Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the types of reflective writing produced by a cohort of medical students undertaking a clinical psychiatry module as part of their undergraduate medical programme at a University in the Republic of Ireland. A random sample of 80 reflective essays were selected for review. These assignments were evaluated using a comprehensive content analysis process with a pre-determined reflective writing coding instrument and coding protocol. Dialogic reflection was the most common type of reflective writing identified, with 56.3% (n = 45) of the summative assignments categorised as such. Twenty five percent (n = 20) of the assignments were classified as descriptive reflection, while 18.8% (n = 15) of the assignments demonstrated critical reflection. Overall, the findings of the study indicate that this innovative programme was successful in fostering and developing reflective writing in medical students to quite an advanced level. The paper concludes with specific recommendations for facilitating reflective writing in professional and higher education.

摘要

本研究的目的是确定一群医学生在爱尔兰共和国一所大学从事临床精神病学模块作为其本科医学课程的一部分所产生的反思性写作类型。随机抽取 80 篇反思性论文进行审查。这些作业是通过使用预先确定的反思性写作编码工具和编码协议的综合内容分析过程进行评估的。对话式反思是最常见的反思性写作类型，56.3% (n = 45) 的总结性作业属于此类。25% (n = 20) 的作业被归类为描述性反思，而 18.8% (n = 15) 的作业表现出批判性反思。全面的，研究结果表明，这一创新计划成功地将医学生的反思性写作培养和发展到相当先进的水平。本文最后提出了促进专业和高等教育反思性写作的具体建议。