Reflective practice (RP) is an essential skill for professional development. RP fosters self-directed, lifelong learning and facilitates problem-solving, personal development and competence. Despite the benefits of RP and the call for public health professionals to become more reflective practitioners, RPs are often unstructured in higher education, likely due to inconsistent focus placed across public health competency and education frameworks. Using an evidence-based approach, a capstone public health internship course was developed by incorporating a reflection strategy comprising group- and individual-level reflection activities. These activities were designed using the DEAL model by Ash and Clayton (2009) to develop reflection skills. 32 undergraduate students from diverse non-medical primary majors who were reading a Minor or a Second Major in Public Health and were enrolled in the internship course participated in this study. A total of 124 written fortnightly reflections were analysed. Kember et al.’s (2008) four-category framework was applied to analyse reflection depth. Reflections were thematically analysed using a deductive-inductive approach, and the conceptual framework of internship learning goals by Ash and Clayton (2009) was used as a lens for the deductive analysis. The proportion of deeper reflections increased over the course of the internship. Three themes were identified: initial engagement with reflective learning; gradual integration of reflective learning, and a transformative phase involving growth in multiple domains. The study findings affirm the effectiveness of the reflection strategy in scaffolding reflection skills among interns, and guide further development of curricula in nurturing RP in budding public health professionals.

Authors:
Cecilia Woon Chien Teng, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Raymond Boon Tar Lim, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Claire Gek Ling Tan, National University of Singapore, Singapore

About the Presenter(s)
Dr Cecilia Woon-Chien Teng is currently a senior lecturer in the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

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