Hi, I too am on the same course and would like to share my findings with you.
I find that in and Early Years setting it is very important to participate in reflective practice and there are always ways in which we can improve especially when there are constantly changes in legislation and in the ways we should be working. Reflecting is an important part of our day to day working life because we can assess what has gone good and what can be improved.
I think that Kolb’s learning cycle is a very simple and easy cycle which is easy to follow and allows us to reflect on our work in a simple way. As there are only four sections of this cycle it is not too long. The first one being concrete experience. This means that we have to currently be experiencing something or in the past have had relevant experience. In the scenario of an early years setting this could be carrying out and activity with the children. The second stop is reflective observation, this is where we review or reflect on the experience. This is seeing which parts of the activities went well and worked out well and which could be improved on. The next step is abstract conceptualisation. This is where we conclude the observation and also think about what the experience has taught us. The final step is active experimentation where we plan and experiment with what we have learnt. This step could be carrying out the same activity again however doing it slightly different to see if the activity went better than before. This is then an ongoing cycle which then leads to concrete experience and so on and so forth.
I think this cycle is good as it allows us to think about the main points in a situations and allows us to think about ways in which we could improve. I find that this cycle is also good because once we try out our new ideas we can then evaluate and reflect on them to see if there is further improving which can be done in our work.
The other theoretical perspective on reflection in relation to professional development is Gibbs' reflective cycle. He adapted Kolb's cycle to produce a more structured approach which could be used after situations have arisen to help adults reflect on their responses. After a situation, which can either be positive or negative the adult is able to think about what happened and how they felt in this situation and evaluates it. They also analyse why the situation happened and what conclusions can be met from this situation. The final step of this process is an action plan being created.
The first steps of the cycle is the description of what happened. The next stage are the feelings that were involved and what was being thought at that given moment. The next stage is the evaluation - what was good or bad about the experience. Next is the analysis - what sense can you make of what happened. After that, is the conclusion - what can we conclude from this? The final step is the action plan - what are you going to do to change the way you work.
I think this cycle is a bit more details and allows us to reflect deeper about the situation and what can be improved. This cycle also allows to focus on ourselves as it encourages us to think about our own feelings and emotions that we felt at the given moment. This makes us more centred in the situation. Overall I prefer Kolb’s perspective because its more simple and easier to follow.
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