hi there i have finished my ccld level 4 and had it passed off waiting on certificate i was emailed this by my assessor for unit 404 hope it helps if you send me your email address i will gladly forward it and if i can help in any other way let me know
This is the start of it anyway
A Reflective Practitioner
Reflective Practice is important because we are working in a field that is not scientific or predictable. We are working with individuals and can never have a 'one size fits all' solution. We need to be able to adapt and amend our practice to act appropriately in every complex issue that arises. There isn't any 'theorist' out there who has all the answers because every situation will be unique.
For us to respond appropriately in a situation we need to draw upon all our knowledge, and experience, 'weigh up1 the choices and modify our approach. We need to consider how we can reconcile such as 'choice' with 'risk', or how we can provide stimulating experiences for every child, no matter how varied their home experiences may be, so that each one is stretched to his or her full potential.
A 'reflective practitioner1 is someone who steps back from a situation, identify problems and draw up a plan to address them. To do this we usually use a blend of theory, practice (and if we've 'been there before1 or old enough to have seen a lot), experience and hindsight) and evaluate the result.
Many people take a little 'time out' every day to consider the things that happened and reflect upon the way in which they performed. Some do it informally, perhaps mulling over the day as they drive home or even in the bath at night, others formalise the process by writing down particular events to enable them to reflect upon the situation more deeply at a later date.
Reflecting upon practice may involve you looking at the relationships you have at work and identifying any changes you could make that may mean the team was more effective, it may entail revisiting a particular incident to reflect upon the way you responded at the time and explore the reasons for your immediate reactions - were they based on current best practice or may you have responded differently had you more time to consider?
Schon (1983, 1996) introduced the concept of a 'reflective practitioner', someone who consciously thinks about what he or she is doing, whilst it is occurring and afterwards. He explored 'reflection-in-action' and Reflection-on-action' and suggested it was the ability to reflect both during and after an action that distinguished an effective practitioner.
By working through this process we learn from mistakes, recognise where we may have weaknesses in our 'intuitive reactions' and have an opportunity to see ourselves as others may see us!
For many people learning in this way is even more beneficial than more formal approaches. Sian had struggled with her early qualification because she found it difficult to assimilate pure theory, when she went back to learning she found that by reflecting on her practice the theory made far more sense.........
I enrolled on a post qualifying course with quite a lot of anxiety. I had not worked full time for several years as I had been at home with the children. I had only ever scraped through my examinations! I was nervous on the first day and it was made worse because most people were younger and everyone seemed so much more confident. After the first lecture we had to read up and write about Piaget, I was amazed, I understood it this time around, simply because I could relate it to the children I had worked with and the ways in which I had worked. So when the lecturer was talking about the theories I actually understood him and was able to contribute to the discussion.
Some people tend to confuse reflective accounts with narratives. A narrative simply relates what has happened but does not look more deeply into the reasons for 'the happenings' or what could have been done to improve the outcome. We only learn from an incident if we consider it from all aspects. If we are relating an incident where a child displayed challenging behaviours - do we focus on the behaviour itself or should we be delving into
the reasons for the behaviour?
Using reflective accounts as the basis for your NVQ qualification is an ideal way of presenting evidence of practice and knowledge to your assessor.
Reflective practice is a part of a process called experiential learning; basically we are learning and hopefully, enhancing our skills by looking closely at the ways we have 'performed1 in a given situation. This may be interacting with individuals on a one-to-one basis or exploring the ways in which we can communicate more effectively as a team by identifying issues which could be improved.
David Kolb, described experiential learning as a four-stage process:
1. concrete experience,
2. observations and reflections,
3. formation of abstract concepts and generalisations, and
4. testing applications of concepts in new situations.
Experiential learning is interlinked with reflective practice. We have an experience (1) explore what has happened (2) consider the different things we could have done (2) and try out new approaches when a similar situation arises (4)
The primary goal of reflection is to increase your effectiveness through a constant process of review. A cycle of Experience - Reflection - Action.
'Reflection is a process of reviewing an experience of practice in order to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning about practice1.
Reid (1993)
There have been a few tensions between teams in the organisation recently. I had noticed that communication was deteriorating, but the situation came to a head when communication between, and inside, two of the teams broke down to such an extent that a child was put at risk of harm. I decided that we needed to have a staff meeting to look at these issues and focus on our joint and individual accountability. I began by describing the incident and saying that we could not work safely if personal or team animosity was going to affect the children. We went through the Values and Principles of the sector and confirmed the need for good communications systems. I then asked people to discuss the issues that were causing problems and they split into their team groups to look for solutions. The result was quite difficult to handle, whilst there was discussion in the team groups there was very little feedback once we all came together and whilst everyone agreed communication must improve I left the meeting feeling it had not achieved very much, (see minutes of meeting log 20) and decided to use the Driscoll method below to analyse the situation more closely...........
