Reflecting Teams in the Classroom

Abstract

The reflecting team is a method developed by constructivist family therapist that has been used in clinical and clinical training settings as powerful and effective form of providing feedback. This paper attempts to examine the potential value of using a reflecting team in an academic context as a way of enhancing clinical skills training for social work students. Experiences with using a reflecting team as part of social work skills training course are described. The reactions of the students to the method, based on their responses to a subjective quesionnaire, were largely favourable suggesting that the reflecting team could be used successfully as one appraoch to teaching clinical skills. The perceived strengths and weakness of the approach and suggestions by the students for improving the application of the reflecting team in the classroom setting are reported.