example of critical reflection in early childhood education

The Empowered Educator

Inspiring ideas, training and resources for early learning.

Simple Critical Reflection for Educators

by The Empowered Educator 11 Comments

When you mention critical reflection to early childhood educators you are likely to be met with a deer in the headlights stare and someone immediately asking if it is too early for happy hour at the bar! A slight exaggeration obviously but it is something that many educators tell me they find difficult so don't feel like you are the only one thinking of an exit strategy when someone asks to see your critical reflections!

I've shared some tips before on weekly reflections along with the reflection we do when we observe children, analyse their learning and identify how to further extend that learning if we decide it is necessary.

But the new buzzword in early childhood seems to suddenly be critical reflection and this is where educators are getting confused and not sure of the difference between everyday reflective practice and the now common term -  critical reflection. So I thought it was a good time to break it down into some simple steps and I'm also giving you an action plan you can download to make sure you can get started!

Critical reflection is an important part of many professions and workers and therefore not just a requirement of early childhood educators but in this blog I'm going to be focusing on how the concept relates to us as educators and how it can improve our work and the outcomes for children in our care. You might still want a wine or two to work your way through this one though 😉

You can also grab my free critical reflection guide below if you'd like a little extra help...

Let's get started breaking it down ….

What Critical Reflection?

Critical reflection means regularly identifying and exploring our own thoughts, feelings, and experiences and then making a decision about how they fit in with the ideas, concepts, and theories that you are aware of, learning more about or others have been discussing and sharing.

The idea is that you are not only exploring your own thoughts, events and experiences that have occurred, but you are also examining them from different perspectives and considering whether this might in fact change your approach or own perspective. It is a way to consistently evaluate your actions and approaches to early learning and an early childhood educator role. Critical reflection is a common practice in many professions to help workers improve, change or reexamine current practice, perspectives, thinking and skills. It is something I have had to do in my work as an educator over the years but also in my family services and project manager roles. The basic premise is the same so it's not just something that the early years learning framework made up just to give educators like you more paperwork to do (there were other ways they achieved this 😉 ).

Reflection shouldn’t (or doesn't need to!) be about always looking for something you or others might have done wrong though– think about it as being prepared to identify your current values and biases and at least consider and explore a colleagues view that might differ to your own. Discuss with others about how their view influences their own practice in this area and perhaps how you could try a different way of doing something to see what happens.  When you are looking more closely at the viewpoints of others your aim is to engage in constructive debate and discussion that allows everyone to see some different perspectives – not to try and change someone’s mind by belittling their views, actions or emotions or put your own point across aggressively without being open to the possibility of some change.

Why is Critical Reflection important?

To put it simply – because it helps you as a professional early years educator to make changes and improvements to your practice, knowledge, interactions, actions and learning environments.

Critical reflection can highlight for you areas you might like to learn more about, understand better or find different ways to approach that practice. You might use some of the information to add goals and changes that you need to make to your quality improvement plan.

You can also use critical reflection regularly to analyse and identify children’s learning and development (as individuals and in groups)to better inform your ongoing planning.

We must always try and keep in mind that our reflections and discussions should ultimately lead to the best possible outcomes for the children in our care. Don't get hung up on just what it means for you – try and keep an eye on the bigger picture and why you are reflecting in the first place!

How is it different to my general daily or weekly reflections?

I like to think of critical reflection as going one or two steps further on from your regular weekly reflective practice that you do when you look back on how last week's program went or make quick notes about an activity or child.

The aim of critical reflection is actually to use it as an ongoing tool to build on your current practice and ask important questions not only of those actions, environment and activities – but also of why you choose to do those things that way that you do, how theories and perspectives might have informed your approach, how your actions might have impacted on others and what others viewpoints on this approach or action might be.

How often do Educators have to ‘critically reflect?

As critical reflection is an ongoing process there are no set rules for how often you should set aside time to document your reflections.

To get started taking regular action though you might like to consider 1 or 2 of the questions from my list further down below and then add your answers and thoughts to the end of each week’s planning. I’ve made this easier for my Empowered Educator Academy Ed's by adding a critical reflection prompt section to complete in the done for you  planners and program templates.

It can take a little time to learn the skill of critical reflection so by adding a few notes at the end of each weekly program it should help you get in the habit of exploring and learning more about how to use this practice effectively as everyday practice without it becoming time consuming or overwhelming. Some of the questions also help you to involve other people in your reflections and therefore expand and challenge your own thinking.

How can I get started with ongoing critical reflection?

If you are still a little confused about the process of critical reflection or struggling to begin, try setting aside some time to think about how you might answer 1 or 2  of the following questions at the end of a week before you begin next week's planning. Think about how your answers to these questions and the discussions surrounding those answers might regularly encourage further learning, help you to gain clarity and inform your future decisions about the children’s learning.

When you have identified your answers to a couple of the questions below you could then use them to begin drawing up an action plan you can revisit and update regularly . This creates a simple yet visible system of ongoing critical reflection without it taking a lot of your time each week!

