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- - Professional Development (http://www.silkysteps.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22232)

Professional Development

Hi everyone I am in my last assignment and I am expecting to discuss in theoretical perspective. If you can make comments below I will be appreciate it. Thank you for your support. :SOS help

David Kolb suggests that learning is an integrated process where each stage becomes mutually supportive of and feeds into the next stage. Kolb believes it is possible to enter the cycle at any stage and follow it through it’s logical sequence. Kolb’s model of learning consists of 4 stage. Stage 1 – Concrete Experience: the first stage of learning is to have a learning experience. Stage 2 - Observing and Reflection: Here learners are encouraged to reflect on what they learnt, how and why they learnt it and whether the experience could have been improved on. Stage 3 – Forming Abstract Concepts: using other experiences as a form of reference, and using other modes and models of thinking to inform your ideas. Stage 4 – Testing the Learning in New Situations: this is the final stage and involves the placement of the learnt material into context within own life. If this doesn’t happen it is likely that the new knowledge will be forgotten quickly. The person should also think about implementing the knowledge and how they can make the next learning experience more beneficial.

I believed that Kolb's theory is simple and applicable. Because we are all exposed to new learning every day. and we have the opportunity to see the effect of this experience on us. At the same time, we have the opportunity to reanalyze this new situation by recalling our old learnings. finally, we can combine (synthesize) our old learnings and new ones and apply them in different situations we encounter. These are all about how much experience we have and our ability to use the knowledge and skills we have acquired affect our professional life.

Hello readers! I am coming to the end of my Level 3 Early Years Educator course and I am currently thinking about reflection in relation to professional development. The main theorists who influence practice are below, with my understanding of these principles and give scenarios of how they may be used in practice.
Gibbs
The Gibbs Reflective Cycle is a structured approach, which is a continuous cycle of the following steps.
What happened?
What were your thoughts/feelings?
What was good or bad?
What sense can you make of the situation?
What else could you have done?
What will you do differently next time?
An example of how this may be used within practice may be a new book which the children are having read to them, the book was very long with complex vocabulary, you red it at the end of the day and the children were very tired and restless, you felt that the younger children stopped listening because it was too wordy, the older children loved the challenging vocabulary. You could have separated the children into two groups and read to the older half, next time you may split the group, or you may adapt the book by reading less of the words but highlighting interesting and new words to the older children. Something to try would be to read the book earlier in the day when the children aren’t as tired. You could then read the book and see whether your new technique works better.
Kolb
Kolbs reflective cycle is four stages, this is to;
Do (again)
Think (again)
Conclude (again)
Adapt (again)
An example of this in terms of professional development in Early Years could be that you have provided the children with paint and a vase of flowers, after the session, you will think about how this went – the children tried to paint the flowers themselves and not the paper. Does this matter, or did they still learn something? Could I show them, or provide something else for them to have a go at painting next time? Then I do again, think again, conclude again and adapt again. This again is a repeated cycle of practice and reflection.
Schon
Schons theories were around reflecting IN practice, and reflecting ON practice. To reflect IN practice, I personally think this one takes some experience, in certain situations. To think about how things are working and what is going well during an activity is something which we do naturally in some situations, and in others comes with practice. Reflection ON action is about thinking after the event about what worked and what didn’t and how you would do things differently next time. This might be inward reflection, or a peer feeding back about how it went from their perspective after the event.