The Appropriation of Professional Practice: An Alternative to Reflection / La apropiación de la práctica profesional: una alternativa a la reflexión

In recent decades, reflection has occupied a prominent place in the field of professional development as the main way to learn professional practice. This is partly a consequence of an epistemology of practice that assumes that the knowledge guiding professional practice is situational in nature and constructed through inquiry, that is, through reflection. This article accepts the centrality of situational knowledge in practice but suggests that it can also be learned not through inquiry but through appropriation: that is, it can be learned from a more expert person. Within this framework, the article conceptualises the appropriation of professional practice through four points: recognition of the expert, decomposition of practice, appropriation of knowing-in-action and practice attempts. The differences and complementarities between appropriation and reflection processes are discussed, opening up new, alternative ways of learning professional practice.