Driscoll model of reflection

The Driscoll model of reflection is a structured method of introspection used to extract insights from specific events. Though it has many personal and professional applications, the framework is mainly associated with health care, where it is used to guide care providers’ learning from clinical experiences. It was developed by British professional development consultant John Driscoll in the 1990s and 2000s. In creating the model, Driscoll drew on the earlier work of author Terry Borton, who formulated the stem questions Driscoll’s framework uses to guide practitioners’ thinking.

Driscoll’s model, which is also known as the Driscoll cycle, describes a three-step process for thinking about experiences. Each step involves a series of guided questions designed to help individuals analyze events and draw conclusions about their meaning and impact. The model offers a distinct advantage over similar frameworks, as its simplified three-part structure makes it easy to remember and apply.

Background

The Driscoll model of reflection is part of a broad subject known as reflective practice, which uses guided methods to advance practitioner education and professional development. Used in many fields, reflective practice applies theory to human experience, prompting practitioners to learn from events and draw insights they can use to inform future actions and decisions. The underlying theoretical frameworks used in reflective practice first emerged in the nineteenth century. During the twentieth century, these frameworks were systematized and imported into training programs, where they were applied to experiential and project-based learning models, action learning, personal coaching, and management development.

Some sources credit the American philosopher and scholar John Dewey with conceiving the original source material that forms the basis of reflective practice. For example, Dewey’s 1916 work Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education describes a process for thinking about lived experience, which uses a problem-solving approach to make sense of events and reach conclusions about their meaning and significance. Dewey’s ideas were further developed by the American educational theorists Eduard C. Lindeman and David A. Kolb, among others. Lindeman and Kolb pioneered advanced methods of experience-based learning during the mid-twentieth century, with their work influencing and inspiring the emerging field of reflective practice.

The Driscoll model of reflection follows directly from Borton’s 1970 work Reach, Touch, and Teach, which applies the psychotherapeutic principles of Gestalt therapy to human learning. Borton’s book explains a simple method for describing learning cycles, distilling them down to three basic questions: What?, So what?, and Now what? In answering each question, practitioners gain the ability to isolate specific events, identify their significance, and apply their lessons to future situations. The book became widely popular, and expanded beyond its initial applications in educational theory to the “helping professions” that include counseling, social work, psychology, psychiatry, occupational therapy, and health-care training. Reflective practice has since become a prominent feature of health-care education, particularly nursing.

Driscoll’s framework uses Borton’s questions as descriptors of three distinct experiential learning stages. It then adds a series of additional questions called “trigger questions” to each stage. By answering each of the trigger questions, practitioners acquire the systematic ability to analyze and draw meaningful insights from their experiences.

Overview

Driscoll initially introduced his reflective model in 1994, then further developed it in works published in 2004 and 2006. The method begins by asking Borton’s first question: What? At this stage, practitioners simply describe the action or event on which they are reflecting. Driscoll’s first-stage trigger questions prompt practitioners to identify the important and defining features of the action or event by asking:

• What happened, exactly?
• What did you do, exactly?
• Were any other people involved or impacted?
• Would you describe it as a good experience, a bad experience, or both? Why?

After describing the experience in detail, practitioners move on to Borton’s second question: So what? This stage endeavors to identify why the action or event holds significance. Driscoll’s second-stage trigger questions explore actions and events from seven perspectives:

• How did you feel at the moment the action or event occurred?
• How did you react at the time?
• Why do you think you reacted the way you did?
• Do you feel the same way about the action or event now as you did when it initially took place?
• Did the action or event, or your reaction to it, create a conflict with your morals or personal/professional values?
• Can you think of any past experiences that may have influenced your reaction to the action or event?
• If others were involved or impacted, how did they feel about the event, and how did they react to it? Do you know why they felt or reacted the way they did?

Borton’s third question asks: Now what? At this final stage, practitioners endeavor to specify exactly how their experience with the action or event will inform their decisions or actions in similar situations in the future. Driscoll attaches six trigger questions to this phase:

• What have you learned by thinking about the action or event?
• Was there anything you could have done to prevent negative or undesirable consequences or outcomes?
• How could you have prevented negative or undesirable outcomes?
• If a similar action or event takes place in the future, will you react differently? If so, how?
• Is there anything you could have done to prepare yourself more fully for this action or event?
• If the action or event went wrong, where did it go wrong and what will you try to do differently next time?

The Driscoll model of reflection is one of multiple such frameworks featured in the helping professions, professional development, and health-care education. Commentators have noted that it is not the most widely used such model, but it offers distinct advantages due to its simplicity. It is often compared to another similar reflective practice method known as Gibbs' reflective cycle. Developed in the 1980s by behavioral sciences researcher Graham Gibbs, this reflective cycle extends across six stages rather than three, and focuses specifically on the types of repeated experiences professionals encounter in carrying out their everyday duties.

Bibliography

Bager-Charleson, Sofie. Reflective Practice and Personal Development in Counseling and Psychotherapy. SAGE Publishing, 2020.

Driscoll, John. Practicing Clinical Supervision: A Reflective Approach for Healthcare Professionals. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006.

"Driscoll Model of Reflection: An Intuitive Guide." NursingAssignmentWriters, 8 Aug. 2023, nursingassignmentwriters.co.uk/blog/driscoll-model-of-reflection/. Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.

Esterhuizen, Philip. Reflective Practice in Nursing. Learning Matters, 2019.

“Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle.” University of Edinburgh, www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle. Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.

Kurtz, Arabella. How to Run Reflective Practice Groups: A Guide for Healthcare Professionals. Routledge, 2019.

Lang, Michael D. The Guide to Reflective Practice in Conflict Resolution. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.

“Reflective Practice Models.” University College Dublin, www.ucd.ie/teaching/t4media/reflective‗practice‗models.pdf. Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.

Reynolds, Michael. “Reflective Practice: Origins and Interpretations.” Action Learning Research and Practice, vol. 8, no. 1, March 2011, pp. 5–13.