Reflective practice in early childhood education – growing as educators and learners
Reflective practice in early childhood education has been described as a process of turning experience into learning. That is, of exploring experience in order to learn new things from it. Reflection involves taking the unprocessed, raw material of experience and engaging with it to make sense of what has occurred (Boud, D. 2001).
What is Reflective Practice?
Reflective practice supports you in making sense of a situation. It enables childcare professionals and teachers to grow and develop their own working theories, philosophy and pedagogy. For any educator, your reflections, both individual and team, provide valuable data and evidence of your developing pedagogy and professional growth.
As a teacher, manager, mentor and early childhood education facilitator, I believe we often use reflective practice throughout our working day. These daily reflections include anticipation of, during and after events. Reflections, or more importantly recording regular reflections is often an action that is overlooked due to the many demands placed on busy early childhood professionals.
Getting to the crux of true reflective practice – it’s more than just looking back! It’s about taking the time to think about values, assumptions and beliefs. It’s all very well to reflect by saying: “Well, we tried … and it didn’t work!”. What I have observed to be good reflective practice, is for early childhood educators to make time to work through these questions:
- What role have you played in this?
- What you did and why?
- How does this reflect the principles, and goals of our curriculum and our philosophy?
- What would you do differently to support a better outcome?
- What does this say about your teaching strategies and our role as educators?
Some educators may need support to strengthen their skills for deep reflective practice. This will allow them to truly unpack the inconsistencies between espoused beliefs and practices (what we think we do) versus actions in practice (what we really do). Reflective practice in early childhood education can support a greater understanding of who we are as teachers and how our own values and beliefs impact what we do and why.
Reflective Practice in Storypark
Using a reflection plan with goals within the Storypark planning area is ideal for assisting teachers in clarifying their ideas, musings, and evidence and can support deeper reflection. Sharing these reflections with fellow educators, colleagues and/or someone who is removed from the situation can provide external perspectives. It can be helpful as there is little benefit from being too insular and relying on just your own interpretations. The role of a “provocateur” can be a valuable one. A plan can be completely private or you can invite a mentor, manager or colleague from within your early childhood centre.
The evidence we gather in a plan or teacher story can provide a rich source for reflection. Yes, we have the stories we craft and create but we also have the data found within the reports area of your early childhood centre’s Storypark account and within your portfolio area. The learning tags you use provide learning trends that can highlight the learning you have focused on and recorded over any period of time. If you have used the learning tags to highlight the MAIN learning, then you will be able to create a picture of your own pedagogical focus. Also highlighting your lens on learning – what does it illuminate for you?
Reflection Models
Some examples of reflection models to support the creation of your own reflective practices:
Want to know more about using:
Learning Tags: https://intercom.help/storypark/general/learning-tags-and-sets/what-are-learning-tags-and-sets
Learning Trends Reports: https://intercom.help/storypark/for-teachers/reports/what-are-learning-trends
My Portfolio Report: https://intercom.help/storypark/for-teachers/teacher-portfolios/teacher-profile-reports
Planning: https://intercom.help/storypark/for-teachers/planning/create-a-plan
REFERENCES
OʼConnor, A. & Diggins, C. (2002). On reflection: reflective practice for early childhood educators. Lower Hutt: Open Mind Publishing.
Campbell, Melenyzer, Nettles, & Wyman (2000). Portfolio and Performance Assessment in Teacher Education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Peters, J. (1991). Strategies for reflective practice. Professional development for Educators of Adults. New directions for Adult and Continuing Education. R. Brockett (ed). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Boud, D. (2001). Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice. In English, L. M. and Gillen, M. A. (Eds.) Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education. New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education No. 90. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 9-18.
Written by Sharon Carlson
Sharon's early years were supported at home by her Mum in Taranaki, New Zealand. She later became an ECE ICT facilitator for CORE Education, and then Storypark. Sharon has successfully supported the implementation of a diverse range of ICT products and services around the country and is helping make sure Storypark is awesome for teachers and children's development.
