Postdoctoral Dental Education

Professional Life-Long Learning Plan

Step 3: Self-Evaluation Methods and Reflection Exercises

The Self-Evaluation/Reflection Process

When reflection is carefully planned and structured, it can be a powerful tool to turn your service experience into a more meaningful learning experience. Service activities often place residents in challenging and complex situations. Through reflection residents you will be able to process and understand the implications of their these situations more fully as well as the scope of larger issues involved in patient care. Reflection also allows for discussion, exploration and resolution to difficult circumstances.

There are three levels of reflection that you will use to structure reflection activites for your journal writing. The levels help you and the faculty member make better sense of the learning occurring during the service experience.

Choose at least three questions from each level to guide your journal writing. At different points during the AEGD program Dr. Bunza will assign various reflection questions to guide web-based discussions or to be included as part of a "semi private" reflection discussion with him.

The three levels of reflection

Level 1: The Mirror: Reflection of the self, the self becomes clearer
This level of reflection helps you to understand yourself and your personal values. It helps you begin to see how your service experience helped you learn more about particular aspects of yourself.

Level 1 Reflection questions:

• Who am I? What are my values?
• What have I learned about myself through this experience?
• How has this experience affected my understanding of the group I'm working with? of the community? of my own role in this community?
• How has this experience challenged my preexisting assumptions or biases?
• How has it challenged me physically?
• How will this experience change the way I act or think in the future?
• How has this experience challenged stereotypes or prejudices I have/had?
• How has this experience challenged me, my ideals, philosophies, or my concept of life or the way I live?

Level 2: The Microscope: Make the small experience large
This level of refection helps you understand the impact the individual services you provide have on you, the patients you serve, and on the program as a whole. It allows you to reflect on specific events that occurred, your role in them, and theirbroader impact.

Level 2 reflection questions:

• What happened today?
• What would I change about this situation if I was in charge, and why?
• What have I learned about the patients, this agency, or the community?
• What have I learned about the people I work with?
• Was there a moment when I sensed a feeling of failure, success, indecision, doubt, humor, frustration, happiness, sadness?
• Do I feel my actions had any impact? On whom?
• Does this experience compliment or contrast with what I learned in dental school? How?

Level 3: The Binoculars: The distant becomes closer
This level of reflection helps you identify larger issues that surround the service you provide. It can expand your understanding, vision, of causes effects and impacts and can help you envision your future career.

Level 3 reflection questions

• What did I learn from this experience as a whole?
• How can I apply this knowledge to other parts of my life?
• Did things turn out the way I anticipated?
• How did this experience relate to what I learned in dental school?
• What are my views on the community now? How have they changed?
• How will this experience alter my future behaviors/attitudes/and career plans?

How should I answer the reflection questions?

How should I answer the reflection questions?
We would like you to write one blog entry per week. Choose one level of reflection and one of three topics: Patient care, cultural competence, and educational plan to write your blog entry of the week.

Answers could include snapshots filled with sights, sounds, smells, concerns, insights, doubts, fears, and critical questions about issues, people, and, most importantly, yourself. Reflection questions are not meant to be a work log of tasks, events, times and dates. These should be answered in the most candid way and should be answered freely. We would recommend you write an entry after each visit. If you can't write a full entry, jot down random thoughts, images that you can use and revisit later.

Here are some other tips to help you complete your reflections:

• Reflection blogs should be snapshots filled with sights, sounds, smells, concerns, insights, doubts, fears, and critical questions about issues, people, and, most importantly, yourself.
• Honesty is the most important ingredient to successful reflection
• A reflection piece is not a work log of tasks, events, times and dates.
• Write freely. Grammar/spelling should not be stressed in this type of exercise.
• Write an entry per week. If you can't write a full entry, jot down random thoughts, images, etc. which you can come back to a day or two later and expand into a colorful verbal picture.