title: Counselor educators’ experiences giving feedback on students’ reflective work
title: an interpretative phenomenological analysis
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Woodbridge, Lindsay M.
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2023
Subjects: counselor education and supervision
feedback
reflection
student-instructor relationship
School counseling
public abstract
Professional Development

description: The professional development process for counselors begins during their formal training and extends throughout their careers. Reflective thinking is closely connected with ongoing professional development. When counselors reflect on their experiences, they can generate new insights to shape future practice. Feedback is another important tool for fostering the development of counselors-in-training. Given the stated importance of reflective thinking for counselors and the frequent use of feedback to support student development, the field needs access to research addressing the interaction of these mechanisms of learning. Thus, the primary research question for this study is: How do counselor educators experience giving feedback on students’ reflective work? With additional insight into the role of feedback on students’ reflective work, counselor educators may be able to design reflective assignments, including approaches to feedback, in ways that best support students’ development.The purpose of this study was to generate an initial understanding of counselor educators’ experiences giving feedback on students’ reflective work. The study used the qualitative research paradigm of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to address this goal. The researcher recruited six participants who are experienced counselor educators, regularly assign reflective work in their classes, and give feedback on this work. Data sources included participant feedback on a mock sample of student reflective work, existing documents such as assignment descriptions and rubrics, and live interviews. In keeping with the idiographic approach that is fundamental to IPA, data analysis began with in-depth analysis and interpretation of individual cases. The researcher then moved to analysis and interpretation across cases, attending to both area of convergence and areas of divergence. Strategies to support trustworthiness included triangulation, reflexive journaling, expert review, conducting a pilot interview, member checking, engaging a peer debriefer, generating a thick description, and developing an audit trail.
description: The cross-case analysis and interpretation yielded three superordinate themes. In assigning and responding to reflective work, participants’ primary goal is to support students’ growth and development, particularly in the areas of reflective thinking, self-awareness, and taking ownership of learning. Participants described their feedback as relational in nature, reporting that feedback shapes their relationships with students and that these relationships shape their feedback. Additionally, participants indicated that when giving feedback on reflective work, they engage in a range of roles and responsibilities, including counselor, supervisor, and feedback recipient. Implications are provided for counselor educators, doctoral training programs, counseling students, and researchers. For counselor educators, these implications involve engaging in reflective practice themselves, making a plan for responding to reflective work, and communicating clearly with students when assigning and giving feedback on this work.