Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 May 25;80(4):65.
doi: 10.5688/ajpe80465.

The Effect of Reflective Activities on Reflective Thinking Ability in an Undergraduate Pharmacy Curriculum

Cherie Tsingos-Lucas  1 , Sinthia Bosnic-Anticevich  2 , Carl R Schneider  1 , Lorraine Smith  1
Affiliations

The Effect of Reflective Activities on Reflective Thinking Ability in an Undergraduate Pharmacy Curriculum

Cherie Tsingos-Lucas et al. Am J Pharm Educ. .

Abstract

Objective. To determine the effectiveness of integrating reflective practice activities into a second-year undergraduate pharmacy curriculum and their impact on reflective thinking ability. Design. A cross-over design with repeated measures was employed. Newly developed reflective modules based on real hospital and community pharmacy cases were integrated into the second-year pharmacy practice curriculum. A novel strategy, the Reflective Ability Clinical Assessment (RACA), was introduced to enhance self- and peer reflection. Assessment. Student responses (n=214) to the adapted Kember et al(1) Reflective Thinking Questionnaire (RTQ) were compared before and after reflective activities were undertaken. Significant improvement in three indicators of reflective thinking was shown after students engaged in reflective activities. Conclusion. Integration of reflective activities into a pharmacy curriculum increased the reflective thinking capacity of students. Enhancing reflective thinking ability may help students make better informed decisions and clinical judgments, thus improving future practice.

Keywords: experimental crossover design; pharmacy curriculum; pharmacy teaching; reflective practice; reflective thinking.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Consort diagram: Cross-over design with repeated measures
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
A model for using vedio podcasts to enhance reflective capacity (self- and peer reflection) of pharmacy students.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Kember D, Leung DYP, Jones A, et al. Development of a questionnaire to measure the level of reflective thinking. Assess Eval High Educ. 2000;25(4):381–395.
    1. Mann K, Gordon J, MacLeod A. Reflection and reflective practice in health professions education: a systematic review. Adv Health Sci Educ. 2009;14(4):595–621. - PubMed
    1. Schön DA. The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action. Gower House, England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd; 1995.
    1. Schön DA. Educating the Reflective Practitioner: Toward a New Design for Teaching and Learning in the Professions. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco; 1987.
    1. Tsingos C, Bosnic-Anticevich S, Smith L. Reflective practice and its implications for pharmacy education. Am J Pharm Educ. 2014;78(1):Article 18. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources