Attention without intention: explicit processing and implicit goal-setting in family medicine residents' written reflections

Background: Reflection, a process of self-analysis to promote learning through better understanding of one's experiences, is often used to assess learners' metacognitive ability. However, writing reflective exercises, not submitted for assessment, may allow learners to explore their experi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Education for primary care 2017-05, Vol.28 (3), p.150-156
Main Authors: Shaughnessy, Allen F., Allen, Lucas, Duggan, Ashley
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attention
Family Practice - education
Female
Goals
Humans
Intention
Internship and Residency - methods
Learning
Male
Massachusetts
mental processes
psychological
Self-Assessment
thinking
Writing
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Summary:Background: Reflection, a process of self-analysis to promote learning through better understanding of one's experiences, is often used to assess learners' metacognitive ability. However, writing reflective exercises, not submitted for assessment, may allow learners to explore their experiences and indicate learning and professional growth without explicitly connecting to intentional sense-making. Aim: To identify core components of learning about medicine or medical education from family medicine residents' written reflections. Design and setting: Family medicine residents' wrote reflections about their experiences throughout an academic year. Method: Qualitative thematic analysis to identify core components in 767 reflections written by 33 residents. Results: We identified four themes of learning: 'Elaborated reporting' and 'metacognitive monitoring' represent explicit, purposeful self-analysis that typically would be characterised as reflective learning about medicine. 'Simple reporting' and 'goal setting' signal an analysis of experience that indicates learning and professional growth but that is overlooked as a component of learning. Conclusion: Identified themes elucidate the explicit and implicit forms of written reflection as sense-making and learning. An expanded theoretical understanding of reflection as inclusive of conscious sense-making as well as implicit discovery better enables the art of physician self-development.
ISSN:1473-9879
1475-990X
DOI:10.1080/14739879.2016.1278562