Three Practical Steps to Facilitate Reflection Among Low-Performing Medical Students

Reflection enables students to develop a deeper degree of learning and identify appropriate opportunities for improvement. As such, remediation coaches should support low-performing students to reflect on their learning experiences and, then, make positive changes through a guided, structured, and facilitated reflection. This study was an attempt towards structuring facilitated reflection (i.e. a structured and guided reflection) among low-performing students. Gibbs’ model was adopted as the theoretical framework to develop the reflection approach. Herein, there are three main steps in the reflection process: (a) Engagement: a remediation coach identifies and engages with appropriate students; (b) Active reflection: students complete and submit reflective journals, the remediation coach reads and highlights responses that require clarifications, and then the coach guides the students through their reflection; and (c) Monitoring and follow-up by the remediation coach. In a pilot implementation, students’ journal excerpts and dialogues were the supporting evidence used to analyse if effective reflection had taken place, with the student expressing positive and encouraging experiences of the facilitated reflection. These positive experiences suggest that this kind of structured and guided reflection is useful in encouraging reflective practice among low-performing students.