Discuss the importance of reflection in relation to professional development

[Valchoco]

Reflection is all about thinking to learn and they are really useful for making progress as practitioner.

Reflection for learning is to recall the event and ask questions to explore why thing went the way they did.

Schoen: identified two types of reflection; reflection on action were the practitioner have to build on upon previous experience.
Reflection in action which practitioner reflect on their behaviour went occur.
I thind Schoen theory help practitioner to improve their practice and become progressively good at what they do.

kolb's talks about four stages
Concrete experience; learning by experience
Reflective and observations; reflect on what happened
Abstract concepts; to reflect on experience
Active: to put in practice what the learner knowledge.
the aim of Kolb's theory is for practitioner to maintain a level of competence in all four part.
Thanks

[Valchoco]

Hi! everyone after digging into the theories of reflection, I came up with my own idea on the two main theories.
I think I like more Kolb's reflective theory because I got to think about how my planned activities went, what can be changed and how I can improve.
Thanks for commenting.

[zoenmya]

Hey everyone, firstly I am finding everyone's opinions on these two theories fascinating. Whilst i can see how both theories may be useful in modern practice I am leaning more towards Gibbs reflective cycle as my preferred theory. At my setting it is sometimes hard to evaluate there and then we often have to revisit what we have done later on to be able to reflect on its effectiveness something that features prominently in gibbs theory.So, after an incident (positive or negative) you think about what happened and your feelings and also evaluate the incident. Then you go on to analyse why it occurred and what conclusions can be drawn from it. Finally, and action plan is put not place so that a negative incident is avoided, or a positive incident is encouraged using all the information gained during the process of completing the cycle.

Obviously we all practice in our ways and have our own preferred theorists, I think this helps sometimes as we can use so many more theories in our settings and we are all bringing something different to the provision.

[Wisher83]

Hi good evening,

I’m also currently on the Cache Level 3 Diploma for the Early Years Workforce (Early Years Educator). The last assignment question I have to complete the course requires me to discuss, using an online forum, theories about reflection.

I’d like to begin by sharing the theory of David Kolb, an American educational theorist. In 1984 he developed an ‘Experiential Learning Cycle’. This cycle consisted of 4 stages and suggested that we learn from our daily lives and the experiences they entail. By using reflective observation on a regular basis, we would learn from our experiences. The stages he developed came as follows:

• Experience – this is where our everyday lives occur. The ‘concrete’
stage happens when we do something that may be new to us for
example an EYP and their first experience with a SEN child

• Reflection – the ‘reflective’ stage by which we look back on, and think
about what we actually did. How did we treat the child? Were we able
to identify their needs?

• Conceptualise – this rather ‘abstract’ stage is where we make
generalisations and create meaning for the new experience. Did I feel
challenged? Why?

• Plan – this is the ‘active’ stage by which we test drive our
generalisations, and use the conclusions we have drawn to actively plan
for the next experience we may encounter

The suggestion is that once we have completed the entire cycle, the experience can be classed as ‘new’ and we can then learn from it.
Influenced by David Kolb was Graham Gibbs, an American Sociologist and Psychologist. Like Kolb he also had a staged theory about reflection but with 6 stages. Instead of using new experiences to learn, Gibbs believed in learning through repetition (Iterative learning). Like the EYFS he suggested that it was important to explore new ways to do things, combine thinking with actions and always try to improve. His stages were as follows:

1. Activity - This includes the who, what, where and when
2. Feelings – during the activity, what were your thoughts about what was
happening? Was it expected? Did those feelings change?
3. Evaluation – this is where you would look into your strengths and
weaknesses, and good/bad points of the activity. Did you encounter any
barriers? How could you overcome them?
4. Analysis – this involves comparing the theories which led you to the
activity, to the outcome. Did practice prove theory?
5. Conclusion – how do you feel it went? Could you have made any
improvements?
6. Action plan – if you were to do this again would you do it differently? If
so, how?

Going through this cycle forms the basis of learning through repetition, much like studying for an exam. The more times you go through something, the easier it will be to understand. It is also very similar to the reflection process that has been used at the end of each session sheet for this course, helping me to build on each experience, just tweaking areas as I have gone along. Continuing to improve our work can only be beneficial in becoming reflective practitioners, benifitting ourselves, the children and their families and the settings we work in.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

[beckster28]

Hi everyone, i'm new to this forum and i'm on the last assignment of Early Years Educator course and have been asked to discuss and summarise theoretical perspectives on reflection in relation to professional development, so my thoughts and findings are that, Reflection is used to describe the process of thinking about the work we do. Involves observing, questioning, evaluating and making improvements to own practice. Reflection is important to be able to monitor own practice and that of your colleagues, evaluate the effectiveness of your practice, identifying weaknesses and strengths and the areas in need of improvement. Not only this but reflection has many other areas it can help you with e.g. review and revise own practice and implement ideas, improve own perspective and professional behaviour, to observe and learn from children and to communicate with and learn from colleagues and others.

