Study of factors related to the reflection abilities of dental trainees

Experiences of recent graduates: reframing reflection as purposeful, social activity

BACKGROUND

During the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' (RCVS) Professional Development Phase, graduates are required to reflect on their progress. Reflection is often conceptualised as a solitary activity, which may contrast with day-to-day reflective activities in the workplace. This study drew on cultural-historical activity theory to understand how recently graduated veterinary surgeons engage in reflective activity.

METHODS

Data comprised RCVS documentation and semistructured interviews with 15 recent graduates from one veterinary school. Thematic analysis was used to describe a collective system of reflective activity and to identify contradictions in the system with the potential to limit outcomes of reflective activity.

RESULTS

Two overarching themes of contradictions were identified: 'social reflection' and 'formalising the informal'. Graduates need opportunities for talking and/or writing to progress worries into purposeful reflection, underpinned by a shared understanding of reflective activity with colleagues, and by working practices which prioritise and normalise reflective interaction.

CONCLUSION

These findings identify potential avenues to better support veterinary graduates as they negotiate the transition to working life, and suggest that reconsideration of the formal expectations of new veterinary graduates and their employers is timely.

Dental trainees reflect more critically on negative experiences: portfolio analysis using a pragmatic approach and a rubric in Japan

BACKGROUND

Dental trainees have various clinical experiences during their internships and they grow by experiencing success and failure. When looking back on an event, it is not apparent which experiences result in more critical reflection. Therefore, we qualitatively analyzed the portfolios of dental trainees using Significant Event Analysis to investigate their depth of reflection.

METHODS

We asked all Hiroshima University Hospital dental trainees who completed a 1-year training program between 2010 and 2016 to describe their most memorable event from the past year. We coded the text using a qualitative analysis method. Then, we classified the responses as positive or negative events. We evaluated the depth of reflection following a pragmatic approach to categorizing reflective material (Sandars method) and a reflective ability rubric and user guide (O'Sullivan method) and compared these results. The evaluation was performed separately by two researchers and a good rate of agreement was confirmed by the weighted kappa statistic. Comparison of the depth of reflection was performed by the Mann-Whitney U test.

RESULTS

The assessments of the positive event group and negative event group were compared with the respective evaluation criteria of the Sandars and O'Sullivan methods, and reflection was found to be deeper in the negative event group. The Mann-Whitney U test revealed a significant difference (p < 0.05) in the median values of the two groups for both methods.

CONCLUSIONS

Both positive and negative experiences are important for dental practitioners to grow, but negative experiences are associated with critical reflections. In promoting the growth of training dentists, it is considered important to encourage deep reflections on positive experiences that are likely to be shallow.