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Hello, I hope you are well. I am at the tail end of my NCFE CACHE Level 3 qualification in Early Years and currently doing a very useful module on professional development. Introduction: This week I have been learning the theoretical perspectives on reflection in relation to professional development. I have gained some very useful information through studying the main theories on the topic which I was keen to share and discuss. I hope you all don't mind me sharing my work here and would love to gain your thoughts on which theories align with you and if you have used any in your own reflective journey in early years; which have been useful to you and which have not been as expected. I will share my work here and look forward to discussing this further with you. Please do message, comment and discuss. Thank you in advance for any engagement and all the best with your personal journey and more importantly your professional development. [start] REFLECTION – theoretical perspective : Reflecting on our own practice is really important in early years, as we can improve our responses and the overall way in which we work. When we think about the way we work, observe, question and evaluate our practice we can make improvements and indeed grow and develop as a practitioner. Various theories exist on the reflective process, giving us evidence-based research on the benefits of it. The 5 theories below are mostly cyclical models, encouraging the process of reflection and therefore the principle of most of the theories is the same, which is looking at what happened, reviewing what went well and what did not, looking at what can be improved and putting in a strategy for better results in future. I will have a look at some of the theories in more detail below: Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (1984): This is a four stage learning cycle and effective learning is seen when a person progresses through all four stages, resulting in new experiences. This is used for reflective practice. Kolb’s model is referred to as an experiential learning model, which relates to learning through experience. After the four steps have been reached we may need to reflect again (on the changes / adaptations). Concrete Experience: Immerse yourself in the experience such as teaching children how to play a game of snakes and ladders. What happened? Reflective Observation: What did you notice about the experience? What did it make you think about? reviewing / reflecting on the experience. Such as, what worked in this game and which parts were less successful. Abstract Conceptualization: How might you change things? Learning from the experience. Can we adapt the above game to make it more useful or easier for children to understand and play better and stay engaged? Active Experimentation: Try out you new ideas. Planning and trying out what you have learnt. Such as , play the game again using your new ideas / adaptations and see if you get better results. Gibbs Cycle of Reflection (1988): Gibbs model is known as an iterative model, which focuses on challenging our assumptions and exploring new ideas and ways of doing things and promoting self-improvement. It relates to learning through repetition. This is a reflective process with 6 steps so that each step informs the next. After a situation or incident has arisen we can use these steps to reach some conclusions about what to do differently in the future. Here, we think about what happened, our feelings, why it happened, what conclusion is drawn and an action plan for future practice. This could be the need for more training or more opportunities to learn from others and this is how it is about continuous professional development. His cycle of reflection is as follows: Description: what happened? Simply describe the incident or situation. Feelings: What were you thinking or feeling at the time? Evaluation: what was good or bad about the experience? Think about the incident in terms of the quality of the practice. Analysis: what sense can you make of the situation? What were the underlying issues? Was it lack of knowledge or training in a certain area such as behavioural management? Conclusion: what else could you have done? And how can these be used to help you improve practice? Action plan: if this arose again, what would you do? action plan to prevent the situation from occurring again. Such as training or more support or regular check-in with a senior colleague or regular breaks. The aims of using Gibbs’ reflective cycle are to: challenge your assumptions explore new ideas or different ways of doing or thinking about things promote self-improvement by identifying your own strengths and weaknesses and taking action to address them link theory and practice by combining doing with thinking To me, I find Gibb’s theory useful. Gibb’s theory of reflection explains the human thought process in simple terms, explaining that by engaging in reflection, using the simple cycle, one can engage in continuous learning which can help us to improve our practice. Schon’s process of continuous learning (1995): Schon suggested that the capacity to reflect in order to engage in a process of continuous learning was one of the defining characteristics of professional practice. His model of continuous learning emphasizes the importance of reflective practice, focusing on "reflection-in-action" and "reflection-on-action" to facilitate learning from experience. This process encourages ongoing