Learning through reflection. SPROUT: a schema to teach reflective practice

Abstract

Incorporating reflection into practice is an essential acquired skill and has been linked to the strengthening of professional identity, where the ability to reflect is essentially the development of self-awareness; a way of thinking and ultimately learning from experience. The authors introduce the acronym SPROUT as a structure for higher education students who are learning to be reflective learners. The acronym represents a schema for written and oral approaches and is designed to support professional development in multiple contexts. SPROUT is formed by combining the initial letters of the component words and serves to simplify the complexity of a multipart process to be enacted when being reflective. As a mnemonic device SPROUT represents <i>S</i>ituation, <i>P</i>ast experience, <i>R</i>ead and <i>R</i>efer, <i>O</i>ther influences, <i>U</i>nderstanding and <i>T</i>ake it Forward. Following the implementation of SPROUT with a 1<sup>st</sup> year Bachelor of Nursing cohort, reflective scripts were reviewed for content and quality. Additionally educators provided feedback. Preliminary conclusions about the efficacy of this approach for learning to be reflective suggest that students were demonstrating a developing self-awareness.