Developing the Reflective Practitioner---Designing an Undergraduate Class

Valerie Belton (), Helyn Thornbury Gould () and John L. Scott ()
Additional contact information
Valerie Belton: Department of Management Science, University of Strathclyde, 40 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1QE, United Kingdom
Helyn Thornbury Gould: Department of Management Science, University of Strathclyde, 40 George Street, Glasgow, G1 1QE, United Kingdom
John L. Scott: Department of Management Systems, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand

Interfaces, 2006, vol. 36, issue 2, 150-164

Abstract: “The effective practitioner is a reflective practitioner” is a statement applicable to any professional practice, including operations research and management science (OR/MS). However, despite the importance to OR practice of reflection in action, the process of adapting knowledge and skills to new situations, academics have rarely given explicit consideration to the development of reflective skills when designing OR/MS courses. We emphasize the role of reflection in a class that final-year undergraduates studying OR/MS at the University of Strathclyde design to meet the objective of becoming a successful OR/MS practitioner. We describe the process of design, the structure of activities, and the assessment for a particular year using Cowan’s (1998) three-part model of reflection for, in, and on action. Students’ comments confirm the effectiveness of the class.

Keywords: professional; OR/MS education; learning; reflection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/inte.1050.0175 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:orinte:v:36:y:2006:i:2:p:150-164

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Interfaces from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().