[RYDYL72]

Hi,
I am on my last unit for Cache level three early years educator course and one of the questions was to discuss the importance of reflection in relation to professional development. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts they would like to share?
Since studying I have been reflecting on my practice throughout and looking at ways in which I could improve my practice trough the way I plan activities and the way I implement them. I suppose I would relate more to Kolb’s theory.
Has anyone had the same thoughts on reflective practice?

The two theorists that I have researched have been very influential in helping people to understand the reflective process. These theorists are Kolb’s learning cycle and Gibbs’ reflective cycle which I have summarised below.
Kolb’s learning cycle
Kolb’s learning cycle can be used to help us reflect on our learning and is represented by a four-stage learning cycle.
For learning to be effective there are four processes that need to take place.
These are:
Concrete experience – This is about doing such as teaching children how to play a game or teaching them to use scissors.
Reflective observation – This is where the practitioner reviews and reflects on the activity/experience. This means that the practitioner will look at what happened during the activity what parts worked well, which elements wasn’t as successful.
Abstract conceptualisation – This is how you might change things, develop new ideas, modify an existing concept. An example of this would be to plan cutting activities that links to the child’s interests or experiences like pictures of superheroes. Or change a game to make it more interesting preventing children from becoming bored.
Active experimentation – This is about putting new ideas into practice. Here we may carry out the activity using new ideas. The learner applies new ideas to see what happens. We will then reflect on them once more and the whole cycle continues.
Kolb’s learning cycle can help practitioners think about areas of their practice that they need to develop by reflecting on what they do, putting into action changes, before reviewing them again.

Gibbs’ reflective cycle.
Graham Gibbs’ took Kolb’s work and adapted it to create a more structured approach.
This was used to help adults reflect on their responses after situations.
It was also to come to some conclusion about what they could do differently.
Gibbs’ cycle works where you follow a situation which could either be positive or negative.
The practitioner thinks about what happened and their feelings at the time and evaluates it.
Description – what happened?
Feelings- what were you thinking and feeling at the time?
Evaluation – What was good or bad about the experience?
Analysis – What sense can you make of what happened?
Conclusion -What can you conclude from this, what you could have done?
Action plan – What are you going to do now to change the way you work?
Example:
A child is throwing all the boxes on the floor and is told by the practitioner to stop on more than one occasion but the child continues. The practitioner shouts at the child and makes them cry. The supervisor uses Gibbs’ cycle to help the practitioner reflect on what has happened.
The cycle provides steps to support the practitioner to understand how the situation could have had a better outcome. It helps the practitioner to understand what happened, how they felt at the time. Were they tired, did their tiredness cause them to get angry or frustrated?
The elevation step looks at if the practitioner’s responses were right, was it good or bad practice? If not then to move on to the analysis step to understand why or if there were underlying issues or lack of knowledge on how to manage behaviour.
The conclusion brings all the information together about the situation, looking at where the practitioner my need to improve their practice to avoid the situation happening again.
Action plan step is where the supervisor and practitioner agree on an action plan to prevent the situation from happening again. This could be that the practitioner agrees to go on some training to manage behaviour or take part in a learning opportunity like shadowing the supervisor how to defuse similar situations.
Looking at the conclusion stage of the example above it was suggested that the practitioner needed some training on manging behaviour. This was then fed into the action plan which therefore links to professional development.
I would say that Kolb’s learning cycle is easy to follow and is a good way as it allows us to think about ways in which we can improve our practice which benefits us and the children we work with. Reflecting on my practice has been something that I have had to do a lot of during this course. It has really helped me with my planning and helped me to be confident when trying new ideas and not feel deflated if an activity didn’t go to plan. It’s made me look at ways of changing and adapting activities so that they are more successful. It has also given me opportunities to look at areas in which I need to develop to continue to support the children that I work with.