Reading Between the Lines: Using Essays to Assess the Teacher Reflection of Residents in a Pharmacy College

• In Event: Impacts and Innovations in Assessment Methods for Professions Education

Abstract

Reflection is an intentional, dynamic process that allows improvement in one’s actions, abilities, and knowledge by learning from past experiences. While other disciplines such as education have been using reflective practices for quite some time, medical education has more recently adopted this concept in its training of future healthcare professionals. The purpose of this partially-mixed methods case study was to examine the content and the quality of reflection of participants of a pharmacy teaching certificate program (TCP). Findings showed that with direct intervention, the pharmacy residents’ reflection significantly increased across areas of use of assessment and providing and receiving feedback. A surprising outcome from the residents’ reflective essays was their failure to view patients as learners.

Authors

• Ashley Castleberry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

• Amanda L. Nolen, University of Arkansas at Little Rock