REFLECTIONS ON SRL DURING PROFESSIONAL INQUIRY

SRL Learning Outcomes From Professional Inquiry:

Giving and Receiving Feedback:

The rubric presented earlier in the course pointed out to me two learning blind-spot, of which I was previously unaware: Collaboration and Feedback.  Perhaps these SRL techniques have been neglected as I have developed other SRL strengths like self motivation and self control, as a result of learning experience in years of distance learning. 

I brought these areas for development into my SRL project so that I could explore the potential benefits as part of my inquiry.   In planning and implementing my SRL project, I came to realize that the deepest learning came from the critique from my colleagues at work, who agreed to assist me with my project by providing constructive feedback.  Through the collaboration with these learning partners, I was able to widen view beyond the limits of my own self-focus and the project became a better process and product because of their questions and ideas about the professional inquiry topic.

Most Challenging Aspects of the Professional Inquiry:

Looking back over my blog was helpful in taking me back to challenges I had experienced in my professional inquiry.  The images and words I chose revealled that juggling learning from the course, the process of developing the blog and managing the workload of the distal goal of creating a workshop for Solution-Focused Brief Therapy, was my greatest challenge. 

In the midst of this chaos, I experienced  a high service peak at work and a bout of strep throat for my daughters, then later for me.  Managing balance of life, work and study did threaten my usual self-efficacy for the task at times during this course.  I think the only thing that saved me from not achieving my professional inquiry goal was my SRL strategy of self motivation promoting and early start of sub-goals.   This, along with abandoning perfectionism was the key to my completion of my project within the required timeframe.

Learning Transfer Beyond the Course:

I didn’t expect that there would be so many common concepts between my professional inquiry and SRL and so the learning transfer cross-pollinated across both SRL and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.   Some of the common ideas that I hav noticed, and therefor allow for deeper learning transfer beyond the course are:

·      Best results come from engaging the individual’s motivation at a deep and personal level

·      Goal setting and visualization of a preferred outcome can direct the client’s behaviour to support the learning goal

·      Building on strengths to create the self-efficacy to address areas of need

·      Questions, in the form of collaboration and feedback can support positive steps toward change

Next Steps:

In consultation with my Manager, it was thought that PowerPoint was the ideal form of the project, so that it could be shared with others easily.  While it is true that the ease of sharing of the project is in the current form, I am not satisfied that PowerPoint allowed for the workshop to be as easily shared as if it was in YouTube or Prezi format.  My colleagues and I will take this discussion further, as we have, together, developed a new distal goal of sharing this workshop with the our Ontario College Employment Sector network throughout the province.  In doing so, we will be able to share the research I completed with hundreds of counsellors, rather than our staff group of 15 people in a free, completely accessible workshop format.  I don’t know that I would have considered doing so without the encouragement and vision from my collaboration with my trusted colleagues.  It also made the process so much more fun and rewarding!