Close encounters: the use of critical reflective analysis as an evaluation tool in teaching and learning

Teaching and learning are complex activities which, when combined with professional practice-based activity, take on additional dimension and depth. This makes the use of traditional, product-based evaluation problematic in that a purely empirical approach does not facilitate thorough evaluation of every facet of such an encounter. This paper describes the use of critical reflective analysis as an alternative method of evaluation. The reflective framework facilitating this process has been adapted from three key sources: patterns of nursing knowledge; evaluative paradigms based upon knowledge - constitutive interests; descriptors for a reflective practicum. The reflective activity is structured around a teaching and learning encounter in a care-based setting and focuses on 'doing the drug round'. Descriptive vignettes are used to facilitate reflection-on-action and, through critical reflective analysis, the author identifies the essential value (e-value-ation) of the encounter in terms of credibility, utility and worth.