Beyond reflection – where next for curricula which concentrate on abilities? Introduction 203; Outline 204; Defining reflection 205; Process analysis 205; Self-evaluation 207; Critical incident analysis 210; Open-ended reflection 212; Serendipity 214; Facilitating reflections 214; The implications for our curricula – and teaching –

Twenty years ago, when Alan Harding and I were delivering staff development workshop programmes in the Middle East, we prepared and followed a support booklet which we titled ‘Beyond Instruction’. Our purpose in doing this was to make clear our firm belief that there should only be a limited role for instruction in engineering, technological or scientific education. We argued that engineering educationists should especially value higher level abilities. We emphasized the importance of such abilities as true analysis, diagnosis, judgement, developing production techniques, identifying requirements and, especially, the creative ability which features strongly in design. For such learning outcomes, we pointed out, a teaching approach based upon instruction was unlikely to prove effective. Hence, we maintained that teachers should set rather less emphasis on instruction as an appropriate mode of teaching, other than in respect of the assimilation and regurgitation of content, and the mastery and use of routine algorithms.