pedagogical process must be aware of their rights, obligations, and responsibilities. All parts in the teaching process must contribute to the development of a suitable, confident, and engaging atmosphere. An effective teacher-student interaction is built upon a constructive dialogue. Teachers must look through the students’ eyes in order to solve the problems and find answers. Some teachers are guides, and some are leaders, but all of them must stand for justice and morality and not give up. The initiative of the teacher takes diverse forms (e.g., events) corresponding to different aims. Teachers should seek for interaction with a wider society, cooperate with diverse stakeholders, and not be afraid to get feedback whenever they can.

Novice educators spend a lot of time preparing each lesson hoping that later, when the process becomes familiar and materials are ready, everything will run effortlessly. Flexibility must be squarely equipped. The teacher must constantly follow what happens in the world, in other countries and cultures, as it is beneficial when organizing debates, quizzes, games. “The educator develops his/her personality through nonbinding activities like music, sport, travel, visits of cultural events and, of course, reading, and teacher must be prepared for everything”.

The appropriate body language is important, the feelings must be handled, and emerging problems discussed. The speech of some teachers is too monotonous. Many have problems with their voice and must take care of it; they must also learn how to alternate it. Educational process can also be emotionally draining and therefore requests control over the feelings. Educators must switch from the classroom teaching to their life at home remembering that those who live with them are not their students.

Teachers are people who want to improve the society, who try to be the best they can be: “I love my work; I love the pupils I work with and I hope we can do better together in our surrounding world. The result will come slowly, but it will be worth it!”

“A teacher should not only be a, who serves the people by doing his/her job. A teacher should be an exampleto his/her students, a person in whose footsteps the students would gladly walk”. Improvisation allows the teacher not to stick to the prepared plan but to adjust it anew to the current setting. Still, “it seems that the longer you work at school, the less you know how to do the job”. A self-assessment should be supplemented by valid proofs and evidence. Satisfaction comes when the job is also the hobby.

The teachers who follow a different paradigm struggle to change their point of view.

According to the respondents, communication awakens the thought, thus, it is important that teachers understand the students and. Respondents often idealize the teacher and believe that this ideal can be reached – although randomly, not always and not by everybody. They realize that all the time the students want something new, ambitious, fascinating and exciting, something that would bring joy and significance into the subject teaching. The research participants are against the dullness. This can be viewed as exaggerated statement, because the pupils must also learn to cope with boring things, they must acquire the ability to find activities for themselves and must learn to see some beneficial and practical sides also in the dull situations they encounter.

The teachers learn from their colleagues, students, encounters, and other sources; this is immanent to the profession, although not easy to grasp. Paradoxically, they tend to be conservative but at the same time emphasize the innovative methods; and they do not trust the textbooks too much. A positive, inspiring attitude helps to overcome the difficulties; it stimulates the “ability to smile, joke, and search for opportunities and not for excuses”.

Applying self-reflection, teachers can better understand themselves, develop their pedagogical identity and their teaching methods. The reactions of students help to analyze what was a failure and what can be a success. Many who suffered from their teachers in their childhood can now comprehend their students better.

All participants highlighted the ability of the teachers to have authority and to maintain the discipline. At the same time, they supported the idea of making everybody feel special and of practicing democracy. Not surprisingly, the pupils like active, attractive, interesting and creative lessons the most. Nowadays, the teachers are especially exposed to the criticism and therefore must be brave enough to face the frustrations. It does not mean that the teachers must reject all the comments but that they are obliged to integrate their advanced experience into curriculum.

Teachers confess that they like children, and pedagogy for them is more satisfying than commerce. It seems that all of them want to be great and passionate teachers – teachers in a unique manner; nobody wants just to fulfill the standards. The relationships between students, parents and educators must be developed on the grounds of reciprocal empathy, recognition of rights, fair play, and awareness of emotional impact. The educators must abandon some of their persisting stereotypes and superstitions and evolve into self-confident persons; they are on the way to competence-based approach, ready to accept challenges and invest in the development of the reformed system. The teachers must reflect upon their own skills and find out what their strengths and weaknesses are, and the pupils should do the same. The teachers help their students to develop their own identity, understand the beauty of learning, and to acquire knowledge, competences, and values. Everyone has several teachers behind, and the best reward is when the students make progress and are grateful.

For reflection to be fruitful, it is important to change the way of thinking and attitude. First of all, it is important to understand and accept the reflection as a value, to develop ability to observe, describe and analyse events and activities, search for alternatives. Reflection allows seeing clearer one’s own achievements and growth has well as growth of the students. Reflection and search for teacher’s professional identity go hand in hand.

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Protassova, E., Mikelsone, I., & Latsone, L. (2021). Teacher’s Identity Development Through Reflection. In A. G. Shirin, M. V. Zvyaglova, O. A. Fikhtner, E. Y. Ignateva, & N. A. Shaydorova (Eds.), Education in a Changing World: Global Challenges and National Priorities, vol 114. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 67-77). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.07.02.9

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Personal Identity — Reflection On Personal Identity

A Reflection on My Personal Identity

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Identity Reflection (essay)

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Reflection and professional identity development in design education

• Published: 01 September 2016
• Volume 28 , pages 263–285, ( 2018 )

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• Monica W. Tracey   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9665-3468 1 &
• Alisa Hutchinson 2  

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Design thinking positions designers as the drivers of the design space yet academic discourse is largely silent on the topic of professional identity development in design. Professional identity, or the dynamic narratives that individuals construct and maintain to integrate their personal qualities with professional responsibilities, has not been widely addressed in design education either. The study investigated the use of reflective writing in an introductory design course to help students explore and interpret their design beliefs, experiences, and self-awareness in support of professional identity development work. The results indicate that authorial presence, analysis, and narrative quality are common qualities in reflective responses, but emotion is notably lacking from student writing. Students were highly reflective in relation to a general experience with uncertainty and were least reflective when discussing ideation processes. Implications for design education and related research are analysed and discussed.

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Introduction

Four designers on a design team huddled together brainstorming ideas for an instructional intervention: using the social media platform Twitter to teach adolescent girls attending a weeklong residential camp about bullying. Having never used Twitter as an instructional tool, the team was uncertain about the constraints of this design, the participants, and the short instructional delivery cycle (only 1 week). The designers had a fairly clear vision of the experience they wanted to create for their adolescent learners, but the challenges lay in discovering and refining the shape of the final design product that would create this experience.