Kolbs, Gibbs, Schon and Johns are all theorists on reflection which are based on cyclical models, which encourage the process of ongoing reflection. There are two main theories that have been particularly influential in helping people to understand the reflective process,

1. Kolb's learning cycle, which can be used to help us reflect on our learning and therefore is used for reflective practice. Four processes need to be taken, according to Kolb, so that effective learning can take place.

Concrete experience-doing/having an experience,
Reflective observation-reviewing/reflecting on the experience,
Abstract conceptualisation-concluding/learning from the experience, developing new ideas,
Active experimentation-planning/trying out what you have learned, putting into action our new ideas.

The idea of the cycle is that when using it you can think about areas in your practice that need developing by reflecting on what you do and then putting the changes into action, then reviewing it again.

2. Gibb's reflective cycle which was taken from Kolb and adapted to create a more structured approach which would be used after situations have arisen to help adults reflect on their responses, but also to come to a conclusion.

The cycle of reflection:
Description- What’s happened?, Feelings - What were you thinking and feeling at the time?,
Evaluation - What was good/bad about the experience,
Analysis-What sense can you make of what happened?, Conclusion-what can you conclude from this?,
Action plan-What are you going to do now to change the way you work?

Gibbs cycle contains a conclusion stage, conclusions that might be reached is that more training is needed or that more opportunities to learn from others would be useful. This would then be fed into the action plan and therefore link to professional development. Gibb's cycle encourages a reflective practitioner to examine own practice and plan to what they can change to make future improvements.

[practitioner1987]

Hi everyone, I am also on my last unit of my Early Years Educator course and have found this forum and thread very informative.

Joining in with this discussion on the importance of reflection in relation to professional development. I feel that reflection and reflective practice involves observing, questioning, evaluating and then using that information to make improvements to your own practice and perhaps your colleagues in your setting as well. Reflective practice is important as it allows us to monitor our own practice, evaluate how effective we are, look into what our strengths and weaknesses are ensure that we are continually learning and improving our practice. During my studies I have found my sessions sheets and reflective practice I write after each activity allow me to develop as I look at where I can improve, how the activity went, how did the children enjoy it? It gives you an opportunity to look at improvement and by doing this continually it ensures continually enriching the children and their families.

The theories of reflection I found were:

Kolb's experimental learning cycle - in summary Kolb believed in a cycle of on-going reflection represented by a four stage learning cycle starting with Concrete Experience where you immerse yourself in the experience and look at what happened, next is Reflective Observation where you look at what you noticed about the experience an what it made you think about, the third part of the cycle is Abstract Conceptualization which is where you look at how you might change things and lastly is Active Experimentation where you may try out new ideas. Kolb believed effective learning is seen when a person progresses through all of these cycles, resulting in new experiences.


The other theory is Gibbs Cycle of Reflection which was developed from Kolb's Experimental learning cycle. Gibbs model relates to learning through repetition, the reflective process follows the 6 steps of the model so that each step informs the next. The aims of using Gibb's reflective cycle are to:
Challenge your assumptions, explore new ideas or different ways of doing things, promote self-improvement by identifying your own strengths and weaknesses and to link theory and practice to combine doing with thinking.

Thanks for everyone's previous thoughts and opinions, feel free to share you views on my post.

[practitioner1987]

Hi everyone, I am also on my last unit of my Early Years Educator course and have found this forum and thread very informative.

Joining in with this discussion on the importance of reflection in relation to professional development. I feel that reflection and reflective practice involves observing, questioning, evaluating and then using that information to make improvements to your own practice and perhaps your colleagues in your setting as well. Reflective practice is important as it allows us to monitor our own practice, evaluate how effective we are, look into what our strengths and weaknesses are ensure that we are continually learning and improving our practice. During my studies I have found my sessions sheets and reflective practice I write after each activity allow me to develop as I look at where I can improve, how the activity went, how did the children enjoy it? It gives you an opportunity to look at improvement and by doing this continually it ensures continually enriching the children and their families.

