Reflections on reflectionThe MBA and the reflective statement

Sarah MacCurtain and Sarah MooreUniversity of Limerick

Why this topic?

• Importance of reflective skills and self awareness in leadership– My own research on senior management teams found that reflexivity

(West) was significantly related to organisational innovation– Yet a rare occurrence

• Working with MBAs– They would tell me ‘no time to look back’– Sometimes unsure of their role– MBA students learn reflective skills the least during the MBA

programme (Inamdar and Roldan, 2013)– Importance of reflection when working in ‘messy swamps’ (Schon,

1991:34) filled with uncertainty, contradictions and ongoing change

Aims of the session

• To what extent are we teaching reflective skills in MBA programmes?

• What are the challenges – For the lecturer?– For the students?

• What are the facilitators – For the lecturer?– The students?

Reflective Learning

• Reflection in the context of learning is a generic term for those intellectual and affective activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to new understandings and appreciations

• Boyd and Walker, 1985:19– Importance of intellectual, affective, experiential

and adapting activities

Reflective Learning

• Critical theorists require the surfacing of assumptions from conscious and unconscious prior learning relative to underlying power dynamics – paradigm shift

The reflective MBA

• Hedberg (2009) asks what type of reflection is most meaningful for management education?

• Can be difficult to answer• Unclear understanding of what reflection

actually is….disparity of definitions and frames of reference can be confusing

Reflective Learning• Subject reflective learning

– Focuses on subject matter– Deeper understanding of the material learned

• Personal reflective learning– What the learning means to the learner– Personal insights gained– Self awareness – beliefs and assumptions

• Critical reflective learning– Challenges the learner to question assumptions, beliefs and

behaviours – what societal meaning does my learning have?– Social and political factors that influence behaviour

• Hedberg (2009)

Reflective Learning

• Content– Reflection on what we think, feel, do

• Process– Reflection on how we think, feel, act

• Premise– Being aware of why we think, feel, act the way we

do..evidence of change of perspective– Mezirow (1991)

Reflective Learning• Cognitive approach– Develop and assess cognitive attributes

• Professional competence approach– Develop and assess professional attributes

• Personal approach– Develop and assess personal attributes• Hargreaves (2004)

• Legitimate and illegitimate narrative– Legitimate – valedictory, condemnatory and redemptive– Illegitimate – identification of unacceptable

beliefs/values/practices without any redemption• Hargreaves (2004)

• Hargreaves asks are students free to produce honest reflective accounts?– Do students feel obligated to express only what is

considered ‘best practice’, professionally acceptable, ethical even if this means not being true to themselves?

What to consider?

• How structured/unstructured?• Inward/outward? (Varner and Peck, 2003)• Level of analysis – individual, group,

organisation• Method of discovery – individual/group• Timing – during/after an experience

The MBA reflective statement

• OB module.. change, emotion, leadership– Teaching 10 years, last 5 reflective statement, last

3 years getting feedback• Objective of the assignment?– To reflect on the role of the MBA as

practitioner/manager/leader drawing on elements of the course that have made an impact on how you behave in your organisation and what possible changes they would make

• First year, first semester• Reflective statement – 30%• Handed in end of semester• Personal reflection – yet how personal?– Some writers in the area suggest discouraging

highly personal accounts (O’Rourke, 1998) yet this may deter meaningful reflection (Hays, year)

The assignment

This assignment involves reflecting on your own journey, drawing on the course material and your own experience. You are asked to reflect on your role in work and how you work with others using the personal development tools/module content used in the class and the readings that you found useful. Note that this is not an academic exercise in the same way that the other two assignments are – the writing will not be academic and there may be less references (although you do need to reference as you will be drawing on material in the course during your reflection)– see below for some information on reflective practice and reflective writing.

Assessment• To assess or not?– If so, how?

• Need to have a reliable and valid method of assessment – yet little in terms of widely accepted methods to do this (Kemper et al, 1999)

Assessment

• Challenges for me include –– Move towards a more rigorous approach to

assessment - accreditation is positive but can pose certain challenges

– Alignment between LOs and assessment criteria may lead to learning experience being very prescribed (Hargreaves, 2004)

– Need for formal written feedback – the rich verbal feedback can sometimes be lost

– Time involved

Assessment• Assessor bias

– Kember et al, 1999 discuss how different assessors can have different opinions on whether reflection has taken place

– Besides, during the fifteen minute recess, I understood people love each other. In a classroom, I saw a hand injury pupil try to help his classmate to move his wheelchair and go to the toilet. This impressed me most, but I felt ashamed. Because in a normal school, people show even les concern and love for each other. Most of us are only concerned about our own studies and public examination, but neglect concern for others

– Disagreement re whether the above passage demonstrates introspection or reflection - See Kember et al, 1999

– What do you think?

Challenges

• Assessor value system – similarity attraction bias– More disposed to those with same values as mine?– Need to ensure assessment criteria focused on

learning and reflection not personality and beliefs (Hargreaves, 2004)

• Uncomfortable/difficult assessing such personal thoughts – especially if they are not reflective– Varner and Peck recognise this– Grading their reflective statement is seen as grading

them as managers..as people– Should we grade personal reflective statements at all?

Challenges• What do students think? Challenges for students include

– Would not do it if it wasn’t assessed yet..– Not used to doing this– a struggle, self disclosure can be uncomfortable/difficult for some– High levels of reflection can be uncomfortable and lead to more

questions..sometimes doubts• ‘not a leisurely pursuit’ Hedberg, 2009

– Assessing very personal thoughts – hard not to take the grade awarded personally

– May feel obligated to reflect the lecturers beliefs/values– Presenting one’s self in a positive light– Tendency to reflect on others behaviours and how it affected them

Challenges

• Reflection leading to certain realisations that they may feel powerless to change– Opening one’s self up to questions about one’s

purpose/role and beliefs can be liberating ..but in can also lead to people feeling lost (Hedberg, 2009)

What helped – student perspective?

• Reiterating WHY it is important?• Reiterating what reflection is not• Provision of an assessment Rubric • Constant examples• Personal examples• Trust

What helped me?

• Rubric• Trust– In class– In myself

• Reflecting myself• Identification of my biases• Constant attention to the objective of the

assignment

Was it of benefit?

• All felt a difficult, uncomfortable but essential part of the programme

• Some felt it did lead to real if uncomfortable learning– I was always one of the lads, would have seen

myself as one of them…yet, here was I thinking it was ok for them but not something that would ever happen to me…I realised I thought I was better than them

Benefits• All felt it should be retained and graded– I was not comfortable with this however I found it very

useful in the end. I often find I don't really have time to truly reflect and to be frank sarah i can sometimes be a typical man and think something like that is soft!!!!However I ended up really enjoying it and found it somewhat therapeutic. It is certainly a worthwhile exercise and one that is very different to the typical MBA projects. It is one of the points I made on the mba review, there should be more personal development type actions. This is one I would keep and grade

Thank youQuestions?

Description of event/action that underpins the reflection: What took place? When and where?Who was involved?What was done/said?What background information is relevantLevel of reflection - Detail of reflection and self-awareness – why did you do what you did? •What seemed to go well and what seemed to go badly? What were your responses? What were you thinking and feeling and why?•How did others respond?•Can you identify different viewpoints, needs, or preferences?•How these effect the situation?

Evidence of creative and critical thinking•What else might you have done?•Does the experience tell you anything about yourself? Your practice? Your values?•What questions or new knowledge do you now have?•What do you need to consider or do as a result?

Use of course work in the reflective practice - • Does the experience relate to what you have read, seen, or heard about, or learned before? How?

General Considerations Grade Recommended