One of the more fun parts of a childcare-related MA degree is the research, especially when it involves a nursery setting that you work in.
The focus of my latest study has been reflective practice. It’s a subject I have discussed before and it’s something that I believe is invaluable in an early years setting. Unfortunately, the practice is often put to the wayside when the day-to-day stresses of nursery life take hold.
Yet, when reflection is built into your ethos, you’ll see significant progress in individual and team development that’ll make you wonder why you neglected it in the first place.
By describing my research project, I hope to demonstrate the benefits of reflective practice and inspire you to carry out your own research project that ultimately improves childcare quality in your setting.
Stage 1: question “how reflective is our practice?”
The first stage of the research was to look at what practitioners already knew – there’s no point planning a stage above or below existing knowledge – and to compare it to theory.
I found that our practitioners had an understanding of the concept of reflection but that they saw it as a solo activity. Where they did take some time to reflect, it tended to focus only on activities.
However, existing research suggests that reflection has the most impact when practitioners reflect together and when they think beyond activities. Popular theory also suggested that time and daily pressures are seen as the biggest obstacle to engaging in reflection and this was affirmed by staff.
This fact finding stage gave us a solid idea of what we needed to do and the obstacles we would need to overcome.
Stage 2: Introduce reflective practice
Having prepared a plan to improve the quality of our reflective practice, the next step was to deliver it.
We knew that we needed to expand and develop practitioners’ knowledge, so training was at the heart of our plan. Training covered the basics (e.g. “what is reflection?”) and explored ways to develop ideas, such as using theory when thinking about the day’s activity.
We also provided practical training that would help practitioners put everything into practice.
We used a ‘knowledgeable mentor’ approach which paired less experienced practitioners with more experienced ones and assigned each practitioner a planning partner. The team were given time each week to reflect collaboratively and to talk about what they had done, what was successful or less successful, and to plan next steps.
Practitioners were encouraged to use a reflection diary within which they could keep notes to help them think deeper about their practice. (This reflective practice sheet contains some prompts that will help your practitioners ask useful questions.)
Stage 3: Measure the results (a dramatic improvement!)
The introduction of reflective practice had a substantial and positive impact on individual and group practice.
As well as reflecting deeper on their own activities, practitioners are more engaged in improving quality across the setting. We saw an increase in individual ideas, such as simple experiments with activities, and in team work, with colleagues working together on more complex projects. For example, the team in one room worked together to create a room plan, assigning new responsibilities and making the room run smoother.
Jargon is not something to be encouraged, but hearing a practitioner use the term “behavioural situation” was like music to my ears: it demonstrated that the practitioner was really thinking about things.
The training we provided was obviously an essential part of embedding practice. Equally vital were collaboration and creating a time for the activity. Allowing practitioners the space to think things through and the time to discuss ideas together enabled us to put the practice at the heart of what we do.
Some practitioners found the reflection diaries were useful for writing things down because it helped bring clarity to their thoughts. However, these didn’t work for everyone. I personally recommend keeping a record of learning because it’s useful to monitor your continual professional development, but it’s beneficial to let individuals find out what works for them.
Research, reflect and improve the early years environment
If you want to improve practice in your setting – whether reflective or otherwise – research is a great way to start. You don’t even need to delve deep into childcare journals and literature like I have. You can simply look at what others have done, ask your peers or start dialogue with your team – preferably all of the above! Getting some facts and figures about what is happening in your setting will reinforce or challenge your assumptions. When you have an idea of what you need to do, put in place some concrete steps that so that everyone understands where you are heading.
That’s already starting to sound an awful lot like reflective practice!
Now that you have a process to follow, why not undertake your own research project? Take a critical and reflective look at your practice and see where it takes you. If you need some help to get started, please do get in touch!
Further reading
If you want to find out more about reflection you can do a lot worse than read up on Donald Schon, an influential thinker who began to redefine reflection and has some inspiring ways to consider the practice.
To prompt your thoughts on building a community of practice, try Bath, Barr and Haynes (2014) in journal of Vocational Education and Training.
McFarland, Saunders and Allen (2009) have some interesting research that suggests experience can hinder reflection – it’s important to keep challenging what we think we know!
Heather Stallard
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