The Importance of Constructive Criticism and Reflection

Aimed at professionalising policing through partnership with higher education, the Police Constable Entry Routes are now in an age of relative maturity. An evidence base is emerging based on student experiences of those first programmes. This chapter explores how educational providers can use reflective practice and student feedback in this new era of evaluation and improvement. It focuses on delivery of the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship at the University of the West of England and explores how reflection is used to transform student feedback into rich feedforward data and close the feedback loop. It is argued that this is a vital step in students and educators being prepared for the future challenges of policing.