In order to create momentum in the design space, the group began by sharing relevant memories and experiences from their personal histories. One designer talked about her experience at a similar 1-week camp she attended several years ago while another recalled her past history of being bullied as an adolescent. A third designer described her extensive multi-media experience; although her use of Twitter was minimal, she realized she could transfer some of the skills she had mastered to this design situation. Another mentioned that her design expertise was focused on adults rather than younger learners, but she also knew that many principles of instruction and learning would be applicable regardless of age. The team had individually experienced the challenges of tight design deadlines before and had diverse previous design experiences; furthermore, they all believed that as designers, they had a responsibility to their learners to give them the best experience possible given the resources available. As a group, they felt confident in their ability to design a meaningful instructional intervention by drawing on their collective expertise and experiences to confront the unique constraints and opportunities present in the situation.

This brief snapshot of an early moment in the design process illustrates the important role that designers’ personal histories and identities play in the design space. The problem–solution relationship for the bullying instructional design team was multilayered; the learners, the topic, the delivery method, the short design time, were a few of the constraints on the realization of a final design outcome. As the vignette depicts, the seeds for the design lay in the interaction each of the designer’s personal beliefs, experiences, and self-awareness with the specifics of the design context.

Professional identity in design

One way to conceptualize the integration of personal histories with the responsibilities of design practice is through the lens of professional identity. While professional identity and its development have not been adequately explored in the design literature, other fields such as teaching, healthcare, social work, and psychology have traditionally included identity development as an important component of professional training (Luehmann 2007 ). From research in these fields, professional identity can be understood as narrative interpretations (and reinterpretations) of experiences, beliefs, values, and personal qualities relevant to the professional space. These narratives are constructed in a social context (particularly within one’s community of practice) and are constantly evolving to account for new information, although core principles tend to develop slowly and are resistant to change once established (see Luehmann 2007 , for a review). For the bullying instructional design team, each individual designer shared and reinterpreted narratives about their own identity within the design context in order to better understand the problem and imagine possible solutions.

Design education programs must prepare future designers to take on a professional role that is more personal, complex, and dynamic than is typically understood or incorporated in design curriculum; this is true at least in the field of instructional design although we speculate this emphasis is new in other areas of design practice as well (Tracey and Boling 2013 ; Tracey and Hutchinson 2013 ; Tracey et al. 2014 ). For example, in order to stand ready to accept the design challenges they will face in their professional practice, similar to those in the bullying instructional design team, design students need opportunities to explore who they are as designers as well as identify personal beliefs and experiences that may influence their actions in the design space. As Dall’Alba ( 2009 ) asserts, this involves moving beyond the transmission of information and skills and toward the personal embodiment of the professional role; in other words, design education must incorporate not only opportunities to acquire professional knowledge and actions, but must also provide students with the freedom and support to practice being a designer and develop awareness of what this means to them personally (Dall’Alba 2009). These opportunities provide a foundation for the development of professional designer identity and a schema that integrates individual characteristics with the duties, values, and territory of the profession.

Reflection and professional identity development

In addition to its well-documented role in the design space reflection (and particularly, reflective writing) is a common pedagogical technique for identity development in other fields such as teaching and medicine (Luehmann 2007 ). The use of reflection is not novel, as it can be traced back to Dewey ( 1910 , 1916 ) who described reflection as an active and ongoing process of interrogating one’s beliefs, experiences, and knowledge including their foundations and implications. Although subsequent definitions of reflection in the literature vary, core features typically include the personal construction of knowledge that arises from dynamic and purposeful (re)considerations of cognitive and/or affective experiences (Blaschke and Brindley 2011 ; Davis 2006 ; Henderson et al. 2004 ). While Dewey ( 1910 , 1916 ) traditionally positioned reflective work in service of problem-solving, its utility has been broadened since then to incorporate the construction and interpretation of values, beliefs, and conceptual stances (Atkins and Murphy 1993 ; Hong and Choi 2011 ; Langley and Brown 2010 ). This directly underscores its importance to professional identity development work, which is largely concerned with interpreting and refining beliefs about the self, the profession, and the integration of the two.

While his concept of reflection-in-action during professional practice is more widely known, Schön’s ( 1983 ) reflection-on-action is highly relevant for understanding the role of reflection in identity development, as it characterizes the dynamic narration and interpretation of past experiences rather than reflection that occurs in the immediate moment. The concepts of reflection-for-action and reflection-from-action build on Schön by directing the focus of reflection toward planning for the future (Luppicini 2003 ; McAlpine and Weston 2000 ). Reflecting for and from action is particularly relevant to design education, as the goal of any design curriculum should be to prepare students for what they will encounter in their future professional practice. Constructing meaning with the goal of acting in the future lends vitality to the reflection process, keeps the insights generated during reflection from stagnating, and provides the emerging designer with a tentative roadmap for their future actions in the design space.

Beliefs, experiences, and self-awareness as identity pillars

As described in the bullying design team example, design precedents are foundational to designer professional identity formation, development, and ultimately practice. Design precedents can be characterized as design experiences and episodes that fuel designer intelligence, intuition, and decision-making in the design space (Tracey and Boling 2013 ; Tracey and Hutchinson 2013 ). Designers draw on their personal pool of stored design precedents, both experienced and witnessed, as they engage in reflective conversations with the design problem and tentative solutions in order to better understand the relationship between the two. Design precedents are considered the foundation of design knowledge but they also serve as a pillar of professional identity, along with beliefs and self-awareness. Beliefs (such as individual conceptions of what design is, or what instruction is) provide a context to locate experiences while self-awareness (such as a sense of your own traits or habits of thought and action) provides a filter for interpreting experiences. Identity is ever evolving, due to the transformational relationships among these pillars, which are further influenced by new experiences that challenge or confirm existing identity attributes. Thus, to best serve design students, the construction of preliminary design beliefs, precedents, and self-awareness must be aligned with the realities of professional practice in order to provide a durable and meaningful foundation for professional identity.

Research problem and questions

Within the extant literature, very little is known about how design students construct and maintain professional identity. However, written reflection is a common instructional practice that is successfully used in other fields for identity development work. Thus, we were interested in exploring how reflective writing could be incorporated in an introductory design thinking course with an emphasis on providing opportunities for students to tentatively explore, embody, and reflect on their emerging sense of self-as-designer. For this study, our primary areas of inquiry were:

What qualities of reflection are represented in students’ written narratives regarding their beliefs, experiences, and self-awareness as they relate to professional identity, and to what degree are they included?

Do the qualities of reflection vary based on the topic students are writing about? In other words, does the reflection pattern change when students are reflecting on different aspects of identity, such as beliefs, experiences, or self-awareness? Do specific prompts elicit different reflection profiles, and if so, in what ways do they differ?

Methodology

Design-based research (DBR) provides the overarching methodological umbrella for this project. DBR is an iterative and integrative method for researching educational interventions and other designed products or experiences that (1) is situated in authentic professional practices and contexts; (2) involves collaboration between designers and researchers; and (3) is motivated to contribute findings relevant to both practice and theory (Wang and Hannafin 2005 ). As described in more detail below, the focus of this DBR case is an introductory instructional design (ID) course that was being redesigned to focus on design thinking and professional identity while moving away from a previous emphasis on ID models and processes. At the same time, the course was being transitioned from an in-person classroom to an online learning environment.

DBR does not dictate a particular research approach but rather gives researchers the freedom to collect and analyze data using the methods most appropriate to the goals of the case (Wang and Hannafin 2005 ). For this aspect of the project, we were interested in exploring the role of reflective writing as an avenue for professional identity development in design education. While our previous work included pilot investigations of the central ideas and methodology presented here (see Tracey et al. 2014 ), the goal of this article is to refine and extend our established research framework to a larger dataset in order to draw more substantive conclusions from our findings and their implications for design education and research. As discussed previously, we are concerned with (1) developing a nuanced portrait of how students engage in reflection when writing about professional identity and (2) identifying any patterns of reflection that may emerge in response to a particular identity domain (beliefs, experiences, or self-awareness).

These questions are qualitative in nature in that they attempt to identify how participants reflect on their professional identity; questions of “how” and “why” are signatures of qualitative research (Maxwell 2010 ). However, we also have a large data set that includes 626 written responses from multiple sections of the course and needed a manageable and consistent way to code this volume of data considering our analysis team included nine coders. We opted to employ a validated reflection rubric (described below) as an analysis tool that would provide structure for our data coders while still capturing themes important to our qualitative inquiry. This approach also involves the use of simple quantitative data or quasi-statistics, which Maxwell ( 2010 ) describes as useful for identifying diversity as well as patterns within qualitative data—both of which may otherwise be overlooked when strictly impressionistic or non-numeric approaches are used, particularly with large data sets.

Participants and context

Participants included 69 graduate students from four consecutive semesters of an online, introductory design course offered by a public research university in a large city in the Midwestern United States. Participants varied in age and race, with many international students included in the participant pool. The course is required for all students in the university’s Learning Design and Technology (LDT) Master’s and PhD programs, and is also a mandatory course for an online teaching certification program that is open to all graduate students at the university. Thus, while most participants were enrolled in the LDT program, there were some from other fields, particularly master’s students in library science.

Prior iterations of the course had focused on learning how to follow models and processes rather that active engagement with design thinking and identity development, which is common in ID education. The course was redesigned to emphasize the integration design thinking principles and concepts within the design space (Cross 2011 ; Nelson and Stolterman 2012 ) and also draws on Dall’Alba’s ( 2009 ) framework of knowing, acting, and being as an approach to professional education. The first 7 weeks of the class are devoted to learning principles and concepts of design and design thinking; this foundation provides a context for introducing theories and material specific to instructional design and learning beginning in the eighth week. The instructional activities are constructivist in nature and encourage active learning through high-level reflection and interpretation in relation to existing experiences and knowledge (Perkins 1992 ). They included reflective writing, peer group activities, readings, case studies, and a final design project. At the same time the curriculum was changed, the course was also transitioned from a classroom setting to an online environment, with all course content and instruction delivered via a Google site and Google tools.

Data sources and collection

Data was drawn from personal reflection journals kept by students as Google docs that were shared with the instructor for feedback. The journals were maintained throughout the semester, with writing prompts assigned during eight out of 14 weeks for a total of 27 prompts. Weeks 1–6 all included prompts, as did the eighth and fourteenth weeks. Prompt topics included professional identity elements such as personal beliefs (i.e., knowing), experiences (acting), and self-awareness (being), along with questions regarding course readings and case studies. Nine prompts were identified as being relevant to this study, including two related to beliefs, three related to experiences, and four related to self-awareness. Table  1 details the text of the prompt and associated identity domain. Each prompt was labelled by the week it was included and its prompt number for that week (so Prompt 1.3 was the third prompt during the first week, while Prompt 5.5 was the fifth prompt during the fifth week). The text of two prompts (3.3 and 5.1) was modified slightly across semesters. See Table  2 for details.

At the end of each semester, course instructors downloaded the journals of students who agreed to participate in the study and removed any personal identifiers before forwarding to the research team. Separate files were created that listed each response to each prompt by semester, and coding forms were created for distribution to the coding team along with their assigned response sets.

Data analysis

Developed by Wald et al. ( 2012 ), the Reflection Evaluation For Learners’ Enhanced Competencies Tool (REFLECT) was used to assess journal responses. Originally developed for medical education, this rubric was validated by its creators and was also used in a previous study conducted by the authors (Tracey et al. 2014 ), thus demonstrating its utility for assessing reflection in a design context. The value of REFLECT is (1) the ability to code for six different dimensions of reflection; and (2) the ability to code for four different levels of reflection. The six dimensions are:

the global quality of the reflective narrative

the sense of the author in the response

the detail and insight included in the description of the focal event or situation

recognition of, and attention to, affective aspects of the response

the quality and nature of analysis and meaning construction

to assignment the alignment of the response to the prompt

For each reflection quality, the rubric provides specific criteria for determining the level of reflection for that dimension. The four levels include habitual action (short, generic, unengaged fact reporting); thoughtful action (elaborated description and engagement but no meaning-making), reflection (inclusion of efforts to make meaning), and critical reflection (comprehensive exploration and critique). See Table  3 for the revised rubric used in this study, including criteria for each reflection level and quality.

Each journal response was assessed by two data coders using REFLECT, which meant that each response required six coding decisions. If the two initial coders agreed, the decision was considered final. If not, it was sent to a third coder. If this coder agreed with one of the two initial reviewers, then that was designated as the final decision. In cases where all three coders disagreed, the decision was sent to the Principal Investigators for final adjudication. Our data coding team included eight graduate students in Learning Design and Technology and one in educational psychology, and all worked independently to make coding decisions.

Coding decisions are listed by prompt and reflection dimension, as well as the number of responses per prompt. It is important to note that this number varies for two reasons: (1) not all students submitted a response for each prompt; (2) two prompts (3.3 and 5.1) were altered slightly from semester to semester, including breaking the prompt into two distinct questions (see Table  2 ). In these instances, the responses were coded separately but all were included in the data sets for these two prompts, resulting in a larger N than our overall participant population of 69. With N = 626 responses, each of which were coded for six dimensions of reflection, our data set included 3756 coding decisions in total. Table  4 illustrates this large data set.

Aggregated reflection levels for all prompts

When looking findings in relation to reflection levels for the entire data set, we found that as a whole, 49 % of the prompts were coded as reflection (effort to engage), 37 % were coded as thoughtful action (remaining at a descriptive level), 12 % were coded as habitual action (fact reporting), and 2 % were coded as critical reflection (considers multiple interpretations or viewpoints), as shown in Fig.  1 . An example of a reflective response is provided by Student 7 (W13), written in the first week of class, the third prompt (1.3) describing a time when she felt totally uncertain, how she dealt with uncertainty, and how she maintains these beliefs and actions will impact on her desire to be a designer (Prompt 1.3):

Aggregated reflection levels for all prompts (displayed as percentages). General note As a result of rounding, some percentages may not appear to add up to 100 %. Asterisk The presence of assignment dimensions did not include critical reflection as a coding option

I am known by my family and friends to be a very indecisive and uncertain person in every aspect of my life and I never would have expected that this is a question I would be asked but I must say it really does hit home with me. I am constantly questioning myself as to what the right decision about something is, whether it’s something as simple as picking out an outfit or as pivotal as choosing a major… In order to choose a final major for my Bachelor’s degree, I went through a yearlong internal and external debate… I was very confused about the kind of person I wanted to be. So many factors go into making a decision of that magnitude: satisfying my parents, pursuing areas of interest, pursuing areas of talent, obtaining a degree that will give me the opportunity to get a good job, etc. I ended up changing my major three times (Political Science, Education, History) until I finally got to the one I would complete: English Literature. To make my decision I tried to find the one major that would combine the majority of the factors that I mentioned above. I took the advice of people who were older and more experienced than myself and I bowed down to reality. I can say now that I am very relieved that I did. That is why choosing a major for my Masters degree was not as difficult for me, although I did deliberate about it and took some time off to make my decision. That is why I believe that this uncertainty will not affect me negatively as a designer… So although I would have my doubts, I am confident that I could get around them and attain my goal (S7, Prompt 1.3, W13).

This is an example of deep reflection. Note that in this response, she clearly articulates an uncertain situation, reflects on how it felt, relevant personal qualities, what actions she took, and how she perceives this experience may influence dealing with uncertainty in design. This is also a fitting example of Presence, the individual domain that had the highest overall rate of reflection (79 %). Moreover, unlike most of the other students who had difficulty addressing emotion which had the lowest overall reflection rate (14 %), reading this response to Prompt 1.3, we can sense this student struggling with the question, expressing her vulnerability when describing her battle in selecting a bachelor’s degree focus and illustrating confidence while at the same time identifying doubts. Four of the other domains, Analysis, Attention to Assignment, Conflict, and Writing Spectrum are also present in this response, which overall were closely aligned with a combined average of 51 % rate of reflection. See Figure one for a complete breakdown of each dimension and level of engagement.

Aggregated reflection levels by prompt domains and individual prompt

As Fig.  2 details, reflection levels varied markedly within the three prompt domains (beliefs, precedents, and self-awareness) with no distinct, domain-based pattern emerging. When analysing individual prompts, rates of critical reflection were low and similar across prompts, ranging from a high of 4 % (Prompt 5.5) to a low of 1 % (Prompt 5.1). Prompt 1.3 (the prompt the above sample student addressed), specifically asking students to describe a time when they felt uncertain, generated the highest rate of reflection (68 %), while the lowest levels were seen in Prompt 6.6, when specifically asking students about design ideas that emerged and how the emergence happened (36 %).

Reflection levels by domain and prompt (displayed as percentages). General note As a result of rounding, some percentages may not appear to add up to 100 %

An example of a lower level of reflection for Prompt 6.6 is Student 17 (W13), describing his design ideas and how they emerged (Prompt 6.6):

I would not say that many “design” ideas came to me through this exercise. I’ve identified the key factors and problems that could arise which has led me to the conclusion that time needs to be spent communicating with students and on providing some kind of professional development workshops. I think much of the solution to the problem lies in identifying how educational technologies are currently being used by new teachers and experienced teachers, and identifying where the teacher preparation program is falling short (Student 17, Prompt 6.6, W13).

This student (17) is responding to a case study problem addressing the need to design an online course for undergraduate students in a teacher preparation program. He not only failed to reflect on his precedents (he was currently taking an online course), he also did not articulate his beliefs regarding online courses, the overarching problem, or the predicament the designers and end users, described in the case, may be experiencing. His response indicates a shallow level of engagement and a lack of emotional involvement in the design. Most students were somewhat similar to this example, remaining at a descriptive level rather than deep engagement with and reflection on the prompts. See Fig.  2 for the complete breakdown of each dimension by prompt and the level of engagement.

Reflection levels by reflection quality and prompt

Writing spectrum.

The highest level of critical reflection for writing spectrum was seen in Prompt 5.5 (12 %), while Prompt 5.1 had the lowest level (1 %), with the remainder between a range of 3–7 %. An example of a critical reflection response in writing spectrum is Student 5 (S13), describing his reflections on coping with uncertainty, when asked in Week 5 of the course (Prompt 5.5):

I plan to use uncertainty to my advantage. In other words, I am going to use uncertainty to work for me rather than against me, as it will ultimately make me a better designer. As a designer, exploring uncertain new problems and possible solutions will help me work creatively and innovatively. It will help me define and redefine the problem and solution cycle. If there was absolute certainty in the field, we would not be able to explore our creative minds and manipulate our designs. This is especially true when creating designs that are unprecedented. How can something be designed with certainty if it has never been done before? Naturally, the designs will change along the way. As we have learned, every designer creates his or her own problem and solution, and can come up with unique results. Hence, there are no right or wrong answers, but by exploring new uncertain ideas, we will gain a better understanding of the field of design as a whole and use this experience to become better designers. My hope is that by taking advantage of uncertainty, I will be able to exceed my client’s expectations.

I have an idea of where I see myself as a designer in the future and how I will approach designing. I am not there yet, as it will take many years for me to master the skill. However, each week I am striving to get closer to my goal. The way I think about design today is completely different compared to how I thought about it before starting this class. Previously, I did not realize that uncertainty was standard—I thought that in the design field, an idea would need to be created and executed. I am relieved to know that change is a normal part of the design process. I am confident that design is the right field for me, and I welcome to opportunity to live in uncertainty (Student 5, Prompt 5.5, S13).

In the short time span of 5 weeks, this student articulated the exploration of his assumptions and beliefs regarding uncertainty, the biases he held, and the current value he places in uncertainty and design, an excellent example of critical reflection illustrated in his writing. Reflection in the writing spectrum dimension had the highest rate for Prompt 3.2 (67 %) and the lowest rates for Prompt 5.1 (40 %) and Prompt 6.6 (41 %), with the rest falling between 44 and 63 %. Thoughtful action was highest for Prompt 5.1 (54 %), and lowest for Prompts 1.3 (24 %) and 3.2 (25 %). The range for the rest of the prompts was 28–50 %. Finally, Prompt 6.6 had the highest level of habitual action at 24 %, while Prompt 1.2 had the lowest at 1 %, with the remainder between 4 and 10 %.

Prompt 1.2 had the highest reflection level for presence at 99 %, while Prompt 1.1 had the lowest at 42 %. The remainder ranged from 90 to 52 %. For thoughtful action, Prompt 1.1 had the highest rates at 42 % and Prompt 1.2 the lowest at 1 %, with the range for the rest at 10–37 %. Prompt 1.1 generated the highest rate of habitual action at 16 %, with Prompts 1.2, 1.3, and 14.4 all at 0 %; the remainder ranged between 1 and 11 %. An example of a habitual action response, the lowest level of reflection is Student 5 (F12), describing her reflections on what design is, asked in Week 1 of the course (Prompt 1.1):

My thoughts on design based on watching the two videos has shown me that design can be based on a need, whether it is for solving everyday problems, or a need to create beautiful jewelry. In the Oxo video, design is based on making everyday life tasks easier for anyone, whether you have a medical need or not. For the Van Cleef video, design is not only to create beautiful jewelry, but the jewelry has also been designed to become other, different parts of jewelry. These designs make the jewelry innovative in the design process. It also created a whole design movement, art deco (Student 5, Prompt 1.1, F12).

The student’s response is a minimal account of the content in the design video examples. Student presence in this response is not indicated, as she does not articulate any of her thoughts or impressions about design based on viewing the videos, although they are specifically asked for in the prompt. This is an example of a lack of presence, reflection and emotion in a reflective response.

Conflict description

Four prompts achieved 4 % for critical reflection in conflict description (1.1, 1.2, 3.2, and 5.5), which was the highest level, while the lowest levels were seen in Prompts 1.3 and 3.3, both at 1 %; the remaining three prompts were at 2 %. For reflection, the highest level was 69 % for Prompt 1.3, while the lowest level was 35 % for Prompt 6.6. The rest ranged between 37 and 66 %. Prompt 5.1 had the highest level of thoughtful action at 56 % and Prompt 1.3 had the lowest at 26 %, with the range for the remainder between 29 and 54 %. An example of thoughtful action, the second lowest level of reflection is noted for Student 7 (F13), describing how he is going to prepare for daily intense reflection in his daily design activities. The prompt also asked how the student would plan to train and develop his design intelligence. Students addressed this prompt in week 5 of the course (Prompt 5.1):

Attempt making quick transitions from problem framing to solving the problem. Creating an early preliminary design phase instead of not developing existing sketches. Develop the abstract ideas of the design that I’ve had on lateral landscapes. Work out details of design as part of a system that looks at every station of the design daily (Student 7, Prompt 5.1, F13).

The student fails to describe the conflict (time for constant intense reflection and developing deep understandings of the concept of design) in developing his designer professional identity. He mentions a few examples of how he will address design intelligence development therefore the coding decision was thoughtful action. This student does not address the need for reflection as a designer and the conflict he may be experiencing as he moves toward designer professional identity development. He writes as though he believes that design is somewhat of a systems process he can control with specific activities. This lack of conflict description in the example is multi-layered and although his reflection lacks engagement, many students responded to the prompts with habitual action, the lowest level of engagement. The habitual action dimension was highest for Prompt 6.6 (11 %) and 14.4 (10 %), while Prompt 1.2 was at 0 %, with the rest falling between 2 and 4 %.

Critical reflection for emotion was highest for Prompts 14.4 and 3.3 at 5 % each, followed by Prompts 1.2 and 1.3 at 1 % each. The remainder had 0 %. An example of critical reflection, the highest level of reflection for emotion is Student 7 (F12), as she describes her thoughts on the journey of learning about design in general and designing instruction specifically. The prompt asked each student to reflect on what they had learned, their thoughts on design and how they view themselves as a designer. It finally asked students to articulate their future goals in design. This prompt was asked in week 14 of the course (Prompt 14.4):

Foremost, the project in this course has been an extremely humbling experience. I realized that you do really have to drop your ego out of the design process. You can be extremely proud of an outcome, but during the actual process of design, establishing a rapport with your client, developing a solid understanding of the design problem and space, and moving slowly at first with plenty of communication, are all pretty crucial to the ultimate success of the project. I have learned I need to improve my listening skills, and how important these skills are to a successful designer. I have also been thinking a lot about providing peer evaluation, and how you offer that assistance in a supportive manner. I know the environment I will graduate into as a designer will be more group oriented and may work more asynchronously, so understanding how to state things succinctly and supportively to my team members will be an important skill. I enjoy learning the theoretical background of instruction, learning, human development and communication. I am extremely interested in how people learn, and how we measure success, and how to design instruction to support those “a-ha” moments in our learners. I am still confused by much of the terminology and definitions surrounding educational technology and instructional technology and I’m still not sure how to reconcile all of the different design processes we have learned about in this course, such as the layers of necessity, systems approach, design space, Merrill’s Principles of Instruction, Gagne’s Instructional Events, etc. I have learned a lot, but feel I am at the lower end of Vygotsky’s ZPD—I have a long way to go.

I have also consciously forced myself to view the content in the class as all new. Even though I have been exposed to, and am familiar with, much of the basic instructional theory and design content in this course, I have tried very hard to keep an open mind. I am cognizant of my own mental models regarding the content of this course, and have worked to try to engage with the content as a new learner. The Design Thinking content really opened new doors for me, and actually helped me a lot in my desire to learn openly. For me, as a designer, this course has made me want to incorporate more drawing activities into my design strategies I will be reading the Cross book again. I want to learn more about visual literacy. I feel our world is moving to a more visual (as opposed to textual) mode of communication. I want to answer the question “How do we engage learners with content visually without sacrificing depth of knowledge?” I want to open my mind to possibilities in teaching, learning and instruction I had never considered before (Student 7, Prompt 14.4, F12).

Student 7 recognized and articulated her emotions through this vulnerable response. She states that she is humbled, must keep an open mind, drop her ego out of design, communicate and improve her listening skills. She is describing the emotions of humility, fear, confusion and anxiety as her designer professional identity evolves. Concluding her thoughtful response she describes her courage and determination to develop her professional identity. This critical reflection response was unique in that, as previously indicated, the emotion dimension overall scored the lowest levels of reflection across all students, all semesters, and in all prompts. Reflection, the second highest domain, was highest for Prompt 1.3 at 49 % and lowest for Prompt 5.1 at 4 %; the rest of the prompts ranged between 7 and 16 %. For thoughtful action, the highest level was seen for Prompt 5.5 (60 %) and the lowest for Prompt 6.6 (15 %), with the range for the remainder at 29–58 %. Prompt 6.6 had the highest level of habitual action at 76 % and Prompt 1.3 the lowest at 13 %, with the remainder between 24 and 67 %. These percentages indicate that most of the student responses coded in the emotion dimension were in the habitual action domain, i.e. the lowest level of engagement.

Critical reflection for the analysis dimension was highest for Prompt 1.3 at 7 % and lowest for Prompt 5.1 at 2 %, with the remainder between 3 and 6 %. An example of critical reflection for analysis is Student 16 (F12), which addresses the uncertainty Prompt (Prompt 1.3), the third question in week one of the course:

During my first week as a hired developer, I was assigned to a design task for a very big client. The objective was to design an interface for an eLearning course about social media. I researched various designs and took inspiration from modern layouts…, as well as edgier designs…. However, every time I began to create something new, I would begin to doubt my work. My mind was so clouded with fear that the design was becoming too modern, too edgy, too this, or too that. The end result was a rough interface that had a little bit of everything. The messy design was lacking consistency, and was certainly not up to par with the work I had showcased in my portfolio. I was on the verge of total failure when a co-worker gave me some advice that has since become my own mantra for design. He explained that design was a process, and that designers rarely have a “slam dunk.” The process is the fun part about being a designer, and learning how to effectively manipulate the design process is what makes a designer “good.” It was during this experience that I realized “good” design goes much deeper than what we see on the surface. Given this advice, I was able to step back from the project and start from scratch. I let the process take over, and adjusted my design along the way. It was one of my strongest learning experiences that I imagine every designer must experience in order to improve. Overall, I love being a designer. Learning how to balance client needs with your own design principles is the toughest part of the ‘gig’. However, it’s a skill that becomes easier with each unique experience. Though the process can be gruelling, there is nothing quite as rewarding as creating a successful end product (Student 16, Prompt 1.3, F12).

Analysis in reflective writing is the ability to explain a comprehensive examination of a situation and to ultimately make meaning of it. This reflection response illustrates the student’s analysis of the uncertainty he/she felt, why he felt it, how he analysed his situation, was able to articulate his uncertainty to a colleague, make meaning of the colleague’s advice, and incorporate it into his own practice. Overall, participants’ reflections were high in the analysis dimension as indicated in the reflection dimension, where Prompt 1.3 had the highest rate at 69 % followed closely by Prompt 3.2 at 68 %; the lowest rate was 43 % for Prompts 5.1 and 5.5 with the rest ranging from 48 to 66 %. Students appeared to have a little more difficulty with Prompt 5.1 as it had the highest rate of thoughtful action at 52 %, while the lowest rates of thoughtful action were generated by Prompts 14.4 (23 %) and 1.3 (22 %); the range for the remaining prompts was 26–49 %. Finally, habitual action in the analysis dimension was the highest for Prompt 6.6 at 13 %, and lowest for Prompt 1.2 at 0 %, with the remainder between 1 and 6 %.

Attention to assignment

Regarding the final dimension measured, the attention to assignment dimension, the highest reflection rate was generated by Prompt 1.3 at 71 % and the lowest by Prompt 6.6 at 33 %, with a range of 39–66 % for the rest. For thoughtful action, Prompt 5.5 had the highest rate at 57 % and Prompt 1.3 the lowest at 22 %. The remainder fell between 34 and 53 %. Prompt 6.6 had the highest rate of habitual action at 20 % and Prompt 1.2 the lowest at 0 %, with the rest of the prompts falling between 1 and 9 %. Although most student reflection responses scored in the reflection level some had difficulty with the attention to the assignment specifically in prompt 6.6 when asked about articulating design ideas. Here is an example of habitual action, the lowest level of reflection for attention to assignment, student 12(W13), describing her design ideas that emerged after reading a case study project assigned in week 6. The prompt asked students to describe what design ideas emerged for them as a result of reading the case, in other words, how would they design a solution to the design problem. The prompt also asked students to reflect on and articulate how these ideas emerged. This prompt was the sixth prompt assigned in week 6 of the course (Prompt 6.6):

Looking at what should be considered in evaluating and developing a teacher preparation program I keep coming up with different approaches to focus on. Staying focused on one state, I have talked about federal standards or federal best practices. I believe all stakeholders should be aware of how teacher preparation programs have a direct effect on things like standardized scores, and use of technology in teaching (Student 12, Prompt 6.6, W13).

