Reflective Practice

[vandna najran]

We know that the capacity to reflect and take on board feedback both positive and negative in order to engage in a process of continuous learning is one of the defining characteristics of professional practice.  I would love to hear from members how this practice has improved their practice and outcomes for children.

Has there been discussion on this topic before as this area of exploration is part of the CACHE early years level 3 diploma?

Thanks in anticipation 

Kind Regards

Vandna

 

[Stephen]

Hi Vandna,

Welcome to the forum!  I worked on a 'Reflection Toolkit' with Doncaster local authority which might be of interest.  The workbook was designed particularly for educators working with children who have learning differences or disabilities and challenges us to consider various aspects of our provision to ensure we are being inclusive.  You can find it here: https://tapestry.info/reflection-toolkit.html

Doncaster have had some nice feedback since their nurseries started using the toolkit, i could try and get some of that for you if that would be helpful?

[Jules]

Hi Vandna, 

Welcome! 

We have a couple of articles about reflective practice here on the Forum. 

One by Dr. Jen Colwell: The process of reflective practice. 

And one by Jo Caswell about Reflective Leadership. 

And here's an article about the Reflection Toolkit that Stephen mentions. 😊

[Helen]

Hello Vandna,

Welcome to the FSF! 😀

I think reflective practice can be something you build into your everyday work- I'm not working with children anymore, but when I was working in a nursery, I was consciously observing and reflecting on my interactions with the children, on the activities available and how the children were using them, on the environment and whether certain areas were getting a bit tired and needed tweaking (or a compete overhaul!). Those times for reflection were pretty quick, but often led to discussions with my colleagues later, and a decision to change things- bring in new materials/resources, change the order of events in the nursery session, etc. One thing I do remember clearly was when we had snack time followed by a Big Book story time as a whole group (18 children). It never worked! The children were raring to be active after their snack and it was difficult to get them to sit and listen to a story. After reflecting about this, and realising that we were not meeting their needs, we changed story time to before snack time, and added a lively music and movement session, with ribbons, hoops, scarves, etc for after snack. It worked a treat. 😃 

[vandna najran]

Hi all 

 

Firstly thank you so much for your kind posts and my sincere apologies in the delay in responding.  I was under the impression I would receive an e-mail notification so wasn't aware of your responses which are so helpful and thoughtful.  I really liked the different responses from the simple and practical toolkit which centres upon a specific group of children, the articles on reflective leadership; and the great post by Helen illustrating how everyday reflective practice improves meeting of needs.  I think the toolkit is great because it helps to capture actions to mitigate any gaps in provision in line with the desired outcome.  It would be great to see the feedback Stephen - thanks so much for sharing the toolkit.  In terms of reflective leadership I think there is so much more to think about here in terms of 'what works' and 'what does not work'.  I feel that the sector could really benefit from more research into this and support mentoring and coaching in the workplace as a result of reflective leadership.  I would be keen to know if journals include features and articles on best practice please.  Looking forward to your further responses and hope to bring my insights from working in the health sector in terms of cross sector learning on reflective practice.

Thanks to you all again. 

With much appreciation 

Vandna

Edited August 22, 2023 by vandna najran

[vandna najran]

Also reflective practice can involve negative feedback and being resilient in taking that on board.  This can be difficult especially if it involves changes that are difficult for the Practitioner to make.  How can good supervision and staff support enable behaviour change in practitioners.  I am particularly keen to hear views as changes to the environment, ideas, concepts or activities are perhaps easier to achieve than changes in practitioner behaviour. 

Thanks in anticipation 

Kindest Regards 

 

Vandna

[Jules]

Hi! It is really interesting to hear thoughts from your perspective working in the health sector. There is connection and overlap between the two, and important to recognise this to build on collaboration to support staff, families and children.

I wonder if you have come across the work of Dr Prospera Tedam, who developed the Mandela Model to support reflective leadership, anti-oppression, and relationship building in the workplace within Social Work? We recorded a podcast with Dr Tedam and Professor Eunice Lumsden, who is a leading voice in the early years sector, about tools to support conversations and reflexive practice in settings.

Keep an eye out for an upcoming resource related to this in the next few weeks as well!

P.S. – to help with notifications, here’s a link explaining how to set them so you get the ones you’d like 😊

https://eyfs.info/forums/topic/54512-how-to-follow-forum-areas-or-topics-and-notifications/

[vandna najran]

Thank you Jules for posting the link to the podcast.  Do you have a link to the Mandela Model please?.  Also where can we access the Unique Childhoods Workbook please?. I am keen to build a library of toolkits to support best practice including any toolkits that support speech delays such as those issued by the Talk Boost project in liaison with Speech and Language UK.

Thanks again and hope to hear from you again 

All the very best 

Vandna 

[Jules]

Hi Vandna, 

I'm really glad you're finding the links useful. 

The collaboration between the Mandela Model and the Unique Childhoods Workbook is a resource by Professor Eunice Lumsden that will be available soon. I'll pop back and add it to this thread when it goes live. 

You mentioned language and speech development, which made me think of the work by Kirstie Page and the Launchpad for Literacy. Kirstie recorded a podcast episode with us a while ago. 

And here's a link to the series of Beginner's Guides on the Tapestry.info website - they are designed to support necessary conversations and reflection around a number of topics. 

Hope you have a good week. 

[vandna najran]

Thanks Jules, these resources are a great start for building on reflective practice especially with regards to my interest areas such as language and speech development which I know from my NHS work is an area where there is huge demand.  

I will review the Beginners Guides so thank so much for sharing and get back to you and other group members who have kindly participated in this forum discussion. Thanks everyone 

Kindest Regards 

Vandna

[GeorginaW]

I have had a look at the link provided and had a read through of the importance of reflection and ways in which to do this effectively  

‘The process of Reflection, the doing part, can be broken down into four key areas (Colwell et al., 2020): 

·       Reviewing relevant, existing research and materials 

·       Gathering new evidence

·       Data analysis

·       Evaluation and Reflection’

i thought that this was very useful information and a bit of a guidance to effective reflection. I think it is important to review existing research and materials to determine what needs improving and what exactly needs to be adjusted to contribute towards good practice. 

[GeorginaW]

The Reflective Learning Process

Identify a situation you encountered in your work or personal life that you believe could have been dealt with more effectively.

Describe the experience

What happened?  When and where did the situation occur?  Any other thoughts you have about the situation?

Reflection

How did you behave?  What thoughts did you have?  How did it make you feel?  Were there other factors that influenced the situation?  What have you learned from the experience?

Theorizing

How did the experience match with your preconceived ideas, i.e. was the outcome expected or unexpected?  How does it relate to any formal theories that you know?  What behaviours do you think might have changed the outcome?

Experimentation

Is there anything you could do or say now to change the outcome?  What action(s) can you take to change similar reactions in the future?  What behaviours might you try out?

looking at this theory from skillsyouneed.com, 2023 I have found it useful when breaking down exactly what I need to do for an effective reflection on my development.

it is very important to be your own critic and it is okay to critique things that you thought didn’t go well or things you could do better next time. I also think that ‘experimentation’ is a great tool to then establish what works and what doesn’t during your practice. 
I will be using these prompts in the future when reflecting on my practice

 

 

[Jules]

Glad you found some of the links useful GeorginaW, and thank you for sharing those steps for reflection here. So helpful to have different prompts to guide us. 

[Helen]

Thanks for the references, Georgina- that's a helpful structure for reflective practice and is often the one that students are introduced to when starting out on their reflective journey. I've also found how useful it can be to discuss reflections with colleagues- inviting their thoughts and suggestions within a supportive environment. You can get such insight from others. I used to be a reflective practice tutor at Uni and these group sessions were some of the most enjoyable and thought-provoking. 🙂

[Jules]

Hi there - as promised, here is the link to the free downloadable Mandela Model Workbook (which builds on the Mandela Model and is the updated name of the Unique Childhoods Workbook as mentioned in a previous post). It has been written by Professor Eunice Lumsden, designed to support the the development of belonging for families and staff in a setting community. 

[RhodaF]

I'm interested in this area too.