The theories of reflection I found were:

Kolb's experimental learning cycle - in summary Kolb believed in a cycle of on-going reflection represented by a four stage learning cycle starting with Concrete Experience where you immerse yourself in the experience and look at what happened, next is Reflective Observation where you look at what you noticed about the experience an what it made you think about, the third part of the cycle is Abstract Conceptualization which is where you look at how you might change things and lastly is Active Experimentation where you may try out new ideas. Kolb believed effective learning is seen when a person progresses through all of these cycles, resulting in new experiences.


The other theory is Gibbs Cycle of Reflection which was developed from Kolb's Experimental learning cycle. Gibbs model relates to learning through repetition, the reflective process follows the 6 steps of the model so that each step informs the next. The aims of using Gibb's reflective cycle are to:
Challenge your assumptions, explore new ideas or different ways of doing things, promote self-improvement by identifying your own strengths and weaknesses and to link theory and practice to combine doing with thinking.

Thanks for everyone's previous thoughts and opinions, feel free to share you views on my post.

[Laura3011]

Reflective practice is the term used to describe thinking about the work that you do and have done. Reflective practice requires us to look back at our own practice, question whether it was done correctly or not and evaluate how we can make improvements to our own practice as well as our colleagues within the setting.



Reflective practice is vital because it allows us to monitor our own practice as well as the practice of our colleagues. It also enables us to evaluate whether our practice is good enough or requires improvement. It gives us The opportunity to review our practice and try out new ideas we may have. It improves our professional behaviour and allows us to learn from and observe the children. It also gives us the opportunity to communicate with our colleagues and learn from their skills.



The majority of theorists have ideas of reflection which are based on clinical models. These models encourage the process of continuing reflection. Some of these theorists include, Gibbs, kolb, Johns and Schon.
The Gibbs cycle of reflection was developed from the David Kolbs experimental learning cycle in 1988. The kolbs model is based on learning through experience. The Gibbs model is based on learning through interaction and believes that learning is best done through repetition. This reflective process is carried out over six steps in which each step informs the next. Number one is description then feelings, what did you feel/think? The third is evaluation, what do you feel was good/bad about it? The fourth is analysis, what do you make of the situation? The fifth is conclusion, what more could you have done. Finally the sixth is action plan if it was to happen again what would you do?



The David kolb's experimental learning cycle was founded in 1984 and this theory involves the idea that the development of new concepts is given by providing new experiences. This is a four stage learning cycle theory which believes firstly that the learner needs to have/do and experience. Next they need To reflect on what happened during the experience. They then need to conclude what happened during the experience. Finally they need to learn from it and then try out what they have learnt from it.



Christopher Johns believed in a five stage model which he created in 2000. His model believes that following his five stages you are then able to break down your experience then reflect upon it. This model enables the reflector to see how the experience has enabled them to improve their practice and change the way they work. Firstly at the beginning of the stage you need to describe the experience. Next you need to reflect upon it and consider what you were trying to achieve and what would the consequences of this. You then need to identify Influencing factors that influenced your decision making. You then need to decide if you could have dealt with the situation differently and could you have have made better choices than the ones you have made. Finally you then need to think about what things will change because of this experience and how has it changed you personally and professionally now you have this knowledge and awareness?


Donald schon believed in the process of continuous learning and he developed his theory in 1995. He believed that in order to reflect we needed to engage in continuous learning, as a major part of our professional practice. He had two separate processes of reflection in his theory. The first was reflecting in action which is thinking as you're doing what you do. How well you were doing it and how good you are with certain tasks. Next is reflecting on action. This is thinking after you have done what you have done and when you have completed something evaluating what went well or how could you have done things differently to improve it for the next time.

[Fern2522]

Hello

I am also on the last unit for my Level 3 EYFS course and looking at the question regarding the important of reflection in relation to professional development. I have looked through some of the research others have shared and hope that I too can join this forum and share my research for any comments with you all.

I decided to undertake the course whilst volunteering within a local nursery setting near my home as I have three children of my own and I wanted to gain a qualification that would enable me to start new career in childcare. Like many of you I have looked at my own way of working and reflected on my own development as I have progressed through the course and become more confident with the practices and procedures at the nursery.

When researching I feel that, as I see others do as well, two main theories reflect professional development, the Kolb’s learning cycle and the Gibbs’ reflective cycle.