The answer this student provides fails to address the assignment. She does not provide any design ideas, and is therefore unable to articulate how she came up with the design ideas. Although this is a possible indication of a lack of design understanding, the student does not reflect on any aspect of the questions given in the prompt. While the overwhelming reflection response to the assignment domain is in the reflection level, this student completely fails to address the attention to assignment in any reflective manner.

Figure  3 provides a detailed visual of the reflection levels for each dimension and prompt in percentages. Finally, it is important to note that across all 3756 coding decisions, 96 % achieved an agreement of two-out-of-three reviewers, with 4 % sent to the PIs for final adjudication.

Reflection levels by reflection criterion and prompt (as percentages). General note As a result of rounding, some percentages may not appear to add up to 100 %. Asterisk The presence of assignment dimensions did not include critical reflection as a coding option

Reflection levels by reflection quality

Our first research question sought to understand the qualities of reflection that participants included in their responses in order to craft a nuanced portrait of their reflective writing in relation to professional identity. Presence had the highest level of reflection at 79 %, with analysis the next closest at 58 % (reflection and critical reflection). This implies that participants felt comfortable including their own voice in their writing, although roughly one-fifth of the responses did not clearly incorporate authorial presence. Considering all the prompts had a personal aspect, the level of reflection for presence could have reasonably been expected to be higher. This may be attributable by considering the practice of instructional design, which frequently involves writing large amounts of objective, impersonal, or technical content. When faced with a challenging prompt, some students may have felt more comfortable returning to this type of rhetorical style.

Emotion was by far the least reflective quality among our participants, with 40 % thoughtful action and 44 % habitual action, suggesting that over 80 % of responders did not explore emotional aspects of their beliefs, experiences, or self-awareness. Attention to assignment only generated 51 % reflection, which implies that almost half of the responders struggled to adequately address all aspects of their prompt. Writing spectrum and conflict description generated reflection just over half of the time. Along with analysis at 58 %, these qualities were present more often than not but findings also indicate significant room for development.

Reflection levels by prompt domain and individual prompt

When considering identity domains (beliefs, experiences, and self-awareness), no clear pattern emerged, which suggests that the participants did not seem to struggle or excel in response to a particular domain. Individual prompts do contain some interesting results, however. Prompt 1.3, which asked participants to describe an experience with uncertainty from any part of their life, had the highest reflection level (71 % reflection and critical reflection combined). In addition, Prompt 1.3 had the highest, or second highest reflection levels, for all six reflection qualities. This tells us that participants were comfortable engaging with this topic and found it comparatively easy to incorporate a range of reflection qualities and make meaning from a general experience with uncertainty.

At the other end of the spectrum, Prompt 6.6 had the lowest level of reflection. This prompt asked students to document their design ideas from a case study and discuss where their ideas came from. With only 38 % of responses achieving reflection or critical reflection, and 26 % coded as habitual action, participants seemed to find it challenging to narrate and make meaning from their ideation processes. Prompt 1.1 provides an interesting contrast, in that reflection levels were similar (41 % reflection and critical reflection), but habitual action rates were lower at 18 %. This prompt asked students to discuss their thoughts about design, and based on the lower level of habitual action, participants did appear more engaged in this topic but still found it relatively difficult to reflect on overall.

Reflection levels by quality and prompt

While results at this level tend to mirror results at the level of reflection quality or prompt, a few interesting trends emerge. Among writing spectrum decisions, Prompt 5.5 had the highest level of critical reflection (of any prompt or quality). This question asked students to assess where they were in relation to uncertainty after 5 weeks in the class. Remember that students had been asked to write about uncertainty for Prompt 1.3, which was the most reflective prompt. While students were less reflective for Prompt 5.5 than Prompt 1.3, those who did reflect were much more likely to achieve critical reflection. Lower overall reflection rates were not unexpected for this prompt, as it is more challenging to reflect on current emotional and cognitive states than experiences that are removed by time and thus likely less threatening. But it does suggest that for some students, the opportunity to reconsider uncertainty, while moving from experience to self-awareness in the process, was highly engaging and enriching.

While presence was the overall most reflective of the six dimensions, 58 % of responses for Prompt 1.1 and 48 % for Prompt 6.6 did not achieve reflection. This is not completely unreasonable for Prompt 1.1, which asked students to discuss their ideas about design. Some may not have seen this as an opportunity to inject their voice but rather as a situation that called for more formal and impersonal writing. However, Prompt 6.6 asked students to discuss their own ideation processes, which is highly personal and individual, and could be expected to include a sense of the writer in the response. Prompt 6.6 was among the least reflective for all six reflection qualities, which suggests that some students may have experienced a more global shutdown in face of a challenging topic. In fact, the lowest reflection level of all emerged from emotion in this prompt (only 9 % reflection). This type of regression is not an uncommon response when faced with a developmental challenge, but rather speaks to the complexity of the topic and the need for further scaffolding. A few notable results emerged when considering attention to assignment in relation to individual prompts.

Implications for practitioners and researchers

Revisiting the bullying instructional design team example described earlier in this paper, we are reminded of the complex problems designers face and how their professional identity as designers (including beliefs, experiences, and self-awareness) is embedded in their design thinking, design decisions, and design outcomes. Therefore, in relation to professional identity development, perhaps the most important implication of this research may be in the need to support students in exploring the foundations of their identity as designers. Our findings are deeply tied to the context—our students do not typically self-identify as designers and are engaging with these topics in an online learning environment rather than an in-person design studio. Our area of practice is concerned with the design of learning experiences and involves a significant amount of writing as a routine part of our practice. Owing to these aspects, our students may use reflective writing to explore identity development in a much different way than students in fields like graphic design or industrial design. For example, students in graphic design may find visual explorations of identity more satisfying. The field of practice may also influence—for better or worse—emotional expression or any of the other criteria. However, we believe that our findings support the inclusion of active learning opportunities into reflect on beliefs, experiences, and self-awareness as a part of design education in order to move beyond transmission of skills to incorporate transformation of the self-as-professional.