As I am working as both a early years practitioner and as a forest school leader in this context, reflection is an area to which we often return to. Reflection is key to the ethos under which I work, both for the children and for the staff. We often take time with the children at the end of a session to actively chat about what they have been doing, what they enjoyed and how they felt about it. As practitioners we then use this to plan play opportunities for further sessions bearing in mind the things that we as professionals are seeing develop in the children. This kind of observations, collaborative review and planning is key to the learner led ethos of the forest school movement and helps us to stay responsive to the needs of the children and their interests. As reflective practitioners we also think about our own strengths and weaknesses, how we can support each other and any areas of development that arise from these considerations.

Furthermore there are a few theorists who have established patterns that are used for reflective practice. These processes are quite similar to those we use when observing and planning for children and can also be applied to ourselves and our professional practice. It does take a good dose of humility and flexibility to acknowledge that you do not already possess all the skills and qualities that child need but we can also be reassured that where we do not have a skill yet, there is likely someone who does who we can learn from, perhaps a close colleague or through some kind of wider training. The key here is to understand that we all continue to be learners whatever stage of live or career we are at.

The theorists Kolb, Gibbs and John proposed models that are cyclic and this reflects the ongoing nature of reflection - we aren't ever done learning, it is an attitude we are to be in not just a fix process of start and finish. Of course within this there may be times when specific learning, such as a training course, does start and end but we then have to put our knowledge into practice and that requires adjustment and flexibility to apply what we know to the children we work with, another learning process and one that will continue as the children grow or move on and we get new children.

The stages of reflection include doing something, observing, thinking about how it worked and what could be changed (and why) and implementing these changes before repeating the cycle to see if it worked better or worse, or if it met the children's needs well and so on.

Another theorist, Schon, has outlined 2 characteristics of reflective practice, firstly thinking about what we are doing as we do it (- being adaptive in the moment) and secondly thinking about what we did later on, when perhaps we have more time to consider in detail. Again we see the importance of ongoing reflection and being flexible and willing to change our practice.
 

[Jules]

Hi RhodaF and welcome to the FSF 😊

I really enjoyed reading about your practice. I noticed how central observation is in your approach. How observation and reflection informs what you do next.

Professor Eunice Lumsden takes reflection on further to ‘reflexivity’ – which is about the actions we take, about creating change. Reading about your approach, it feels this ‘responsiveness’ is part of your practice too.

I have also noticed in my own practice in the past, that when educators are reflective, they make space for children to be reflective too, and to engage more deeply.

There can be lots of challenges though, time being a big one. This is a quote I've just read from the book 'Early Childhood Education: Current realities and future priorities' (celebrating Early Education’s centenary) which seems to fit here:

… let’s develop hopeful, relational, slow pedagogies; with time and space for deep level learning.

[BAO]

There is a theory of Reflective practice from David Kolb called Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory in 1984. It is a good basis to understanding reflection in professional development. Kolb talked about learning being a process where knowledge is created through gathering experiences and transforming these experiences to desired better outcomes for children. He said it happens in four stages which are:
Concrete or Direct involvement in a task, Reflecting on the experience, Conceptualisation and formulating theories and  
Active applyication of  the theories to new experiences.

Kolb drills into the importance of reflection as a bridge between experience and learning. He said professionals must reflect on their experiences to derive meaningful lessons and apply these insights to future actions

[Blessing]

I really like Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory.  Jack did this work in 1991. Without reflection he said there is no transformative learning. What I liked about it is that reflection often leads to changing one’s view of things. I think that as practitioners if we are willing to change views then we can deal with our biases. This is a huge benefit or advantage in planning for development. 

 

I am doing a Level 3 Early Year qualication and this course has made me research and find forums like this to learn from. 

 

Thank you. 

[Helen]

Welcome to the forum, Blessing 😃. Thank you for making your first posts.

I totally agree- reflection is essential if we are to learn professionally and constantly improve what we offer to children and their families. There are advantages to both reflecting on our own, examining our own thoughts and feelings, and also reflecting with our colleagues about our practice and provision. Sharing ideas and reflections amongst our work colleagues is hugely beneficial- but needs skilled leaders to create and maintain a supportive, inclusive and safe environment for staff to feel comfortable. When it works well, it's a joy 😀