development and refinement of skills by analysing situations, learning from mistakes, and adapting strategies in real-time. Schön believed in the concept of improvisation and incorporating life experiences into the process of learning. Reflecting-in-action: thinking ‘as you go’ about what you are doing, how well you are performing and how successful you are with different tasks Reflecting-on-action: thinking ‘after the event’ when you have completed a task you can consider afterwards what worked well, or how things could have been managed differently. Johns’ five stage model (2000): This 5 stage model gives us practitioners a structured framework to analyse our experiences, understand the impact of our choices and focus on growth and professional development through developing strategies for future improvement. The five stages are: 1. Description: Describe the event objectively, focusing on facts and what happened (significant factors). 2. Reflection: Reflect on personal feelings, thoughts, and the purpose of your actions during the event. And the consequences of the same. 3. Influencing Factors: Identify internal and external factors that influenced your decisions and actions. 4. Evaluation: Assess the effectiveness of your actions and decisions, considering both successes and failures. 5. Learning: Draw conclusions about what you learned from the experience and how it can improve future practice. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory: This theory comprises a pyramid of human needs which are physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow’s theory explains that a human needs to first accept and fulfil their physiological needs such as food, clothing, basic health and shelter and then they move on to complex physiological needs such as accomplishing something worthy or taking themselves to the top pinnacle of success and then realising it. Maslow placed the needs in the order from top to bottom with the more creative and intellectually oriented ‘self-actualization’ needs at the top. Maslow asserted that not everyone would actually reach their full potential or consider this as their goal, however there might be peak moments in everybody’s life when it comes to achievements. According to Maslow, people who are self-actualised measure their success through peak experiences, they also perceive reality efficiently and take themselves at their face value for who they are, meaning accepting their strengths or weaknesses, they are highly creative and problem centred and look towards continuously bettering themselves. Hence Maslow believed that if a person is already comfortable in their basic needs, then they can start their journey of improvement and self-actualization which relates a lot with what we call reflection today. [end]

Hello, I hope you are well. I am at the tail end of my NCFE CACHE Level 3 qualification in Early Years and currently doing a very useful module on professional development. Introduction: This week I have been learning the theoretical perspectives on reflection in relation to professional development. I have gained some very useful information through studying the main theories on the topic which I was keen to share and discuss. I hope you all don't mind me sharing my work here and would love to gain your thoughts on which theories align with you and if you have used any in your own reflective journey in early years; which have been useful to you and which have not been as expected. I will share my work here and look forward to discussing this further with you. Please do message, comment and discuss. Thank you in advance for any engagement and all the best with your personal journey and more importantly your professional development. [start] REFLECTION – theoretical perspective : Reflecting on our own practice is really important in early years, as we can improve our responses and the overall way in which we work. When we think about the way we work, observe, question and evaluate our practice we can make improvements and indeed grow and develop as a practitioner. Various theories exist on the reflective process, giving us evidence-based research on the benefits of it. The 5 theories below are mostly cyclical models, encouraging the process of reflection and therefore the principle of most of the theories is the same, which is looking at what happened, reviewing what went well and what did not, looking at what can be improved and putting in a strategy for better results in future. I will have a look at some of the theories in more detail below: Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (1984): This is a four stage learning cycle and effective learning is seen when a person progresses through all four stages, resulting in new experiences. This is used for reflective practice. Kolb’s model is referred to as an experiential learning model, which relates to learning through experience. After the four steps have been reached we may need to reflect again (on the changes / adaptations). Concrete Experience: Immerse yourself in the experience such as teaching children how to play a game of snakes and ladders. What happened? Reflective Observation: What did you notice about the experience? What did it make you think about? reviewing / reflecting on the experience. Such as, what worked in this game and which parts were less successful. Abstract Conceptualization: How might you change things? Learning from the experience. Can we adapt the above game to make it more useful or easier for children to understand