Not sure how to get started on an action plan or even what to reflect on? I've got a FREE step by step guide for you and you can grab one below…

Critical reflection certainly doesn't need to be complicated or become something that takes a lot of time but isn't helpful to you or the children. We just need to keep it simple but do a little bit often! No matter what you might have read online in the groups and forums….it's not easy for everyone to begin doing straight away and learning to initiate and accept critical reflection is a skill that needs to be continually practiced – just like assertive communication skills .

It's not something you are meant to just ‘get' overnight or find easy straight away -so instead of pressuring yourself to reflect on absolutely everything to make sure you are doing it ‘correctly', break up ongoing critical reflection into smaller more manageable steps and begin with one question at the end of your week, add it to your action plan and then take it from there.

You might decide to put more effort into exploring just one area you identify from your answers for now and then ask some more specific questions regarding this practice as the year progresses.

Questions to prompt deeper critical reflection.

• How did my own experiences and knowledge influence my understanding and actions of a particular activity or interaction this week?
• How did I take into account the needs, perspectives and opinions of parents and their children in this situation?
• Did my personal values and possible biases enter impact on my experiences this week?
• How do my fellow educators, leader or view this situation or action?
• What do I need to find out more about?
• What other theories might provide me with a different viewpoint on this subject?
• In what way are my choices determined by the expectation of my early learning service or leader?
• What does this action/environment/observation tell me about?
• How can I acknowledge, respect and value children’s diverse identities?
• How could my team members/coordinator/leader/friend help me in this area?
• Were there broader social and/political or emotional issues that influenced my actions?
• Did my usual assumptions mislead my practice somehow? What assumptions can I challenge next time?
• What knowledge did I use to reflect upon observations this week?
• Why do I think that?
• What did I learn about this?
• How would I do it differently or better next time?
• How might the outcome of that activity/experience been different if I ……..
• What do you think? Why is that? How does it work for you? Why do you think your approach works more effectively than mine?
• What can I do next or differently to further extend the children’s (or my own!) learning?

These questions from the Australian Early Years Learning Framework are also very helpful to begin and guide reflection (although obviously more in depth):

• Who is disadvantaged when I work in this way? Who is advantaged?
• What are my understandings of each child?
• What theories, philosophies and understandings shape and assist my work ?
• What aspects of my work are not helped by the theories and guidance that I usually draw on to make sense of what I do?
• What questions do I have about my work?
• What am I challenged by? What am I curious about? What am I confronted by?
• Are there other theories or knowledge that could help me to understand better what I have observed or experienced? What are they?

(DEEWR,2009:13)

Choose one of the simple questions below to get started right now and conquer that critical reflection fear!

• What are you confident is working well in your day to day practice?
• What have you identified isn’t working well for you?
• What might you consider changing?
• How could you find out more about something to make it work better?
• In what areas would you like to grow more as an educator?

I know it can be confronting and we already have so much paperwork to do that this can just seem like a waste of valuable time but without regular critical reflection processes in any profession it can be difficult to grow, to learn new things, to explore different theories and perspectives and to engage in assertive yet constructive  discussions with our colleagues.

Please keep in mind that it can be a very fine line between a conversation that discusses different perspectives and methods to shaming someone for their own viewpoint or continually arguing that your way is the only right way. One of the goals of reflective practice is certainly to help us improve and make changes but it doesn't always mean you have to change what you are already doing – you are simply collecting the information you need to make a decision about what you need as you move forward in your role. Perhaps you will find that you are feeling confident  and on track with that particular practice, process or direction and can now move on to explore others areas as you ask more reflective questions of yourself and others around you.

Remember that you can start small by choosing a question or specific practice each week that you would like to explore further and add your thoughts to the reflection section of your weekly planner then at the end of the month use a simple critical reflection action plan to put some goals, action steps and time-frames in place. This not only shows evidence that you are engaging regularly in reflective practice it ideally will help you to increase your knowledge base, skills and above all provide better learning outcomes and experiences for the children’s learning journey.

Want to download a free reflective learning action guide to help you start recording your reflective practice and identifying some simple action steps you can take to improve or change your everyday practices?

Go ahead and tell me where to send one for you below…

Although you of course don't always need to write your reflections down (who has that sort of time?) I find it helps sometimes to see our thoughts, day to day practices and questions down on paper or on a screen in front of us to help guide us as to whether we need or want to take further action – don't overwhelm yourself though by trying to reflect on everything all of the time !!

I hope you have found this guide to simplifying and understanding critical reflection helpful!

Jodie Clarke is an early childhood professional supporting educators who want and need to stay passionate about the work they do! She has 30 years hands-on experience in the early childhood and human services sectors across many different roles.

Jodie is mum to 3 in Australia and has already helped thousands of educators with their work through her popular blog posts, activity ideas, online training and e-books.

21/08/2018 at 9:45 am

Really liked the article and definitely extended my knoweldge and experience in this field. Please kepp sending me more information. Thanks

24/09/2018 at 1:22 am

I really liked your article, I would like to extend my knowledge in terms of documentation and reflection. