Discuss the importance of reflection in relation to professional development

[evape01]

I must say, having researched these, it wasn't exactly what I imagined professional development to be. I assumed this was the development that occurs from attending courses, from following a mentor at work, and from closely working with colleagues and external professionals. These theories model the practices I was asked to follow when delivering activities as part of my course and then reviewing how those activities went. I hadn't considered that I would need to continue to do this in the future with quite so much detail, but having researched these theories I now see it is not something limited to the coursework for my course, but something of value to continue doing as part of my continued work with the children.

[MESuddaby]

Hello,
I am doing the level 3 Early Years Educator course. I feel that reflection for professional development is an essential tool that needs to be used when working in the Early Years sector, as working with children is constantly changing and evolving. There are new ways of working with children developing, new legislations, new policies and procedures and new theories for the most effective way to support children's learning, development, emotional and physical well-being. Reflective practice allows settings and practitioners to evaluate and improve the quality of the provision for the children and their families, it provides an opportunity to implement new ideas and activities to enhance learning and development, it provides an opportunity to monitor and review practice so that the setting is providing a professional quality service. I would like to discuss and find out other people's views on the importance of reflection in relation to professional development. There are a few theorists that have informed people's understanding of the process of reflection, the most well known being Kolb and Gibbs but while doing research, I discovered another theorists named Phil Race. Race's experiential learning model describes four processes that interlink with one another, rather than going through each individual cycle. The four processes are wanting, doing, digesting and feedback.
Wanting: This is the process of having the desire and motivation to learn, which usually produces more effective learning.
Doing: This is the process of learning by doing. Learning effectively requires the need to actually do something. For example: When doing an activity with children, you will never know if the activity is successful or effective until you actually do the activity.
Digesting: This is the process of having time to reflect and think about the learning. For example: Reflecting on an activity that you have lead, how well did the activity go? Did the activity achieve the aim you set? What didn't go so well? What could you have done better? Was the environment enabling?
Feedback: There are two kinds of feedback, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic feedback is the feedback that comes from internal reflection. For example: How do I personally feel and think the learning experience went? Extrinsic feedback is the external feedback that you receive from others external reflection such as, feedback from colleagues, parents or managers. For example: A colleague may give you feedback on how well you lead an activity or what could of made the activity more effective, a parent may give you feedback on how they feel you are supporting their child or a manager may give you feedback during a supervision/appraisal meeting to highlight your strengths and advise you on your weaknesses, so that you can begin to implement changes in the future. For effective learning to take place, both intrinsic and extrinsic feedback need to take place.
I can personally relate to Phil Race's experiential learning model of reflection for professional development as I am motivated and have a desire to support and encourage children's learning and development to the best of my ability. I am always researching and talking to more knowledgeable others to find new techniques, methods and activities to enhance children's learning and development in the most effective way (wanting). I will implement ideas and activities to see how effective they are, as you never know how something will go until you actually do it with the children (doing). I reflect upon ideas and practice to assess effectiveness for the children, myself and the setting (digesting). I always ask myself how I could do things better (intrinsic feedback). I always ask for feedback from my colleagues and manager, so that I am able to fully analyse my strengths and weaknesses, make informed decisions and improve my own professional development (extrinsic feedback).
All models of theoretical perspectives on reflection hold the same basic principles of having an experience, reflecting on the experience, analysing the lessons learned and implementing change, which I think shows the importance and the necessity for reflection to learn and develop professionally and personally.
Has anyone else read about Phil Race's experiential learning model and how does his theory relate to your own perspective on reflective practice for professional development?

[ktknight25]

Hi i too have to join an online forum to discuss reflective theoretical perspectives on reflection in relation to professional development, I too have found Kolbs and Gibbs, I feel that Kolbs is turning experience into knowledge and Gibbs is more how staff and practitioners deal with incidents and how they respond.
This is what I have found,

Two main theories that have influenced people’s understanding of the process of reflection, in relation to professional development, Kolb’s learning cycle and Gibbs’ reflective cycle. Below they are explained:

Kolb’s Learning Cycle*- Kolb suggested that there may be a learning cycle this cycle could be used to help people reflect on their learning. The cycle includes four processes which Kolb suggested need to take place for effective learning.*
The first being Concrete experience – This is means doing something in an early years setting such as teaching a child how to use scissors.
The second is Reflective observation – This is reviewing and reflecting on the experience which elements teaching the child which things were a success and which didn’t work.
the Third is Abstract conceptualisation – This is about developing new ideas. Meaning thinking of activities that involve cutting if that child is interest in scissors then that is in that child's interests and you could think to include other interests such as cutting out pictures of things that interest them as well and this will lead to discussion and building relationships with the child.
The fourth is Active experimentation – Meaning putting in to practice the new ideas and then carrying out activities using the new ideas.
The cycle means that once we have carried out our new ideas, we reflect on these once more and so the cycle continues.*
In relation to professional development, it is thought that the cycle allows you to reflect on your practice, think of new ideas and put them in to practice and reflect on the ideas. The process of continuous evaluation and reflection leads to improvements in practice.*

Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle*
Gibbs adapted Kolb’s work to develop a more structured approach which could be used to help people reflect on their responses to certain situations and come to conclusions about what they could do differently next time.*

The cycle suggests that following an incident or situation that arises that you think about what happened and how you felt at the time. You then evaluate it and ask questions such as was it good or bad and why, You then go on to analyse why it happened and what conclusions could be reached once you have wrote your evaluation an action plan is then drawn up.*
In relation to professional development Gibbs’ reflective cycle provides a structured approach for practitioners to reflect on how they react or manage a situation or incident. For example a two year old child who continues to pour water on the floor after being asked to stop is shouted at by a practitioner and then cries. This incident can be reflected on using Gibbs’ reflective cycle, the cycle provides steps to help us understand how this situation could have had a different and more positive outcome. Asking how was the practitioner feeling at the time and did this effect their response? The evaluation step asks the question if the response was the right one and if not the analysis allows us to understand why this could be and what we could do to improve this. The conclusion brings together the information about the incident in order to form an action plan to prevent this situation happening again. This could be gaining knowledge about the development of a child of this age and ways to manage unwanted behaviour and strategies to stop a situation such as this. The practitioner may also have to think about resting more to make sure they are not so tired while at work to ensure patience is not affected through tiredness or stress.

[Chantalcs]

I think that we all agree that when we examine the processes of reflection the models are all different but the basic principles are all the same.
We should begin with the actual experience and describe what has happened. We should then think about and reflect on what went well and what didn't go quite as well, the strengths and weaknesses should be identified and areas of improvement should be noted. Then analyse and decide on what can be improved or changed before implementing a new plan with a possible different approach or strategy.

Thank you all for reading and I wish you the best of luck with your studies.

[ktknight25]

I agree and I think both of these are very effective and something that we use without realising in early years, sometimes if we have a difficult child it is sometimes hard to control them and then afterwards think about did we say the right thing or do the right thing which is where i find Gibbs theory useful.

I wish all of you luck in your studies!

[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

[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.

[Justjen]

The Gibbs' reflective cycle is a structured approach that we use in our setting to self reflect and self evaluate. Writing down or talking about an event and what happened, the feelings of the person involved, evaluating the quality of the practice in the event, analysing why and then using the conclusions drawn to form an action plan is a very useful practice and has lead to professional development across the setting. This links in to Kolb's learning cycle as the reflective observation part of the cycle. How do you self reflect in your setting?

[SteffEarlyYears]

Hi everyone!

I am completing the last unit of my Cache Level 3, too. I am now thinking about the importance of reflection in relation to my professional development, and I would like to share my thoughts and my research with you.
First of all, I need to say that this course helped me a lot to reflect on my practice since the first unit. In fact, every activity plan and session sheet that I have written asked me to reflect on my needs and also to ask for advice from my placement supervisor. This helped me both to evaluate myself, but also to see my practice from another perspective, in particular from my supervisor who is more experienced than me.
The two theoretical perspective that are helping me now to understand what the reflective process is are: Kolb’s learning cicle and Gibb’s reflective cycle.
Regarding the first one, Kolb theorised that learning is a cycle, which has four stages. The first stage is called Concrete experience, which happens when the learner experiences something new. The second stage of the cycle is the Reflective observation, in which the learner reviews and reflects what they have done. The third stage is the Abstract conceptualisation, which happens when the learner develops a new idea or reviews an existing one following the process of Reflective observation. Finally, the last stage is Active experimentation, in which the learner tries out by putting into practice the result of his reflection and abstract conceptualisation with the purpose of seeing what happens next. In order for the learning to be effective, it is important that the learner goes through all these stages of the cycle. I think that Koln’s theory is very useful to my professional development. In fact, whenever I plan a new activity for the children, I can use this cycle as a way to reflect on my practice and modify it when I see that some aspects could improve. For example, once I carried out a storytelling activity with the pre-school children (3-5 years, CONCRETE EXPERIENCE). Reflecting on the activity, I thought that I had asked many questions to promote sustained shared thinking, however only the oldest children answered them (REFLECTIVE OBSERVATION). This led me think that I need to change the way I ask questions to the children so that I plan for some simple questions for the younger children (ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATION). Then, I put it into practice by reading another story, and this time I asked more varied questions of different diffuculties, so more children could get involved in the activity. (ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION)
Regarding Gibb’s reflective cycle, I can say that it is really effective to make sense of the situations that we have experienced, whether they are positve or negative. The model is divided in 6 stages. The first one is the description, in which the learner describes what happened in the experience without drawing to any conclusions. The second part is the Feelings, in which the learner talks about how they felt during the experience. The thrid fase is the Evaluation, in which the learner thinks about whether his/her approach worked or did not. The fourth stage is the analysis, in which the learner analyses what happened that worked or did not work in deep. The fifth stage is the conclusion, in which the learner draws some conclusion about the experience, by thinking again about what happened. The sixth stage is the action plan, in which the learner plans for how to deal more effectively with similar situations in the future.
I think that Gibbs method is really useful for my professional development because it can help me reflect on my skills/experiences without being biased by my personal opinions. In fact, reflecting on feeling comes third and drawing to conclusion is the fifth stage. I also like that it concludes with an action plan so that I can be motivated to improve my practice in a clear and organised way.

[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.