and play better and stay engaged? Active Experimentation: Try out you new ideas. Planning and trying out what you have learnt. Such as , play the game again using your new ideas / adaptations and see if you get better results. Gibbs Cycle of Reflection (1988): Gibbs model is known as an iterative model, which focuses on challenging our assumptions and exploring new ideas and ways of doing things and promoting self-improvement. It relates to learning through repetition. This is a reflective process with 6 steps so that each step informs the next. After a situation or incident has arisen we can use these steps to reach some conclusions about what to do differently in the future. Here, we think about what happened, our feelings, why it happened, what conclusion is drawn and an action plan for future practice. This could be the need for more training or more opportunities to learn from others and this is how it is about continuous professional development. His cycle of reflection is as follows: Description: what happened? Simply describe the incident or situation. Feelings: What were you thinking or feeling at the time? Evaluation: what was good or bad about the experience? Think about the incident in terms of the quality of the practice. Analysis: what sense can you make of the situation? What were the underlying issues? Was it lack of knowledge or training in a certain area such as behavioural management? Conclusion: what else could you have done? And how can these be used to help you improve practice? Action plan: if this arose again, what would you do? action plan to prevent the situation from occurring again. Such as training or more support or regular check-in with a senior colleague or regular breaks. The aims of using Gibbs’ reflective cycle are to: challenge your assumptions explore new ideas or different ways of doing or thinking about things promote self-improvement by identifying your own strengths and weaknesses and taking action to address them link theory and practice by combining doing with thinking To me, I find Gibb’s theory useful. Gibb’s theory of reflection explains the human thought process in simple terms, explaining that by engaging in reflection, using the simple cycle, one can engage in continuous learning which can help us to improve our practice. Schon’s process of continuous learning (1995): Schon suggested that the capacity to reflect in order to engage in a process of continuous learning was one of the defining characteristics of professional practice. His model of continuous learning emphasizes the importance of reflective practice, focusing on "reflection-in-action" and "reflection-on-action" to facilitate learning from experience. This process encourages ongoing development and refinement of skills by analysing situations, learning from mistakes, and adapting strategies in real-time. Schön believed in the concept of improvisation and incorporating life experiences into the process of learning. Reflecting-in-action: thinking ‘as you go’ about what you are doing, how well you are performing and how successful you are with different tasks Reflecting-on-action: thinking ‘after the event’ when you have completed a task you can consider afterwards what worked well, or how things could have been managed differently. Johns’ five stage model (2000): This 5 stage model gives us practitioners a structured framework to analyse our experiences, understand the impact of our choices and focus on growth and professional development through developing strategies for future improvement. The five stages are: 1. Description: Describe the event objectively, focusing on facts and what happened (significant factors). 2. Reflection: Reflect on personal feelings, thoughts, and the purpose of your actions during the event. And the consequences of the same. 3. Influencing Factors: Identify internal and external factors that influenced your decisions and actions. 4. Evaluation: Assess the effectiveness of your actions and decisions, considering both successes and failures. 5. Learning: Draw conclusions about what you learned from the experience and how it can improve future practice. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory: This theory comprises a pyramid of human needs which are physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Maslow’s theory explains that a human needs to first accept and fulfil their physiological needs such as food, clothing, basic health and shelter and then they move on to complex physiological needs such as accomplishing something worthy or taking themselves to the top pinnacle of success and then realising it. Maslow placed the needs in the order from top to bottom with the more creative and intellectually oriented ‘self-actualization’ needs at the top. Maslow asserted that not everyone would actually reach their full potential or consider this as their goal, however there might be peak moments in everybody’s life when it comes to achievements. According to Maslow, people who are self-actualised measure their success through peak experiences, they also perceive reality efficiently and take themselves at their face value for who they are, meaning accepting their strengths or weaknesses, they are highly creative and problem centred and look towards continuously bettering themselves. Hence Maslow believed that if a person is already comfortable in their basic needs, then they can start their journey of improvement and self-actualization which relates a lot with what we call reflection today. [end]