As illustrated in the bullying instructional design example in the introduction, emotions are integral to the design space. Empathy is a crucial emotion for connecting with end users and taking on other perspectives (Kouprie and Visser 2009 ), and affective factors have been shown to have an impact on design outcomes (Dong et al. 2009 ; Solovyova 2003 ). Thus, emotional self-awareness can be considered part of our professional role as designers and should be encouraged as a part of professional identity development. Our findings indicate that students may struggle with this aspect of identity development but further research is needed in a range of design practice areas to understand whether this can be generalized to other fields. Likewise, the affective experiences of practicing designers have not received much attention in the design and technology literature, either, and we encourage further exploration of this topic as well.

Our ID students also appear to need more support to explore and gain insight into their own ideation processes, as this was the topic that generated the least reflective responses by a large margin. This is something that even experienced designers can struggle with (Cross 2011 ) but the ability to articulate these internalized processes provides the designer with the power to understand them and manage them with intention. Further research is needed to understand how students in other design fields reflect on ideation in order to draw more general conclusions about how this aspect fits with designer identity development in broader sense.

Design educators will also need to be sensitive to the dynamic nature of identity development. Retreating from deep reflection in the face of a developmental challenge is neither unexpected nor unwelcome, but rather represents the struggle to adjust to incoming information that requires a schematic alteration. Instructors should view this as a signal to provide additional support rather than interpret it as a failure on the part of the student.

In order to best understand how to better support students as they develop the pillars of their professional identity, more research is needed on how instructional feedback and scaffolding can be crafted and delivered to improve reflection capabilities. REFLECT was originally designed as a tool for providing formative feedback in the classroom but more research is needed on the types of feedback that are most useful and meaningful. For example, feedback to move a student from habitual action to thoughtful action might be different as compared to the feedback that may be needed to move a student from reflection to critical reflection. Scaffolding (including but not limited to prompts) is also likely to be an important support for students in improving the quality of their reflective writing, and design educators would benefit from understanding how to better provide scaffolding for reflection.

Finally, more research needs to be done on how professional identity is developed and maintained in designers at all stages of development. This study serves as an initial contribution to the emerging discourse on identity construction in design education, but further research on how novice and established designers understand, develop, articulate, and maintain professional identity is also needed to expand and elevate our understanding of design and designers.

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Tracey, M.W., Hutchinson, A. Reflection and professional identity development in design education. Int J Technol Des Educ 28 , 263–285 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-016-9380-1

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Accepted : 18 August 2016

Published : 01 September 2016

Issue Date : March 2018

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-016-9380-1

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How to Write a Reflection on Professional Identity as a Social Worker?

There cannot be any better profession than to provide social services. Yes, with every step of this move, you will always feel satisfied and this is the reason why it is acknowledged to be one of the noblest services in the world. But, when it comes to this service, one just cannot ignore being professional. Yes, every single individual can provide social services but not many will be able to match up with the professionalism it requires. It requires a lot of commitment and dedication to master the skills of being one of the most professional social workers in the world.

If you are still confused about the importance of being a professional social worker, then you can always get yourself connected with our assignment help UK service experts. Yes, we will help you out in understanding how one can become a better social worker. As a student, it is important that you get a proper answer to your reflection on your professional identity as a social worker, and having our team on board will certainly make it easy for you to get a proper understanding of it. Our experts will certainly assist you in getting to understand some of the important concepts related to it and help you answer the assignment with perfection.

Core Concepts Of Social Science Assignment-

If you are into social work course study, you will understand different segments of study in the form of mezzo, micro, and macro work. Yes, while doing so, you will automatically get your capabilities better and get yourself a proper understanding of all the important segments. Students from all corners of the world are always asked to work on reflective assignment writing tasks related to these topics and it becomes quite a scenario for them to deal with. So, if you want to have a proper understanding of all the important aspects related to it, you can always reach out to our online assignment writing experts. We will help you avail complete guidance on it which will make it easy for you to answer this assignment.

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Getting The Reflection Assignments Prepared With Perfection-

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When it comes to working on an assignment, there are a number of important aspects that you need to keep in mind and a few of them have been mentioned below,

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• Competencies: One of the most important aspects of helping a student get a professional identity in the respective domain of social service is competencies. Yes, you exhibit all the different types of competencies in your task of the assignment so that it reflects more about your understanding and know-how. You can always consider taking the route of online assignment help services as well because our team will help you understand well.
• Learning: Another important domain that you need to keep in mind while aiming to become a professional social worker is to keep finding ways to learn and grow. You can always get connected to our assignment writing exerts as we will help you how you can innovate and enhance the scenarios quite significantly.
• Licensed: Becoming a professional social worker will only be possible if you get licensed of performing tasks at a specific level. This will actually show how passionate you are when it comes to providing social services.
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Reflection Activity: Identity

Identity can be defined as the “the collective aspect of the set of characteristics by which a thing or person is definitively recognized or known,” or as “the set of behavioral or personal characteristics by which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group.”

Reflect for a moment on the following:

• Would you identify yourself as white or European American? Would others identify you as white or European American?
• Would you identify yourself as black or African American? Would others identify you as black or African American?
• Would you identify yourself as Native American? Would others identify you as Native American?
• Would you identify yourself as Asian American? Would others identify you as Asian American?
• Would you identify yourself as Hispanic or Latino/a? Would others identify you as Hispanic or Latino/a?
• Would you identify yourself as Middle Eastern? Would others identify you as Middle Eastern?
• Would you identify yourself as multiracial or multiethnic? Would others identify you as multiracial or multiethnic?
• Would you identify yourself by national origin, i.e. Italian, Jamaican, Ethiopian, Vietnamese, Saudi Arabian? Would others identify you by national origin?
• Would you identify yourself by tribal affiliation, i.e. Ute or Lakota? Would others identify you by tribal affiliation?
• Would you identify yourself as “a person of color”? Would others identify you as “a person of color”?
• Would you identify yourself solely as “American”? Would others identify you solely as “American”?
• Would you identify your race or ethnicity some other way entirely? Would others see you that way, too?

Next, write a short biography about your racial identit(ies), answering the following questions:

• When and how did you become aware of your racial identit(ies)?
• Describe a moment when your racial identit(ies) were important to, or took on particular meaning for, you.
• Describe a moment when your racial identit(ies) were important to, or took on particular meaning for, others.
• How do you benefit from your racial identit(ies)?
• How do you suffer or “miss out” because of your racial identit(ies)?
• Are some of these questions easier or more difficult to answer than others? Why might this be?
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