#123 Are supervision and reflective practice synonymous?
I would like to share a notion that is forming in my mind about reflective practice and supervision: are they the same thing? I’d be very interested in your views…
I’ve been mulling on the idea of reflective practice - reflecting on it, you might say - and linking it with coaching supervision. While we can and do reflect on our own, when we engage in supervision, we reflect with another practitioner. Are supervision and reflective practice with another practitioner synonymous?
My colleague Yvette Elcock shared a very useful 3i model of supervision in an EMCC article last year: Intention – Intervention – Impact. When I think of these activities as elements of reflective practice rather than supervision, I think of them as Preflection – Reflection in Action – Reflection on Action.
Coaches will be familiar with these notions of reflective practice, because they apply to coaching practice too: for example, we Preflect before a coaching session and Reflect on Action afterwards. I might diagram this somewhat like a learning loop, as follows:
Single loop individual reflective practice
The trickiest part of reflective practice is learning how to Reflect in Action. This is where we notice what is happening in the coaching session as it is happening and adjust our approach dynamically in-the-moment.
Supervision introduces double loop learning into the diagram, which can help build our reflective practice muscle, so that we can develop our ability to Reflect in Action. I suggest this extends the diagram above, as follows:
Double loop reflective practice including supervision
By engaging in supervision, we externalise our individual reflective practice by talking it aloud with another practitioner. Out intention is to reflect on our coaching (Reflection on Action) in supervision and internalise the learning when we reflect on the impact that will have on our coaching (Preflection), so we can set our intentions (Preflection) for our coaching practice.
We develop our ability to Reflect in Action because supervisors are adept at it, role model it in supervision, and ask questions that help coaches develop their ability.
I’m very interested in how these ideas land with you as a coach and reflective practitioner yourself...
