The paper looks at the use of an online journal facility to enhance reflective practice learning. The student cohorts are recruit prison officers (RPOs) in the Irish Prison Service on a level 6 Higher Certificate in Custodial Care. Recruits have an average age of 33 with varied levels of higher educational attainment & digital competency and no experience of reflective practice. The programme and ‘involves a work-based model that requires the development of reflective practitioner skills on the part of the trainee officer’ (Irish Prison Service & Waterford Institute of Technology 2017, p. 9).
An objective of the programme is to embed reflection as a key tool for prison officers helping to support resilience and maintain well-being throughout a career in professional practice. Bolton (with Delderfield, 2018) asserts that reflective practice and reflexivity ‘are undertaken by practitioners in moral roles, relying on the quality of ethical attitude and actions’ (p. 26). The Irish Prison Service highlights its values-driven approach in its recruitment and education programming (Irish Prison Service, online 2018). The use of the journal facility in Moodle for formative and summative assessment aims to contribute to RPOs’ developing awareness of their own espoused ethical values and their values-in-practice on prison landings.
The use of the online journal facility introduces students to submitting work and receiving feedback via Moodle, enhancing ability to engage online and to think & write reflectively. The process makes explicit the requirements for reflective writing for assessment. The paper uses Evans Assessment Tool (Evans, 2016) to contextualise the use of the online journal within assessment and feedback theory more broadly.
Bolton G. with Delderfield R. 2018. Reflective Practice, Writing and Professional Development. London: Sage
Evans C. 2016. Evans Assessment Tool. Researching Assessment Practices Group. Southampton: University of Southampton
Irish Prison Service 2018. Mission and Values [Online]. Available from: https://www.irishprisons.ie/about-us/mission-and-values/ [Accessed 13 April 2018]
Irish Prison Service & Waterford Institute of Technology 2017. Course Evaluation, Higher Certificate in Custodial Care. WIT: internal document.
