Introducing reflective practice to first year forensic science students

One problem with implementing any change is whether to roll out the new approach or whether to go for a 'big bang' and implement it across all years simultaneously. On the Forensic science programme at Abertay it was decided to try and introduce PDP across all stages simultaneously. However, it has quickly become apparent during semester 1 that students on later stages have not been sufficiently prepared for reflection on their studies, and their engagement with PDP has been poorer than anticipated. This therefore emphasised the need to introduce the necessary skills in the first semester for the stage 1 students, and there was an opportunity to adapt a semester 2 module to reinforce these skills.