David Kolb first published his styles of learning in 1984. His theory worked on two different levels – a four-stage cycle of learning and four separate learning styles and was concerned with the learner’s internal cognitive processes. His theory was that development is provided by witnessing new experiences. I look at this in relation to my own development: what issues seemed significant – the needs of the children. What was I trying to achieve – to become experienced in child care to learn and experience as much as possible to enable me to achieve my goals. How did I feel I was doing and did I act the best that I could were more questions that I needed to ask myself to ensure that I reflected on my own experiences. It was essential that I looked at this in relation to the children within the setting, they too learn from experience and by trying something. For example a child who simply says “I can’t do it” when asked to tie their shoe laces will be better encouraged “let’s have a go shall we”. So by helping the children to achieve their goal you are following one of Kolb’s learning cycle theories – observe what the child is doing, look at what their problem is (are they holding the laces awkwardly) help and show them. Then look at new ideas of ways to help the child to practice more – a simple card threaded with lace so the child can sit and practice is just one of the ways to aim to achieve this.

Professor Graham Gibb published his “Reflective Cycle” book in 1988 – his theory was that if you don’t reflect on your experiences and if you don’t consciously think about how you can do better next time, it is hard to learn anything at all. This I think is true. You need to be able to look at the way that you work and consider your strength and weaknesses and reflect on these in a positive way. Gibbs had a reflective cycle with followed: Description; feelings; evaluation; conclusions and action. Description – look in detail at the task you are doing i.e. when and where did it happen? Why were you there? Who else was there? What happened? What did you do? What did other people do? What was the result of the situation/session? These questions are particularly relevant to the nursery setting when planning sessions for the children to take part in. Next look at feelings – what did you feel before and after? What do you think other people felt? What did you feel after the situation? etc. Then the evaluation – what was positive, what was negative? What went well and what didn’t go well? Finally your conclusions and actions – how are you going to change things for the better? Do you actually need to change anything?

[bek4h4llen94]

Hi all, I’ve enjoyed reading your thoughts on reflective practise. I have also been researching and studying this topic and thought I’d share of my thoughts too!

Of the theorists I researched (David Kolb, Graham Gibbs, and Donald Schon) I found that, whilst all of their theories are slightly different, they all revolve around a similar premise. This premise is the professional development is a process or a cycle that requires at least the following stages:
• An actual experience, something that happens
• A time of reflection about what was good/bad about what happened, and what the practitioner did well/could improve on next time. This stage should also involve thinking of ideas of how to improve in the future.
• The implementation of a plan, which attempts to puts the improvements thought of at stage 2 into practise.

To go into a bit more detail on the specifics of the various theorists, I will describe what I understand of each of their particular theories.

Kolb’s experiential learning cycle states that development in a professional capacity is about a cycle of events, reflection and practise, which repeats over and over again, and that this is how effective learning happens. The cycle consists of four stages:
• Concrete experience – A practitioner does something. In an early years setting, this could be sounding out the letters at the start of various fruits.
• Reflective observation – Practitioners review and reflect on the experience. What parts of the activity went well, and which did not work so well?
• Abstract conceptualisation – Practitioners use the results of reflections to develop new ideas. This could be by engaging a child’s particular learning style or interest i.e. you could make up and teach a song about the letters of the alphabet (jolly phonics songs are good for this).
• Active experimentation – Practitioners implement the activity, including the new ideas.

Gibbs’ reflective cycle is more useful for if an incident or particular event has happened in the setting, and a practitioner wishes to reflect on the role they played in the event. Similarly to Kolb’s theory, the cycle begins with something happening. Practitioners then follow a set of structured steps to inform and improve their practise should a similar event happen in the future. Practitioners ask:
• How was I feeling/what was I thinking at the time?
• What was good about the situation? What was bad?
• On reflection, what seemed to be happening during the incident? What was the cause? What can I learn about how and why the situation arose?
• What else could I have done in the situation? What could I have done differently?
Once a practitioner has asked these questions of themselves, they can collate the information gleaned into an action plan, of what they would do if a similar situation arose in the future.

Schon’s process of continuous learning highlights two different ways in which practitioners can be successfully reflective in their practise, as an everyday norm. Firstly, reflecting-in-action, whereby practitioners think about what they are doing well, and what about the activity they are currently involved in is successful/not so successful. Secondly, reflecting-on-action; when practitioners take time after an event or an activity to consider how it went, and what they could do differently in the future, and ideally recording their thoughts somewhere for future reference.

Thanks, Bekah