Theoretical perspectives on reflection in professional development

[loulou15]

Hi all,

As a part of my CACHE level 3 diploma for the early years educator I would like to discuss theoretical perspectives on reflection in relation to professional development. Reflection in relation to professional development is so important for a practitioners role, so that we can look at any flaws in our practice, improve ourselves, our environment and the overall way that we work to benefit ourselves, our colleagues and the children that we care for. I have been looking at Kolb’s learning cycle which is a useful tool when understanding the reflective process. Kolb believed in four main processes taking place for effective learning that can help us when reflecting on our practice in the setting:

· Concrete experience – this is actually doing something, such as a planned adult led activity, setting up an environment, snack time, circle time etc

· Reflective observation – this part of the process is when we should review and reflect on what we have done, on how the successful the experience was. For example, what went well, what the children liked, what were the learning outcomes for the child? Or what did not go well, was the activity not challenging enough or perhaps too challenging? Review the role of the adult and the resources as well as the response of the children.

· Abstract conceptualisation – this is what we can learn from the experience to make meaningful and effective conclusions, leading us to adapt our practice and come up with new ideas, to continually develop good practice.

· Active experimentation – This part of the process is testing out what we have learned and our new ideas into practice.

The idea of the cycle is that it keeps on progressing, after the ‘active experimentation’ process, the cycle starts again, so that we can keep on reflecting on our practice in the setting for our professional development and evolving to grow and adapt to the needs of our children and to improve our practice.

Intriguingly, it was later put forward by Kolb himself that people found difficulties in grasping and learning from each step of his cycle and he used this for his work on learning styles. However I feel that this cycle is relatively simple and a valuable perspective to use when reflecting on our roles for professional development purposes.

Another theoretical perspective that can be useful when looking at reflection in relation to professional development is Gibbs reflective cycle. Gibb’s cycle is a revision of Kolb’s using a more planned approach. This can help us as practitioners reflect on our practice after situations have arisen and facilitate what we do differently in the future. Gibb’s cycle is structured as follows:

· Description – resulting from a situation, we have to explain what happened in the setting, for example a practitioner losing patience with a child.

· Feelings – we have to the analyse what we were thinking and feeling at the time of the situation, sometimes working with children can be difficult and we all have lives outside of the setting that may unfortunately affect us.

· Evaluation – this is when we have to look at what was good or bad and assess the given situation.

· Analysis – now we have to decide why the situation occurred and see if we can make sense of what happened, for example the practitioner did not understand a child’s stage of development.

· Conclusion – by reasoning about what happened, what decisions can be reached about our practice? Could it be that a practitioner needs more training in a certain area?

· Action plan – this is when we put into practice what we are going to do to change the way that we work so that the situation does not occur again. This is therefore linked to professional development, reflecting on our practice and keeping up with our skills and knowledge for the best possible outcomes for the children that we work with, our personal development and careers.

[Jinnykaur.x]

Hi everyone reading,

@loulou15 I’m also completing the same course as you, mine is online and I’m required to summarise theoretical perspective on reflection in relation to professional development. Your summary of theoretical perspectives looks really good and contains so much detail that’s also set out in a really clear way so it’s easy to read and learn from. Thanks for sharing this as it’s helped me a lot by giving me ideas of research points l could use to inform my own answer.

I have only just joined this forum yesterday and I’m really glad I found it because I have found a place where other practitioners/ early years workers and those who are completing courses can chat and help each other out. This is really useful because as I mentioned earlier, my course is completely online so it can feel isolating as there’s no one to discuss the work with as there would be if I were completing the course at a college.

I would like to share my take on the importance of reflection in relation to professional development. I have done some research upon this and I would like to share some theoretical perspectives surrounding the topic of reflection. Some of the theorists that I’ll be discussing are David Kolb and Graham Gibbs.

I believe that reflective practice is of upmost importance because it is the foundation of a good practitioner and learner. It displays the character of a person as those who engage in reflective practice are people who who seek to grow and can accept their areas of improvement. These are traits that are attractive to any employer as it represents a good worker. Reflective practice helps practitioners; monitor and evaluate their practice, implement new ideas within their practice, learn from the children they care for, improve their setting’s provision, benefit children further and learn from their colleagues.

I came across a theorist called David Kolb who I researched upon and found he had some interesting insights. David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle (1984) theory is based on a cyclic model. There are 4 stages within the cycle that he devised and David believes that effective learning is achieved once somebody has gone through all the 4 stages within the cycle. The 4 stages within David’s cycle are; concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. Through this theory, David defined his theory in his book as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and informing experience”. First comes the ‘Concrete experience’ stage whereby an experience is had or you tried something out for the first time. Next comes the ‘Reflective observation’ stage whereby the person reviews the experience and reflects upon it. Next is the ‘Abstract conceptualisation’ stage which is where the learner creates conclusions on the experience and reflection then learns from it. The final fourth stage, ‘Active experimentation’, is where the learner plans and tries out the experience again but using and implementing the knowledge they gathered from their reflection/ conclusions.

Another theorist that I came across and researched after seeing his name mentioned in this forum is Graham Gibbs. Gibb’s created the Gibbs Cycle of Reflection (1988), which was his own model that was developed from Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle. Gibb’s cyclic model is called an iterative model which refers to the ides of learning through repetition as opposed to Kolb’s model which represents learning through experience. Gibb’s model is presented in a way that each step informs the next. He devised 6 stages within his cycle as opposed to Kolb’s theory which possesses 4 stages. Graham Gibb’s cycle hopes to; challenge your existing assumptions, explore different ways of doing things/ thinking, promote self-improvement and to link theory and practice through combining thinking and doing. The first stage is ‘description’ where you describe exactly what happened. The next stage is called ‘feelings’ and it consists of acknowledging which feelings you felt during this and what thoughts you had. The third stage is ‘evaluating’, you must evaluate how things went, noticing the good or bad within the experience. The fourth stage is analysis where you make sense of the situation. You should realise which things may have helped within the experience and which things might’ve hindered the experience. The fifth stage is ‘conclusion’ where you conclude your reflection so far, acknowledging what else you could do next time, what you learnt and what you’ll change when you repeat the experience in the future. The final stage is ‘action plan’ where you decide exactly what you will do in the situation next time and find out anything you need to know to improve.

This summarises my research. Thanks for reading.