Victoria T

Hello, my name is Victoria and I’m nearly at the end of my CACHE Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Workforce course with Learndirect. As part of my assignment, I was encouraged to participate in an online forum to share my experience of the importance of reflection as part of my professional development. There are two theories that have been particularly influential in helping people to understand the reflective process. David Kolb – Kolb’s learning cycle: David Kolb was an American educational theorist and psychologist. He developed the experiential learning cycle, where he believed that adults learn by doing and then reflecting, not just listening. He suggested that learning happens through four stages and that people progress through a cycle, resulting in new experiences. Concrete experience (doing/having an experience) – This is about doing something. In an early year setting, this could mean teaching children to play a game of snap for example. Reflective Observation (reviewing/reflecting on the experience) – This is about reviewing and reflecting on the experience and what happened. This might mean that the practitioner thinks about which elements of the game of snap seemed to work well and which elements were less successful. Abstract Conceptualisation (concluding/learning from the experience) – This is about developing new ideas. For example, when playing a game of snap, it might be useful to use pictures on cards that link to children’s experiences and to have extra cards that match, to prevent children from becoming bored. Active experimentation (planning/trying out what you have learned) -This is about putting into practice new ideas. When playing another game of snap, we use the new picture cards instead, giving the children more opportunity to find a “snap”. David Kolb’s process is shown as a learning cycle because after testing new ideas, we may need to reflect on the experience again before continuing. This theory highlights how reflection supports ongoing learning and improvements I have found Kolb’s process very informative, but Gibbs’ reflective cycle is my preferred option. I have learnt that Gibbs’ model was developed from David Kolb’s 4 stage experiential learning cycle, but he designed it to give clearer steps to enable an accurate reflection. Gibbs’ model is also referred to as an iterative model, which means learning is completed through repetition. There are the 6 steps in the reflection cycle, each step informs the next and I have found these are easy to relate into everyday situations we experience as Early Years Practitioners. Graham Gibb’s cycle of reflection: 1. Description (what happened?) 2. Feelings (what were you thinking and feeling at the time?) 3. Evaluation (what was good/bad about the experience?) 4. Analysis (what do you make of what happened?) 5. Conclusion (what can you conclude from this?) 6. Action plan (what are you going to do now to change the way you work?) How the cycle works: After an event or situation, whether good or bad, the adult reflects on what happened, how they felt and judges the experience. They then consider why it happened and what can be learnt from it and finally an action plan is created. I find this particular model has been practical for everyday reflection as it gives clear and easy steps to help reflect through the six-step process. Learning through refection is so important for Early years practitioners as it helps to – · Track your own practice, your colleagues and evaluate how effective it is. · Identify strengths and areas for improvement, which help to implement new ideas which will help the quality of your provision in the setting. · Improve outcomes for children and their families. · Encourages communication in sharing what I have learnt with colleagues and others. There have been more theories in relation to reflective thinking. Others worth reading about to support Early Years practitioners are as follows: John Deweys Stages of reflection – John Dewey was the originator of the reflective thinking. His theory influenced Kolb and Gibbs. Schon’s process of continuous learning – This theory is based on two distinct processes of reflection: Reflecting in action and reflecting on action. Christopher Johns’ five stage mode – This model is based on five stages to help break down the experience and reflect on the process and outcomes. This model encourages exploring how the experience has changed and improved the situation. I have shared my research to give my thoughts on which theoretical perspective I feel work well in my practice. I hope this is useful and I would really appreciate to hear from anyone who uses another approach or has information on theoretical perspectives that are less well known.