Driscoll (1994 & 2000), developed a structured reflection model based around three elements of reflection
1. WHAT? A description of the event
2. SO WHAT? An analysis of the event
3. NOW WHAT? Proposed actions following the event.
- Describing the event using the WHAT? Questions
- What is the purpose of returning to this situation?
- What happened?
- What did I see or do?
- What was my reaction to it?
- What did the other people who were involved do?
2. Analysing the event using the SO WHAT? Questions
- How did I feel at the time?
- Were the feelings I had any different from other people who were also involved?
- Are my feelings after the event, any different from those I experienced at the time?
- Do I feel troubled, if so, in what way?
- What were the effects of what I did (or did not do)?
- What positive aspects have emerged from the event?
- What have I noticed about my behaviour in practice by taking a more measured look at it? .
- What observations on the way I acted have been made by anyone helping me to reflect on my practice?
3. Proposed actions following the event using the NOW WHAT? Questions
- What are the implications for others and my own practice based on what have described and analysed?
- What difference does it make if I choose to do nothing?
- Where can I get more information to face a similar situation again?
- How can I modify my practice if a similar situation was to happen again?
- What help do I need to 'action' the results of my reflections?
- Which aspect should be tackled first?
- How will I notice that I am any different in practice?
- What is the main learning that I gain from reflecting on my practice in this way?
The questions really made me think about the way I had handled the situation. I was disappointed and angry and felt that people, who were all effective workers individually, were letting themselves and the organisation down by petty arguments. I think the way I approached the meeting (parent mode!) must have made some people 'close up1. It may have been better to stage the process working within each team first or selecting some people from each team to work together to look at solutions. I also held the meeting at the end of a busy day so people were tired. Ideally we should have had an 'away day' when we could have started by building bridges and looking at teamwork rather than focusing upon problems. I wondered if we could reorganise the teams so that they would 'gel' better. I remembered doing an exercise where we had people's names on bits of card and each one of us positioned them to Identify the people with whom we work best. I researched this to see if we could organise something with the line managers. I then realised I was trying to do it all myself and was not giving any responsibility or ownership to other members of the team. We all needed to spend more time focusing upon the reasons for the breakdown I couldn't do that on my own so have arranged a meeting to set up a small group to work on it. The whole process made me wonder how much my lack of delegation was having an impact upon the way the teams worked.
The reflection cycle and the questions above provide a 'tool' to help practitioners develop the skill. Failing to reflect on actions means we are denied the opportunity to benefit from learning-from-experience and can lead to an attitude that 'we do it this way because we always have1
Some people keep daily journals about their work practice, the trouble with this style of recording is that they can become repetitive and not be of much use, so eventually you will stop doing it at all! It is often better to save this process for times when you have had to deal with something a little unusual or something that happened that has troubled you. When doing this, particularly if you are going to use it for evidence for your NVQ, the following prompts may be useful:-
Not all of the points below will apply to every reflective account, but they will provide a guide to help you to produce relevant evidence.
Consider:
- What you did (and when you did it!)
- Why you did it
- What factors you considered when making decisions
- What knowledge you used to influence your decisions (refer to any courses
you have attended, books or magazine articles you have read)
- The reason for carrying out the activity (legislation, standards, result of audits,
gaps in training etc)
- Mention any underlying legislation, standard or regulations that may have an impact on the situation
- Describe the way you monitored the activity
- Explain how you evaluated the activity
- Detail the methods you used to pass information to others
- Outline any health and safety implications, and
Describe:
- The things you learned from the experience, and
- As a result of the incident, what you may do differently in future
Triangulation
Anyone of us could sit down and write a reflective account about a fictitious incident, so your assessor will use 'triangulation' to test out their judgement of your competence. This DOES NOT mean you have to produce three lots of evidence for every performance criteria or incident but you can help the process by identifying someone who was present at the time of the incident you are relating or a piece of documentary evidence (work product) that confirms any actions you may have taken. Sometimes the assessor will use work products alongside his or her observations to make a judgement that the actions you took at that time were supported by similar actions in a different situation.
Remember to provide supporting evidence that confirms your involvement and the actions taken. You can do this by asking colleagues to provide a testimony and providing a list of work product evidence which can be given to your assessor when they visit you in your workplace.
But don't put anything in the narrative that may breach confidentiality!
'Reflective practice offers the use of a theory base to help us understand common themes, and a focus on creativity to help us deal with the unique aspects of each situation we encounter"
1. Thompson. N 'People Skills' Palgrave Macmillan 2002 ISBN 0-333-98746-2
2009 edition on amazon
Being a reflective practioner.
Linear Mode