Reflective practice in early childhood education – growing as educators and learners
Reflective practice in early childhood education has been described as a process of turning experience into learning. That is, of exploring experience in order to learn new things from it. Reflection involves taking the unprocessed, raw material of experience and engaging with it to make sense of what has occurred (Boud, D. 2001).
What is Reflective Practice?
Reflective practice supports you in making sense of a situation. It enables childcare professionals and teachers to grow and develop their own working theories, philosophy and pedagogy. For any educator, your reflections, both individual and team, provide valuable data and evidence of your developing pedagogy and professional growth.
As a teacher, manager, mentor and early childhood education facilitator, I believe we often use reflective practice throughout our working day. These daily reflections include anticipation of, during and after events. Reflections, or more importantly recording regular reflections is often an action that is overlooked due to the many demands placed on busy early childhood professionals.
Getting to the crux of true reflective practice – it’s more than just looking back! It’s about taking the time to think about values, assumptions and beliefs. It’s all very well to reflect by saying: “Well, we tried … and it didn’t work!”. What I have observed to be good reflective practice, is for early childhood educators to make time to work through these questions:
- What role have you played in this?
- What you did and why?
- How does this reflect the principles, and goals of our curriculum and our philosophy?
- What would you do differently to support a better outcome?
- What does this say about your teaching strategies and our role as educators?
Some educators may need support to strengthen their skills for deep reflective practice. This will allow them to truly unpack the inconsistencies between espoused beliefs and practices (what we think we do) versus actions in practice (what we really do). Reflective practice in early childhood education can support a greater understanding of who we are as teachers and how our own values and beliefs impact what we do and why.
Reflective Practice in Storypark
Using a reflection plan with goals within the Storypark planning area is ideal for assisting teachers in clarifying their ideas, musings, and evidence and can support deeper reflection. Sharing these reflections with fellow educators, colleagues and/or someone who is removed from the situation can provide external perspectives. It can be helpful as there is little benefit from being too insular and relying on just your own interpretations. The role of a “provocateur” can be a valuable one. A plan can be completely private or you can invite a mentor, manager or colleague from within your early childhood centre.
The evidence we gather in a plan or teacher story can provide a rich source for reflection. Yes, we have the stories we craft and create but we also have the data found within the reports area of your early childhood centre’s Storypark account and within your portfolio area. The learning tags you use provide learning trends that can highlight the learning you have focused on and recorded over any period of time. If you have used the learning tags to highlight the MAIN learning, then you will be able to create a picture of your own pedagogical focus. Also highlighting your lens on learning – what does it illuminate for you?
Reflection Models
Some examples of reflection models to support the creation of your own reflective practices:
Want to know more about using:
Learning Tags: https://intercom.help/storypark/general/learning-tags-and-sets/what-are-learning-tags-and-sets
Learning Trends Reports: https://intercom.help/storypark/for-teachers/reports/what-are-learning-trends
My Portfolio Report: https://intercom.help/storypark/for-teachers/teacher-portfolios/teacher-profile-reports
Planning: https://intercom.help/storypark/for-teachers/planning/create-a-plan
REFERENCES
OʼConnor, A. & Diggins, C. (2002). On reflection: reflective practice for early childhood educators. Lower Hutt: Open Mind Publishing.
Campbell, Melenyzer, Nettles, & Wyman (2000). Portfolio and Performance Assessment in Teacher Education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Peters, J. (1991). Strategies for reflective practice. Professional development for Educators of Adults. New directions for Adult and Continuing Education. R. Brockett (ed). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Boud, D. (2001). Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice. In English, L. M. and Gillen, M. A. (Eds.) Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education. New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education No. 90. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 9-18.
Written by Sharon Carlson
Sharon's early years were supported at home by her Mum in Taranaki, New Zealand. She later became an ECE ICT facilitator for CORE Education, and then Storypark. Sharon has successfully supported the implementation of a diverse range of ICT products and services around the country and is helping make sure Storypark is awesome for teachers and children's development.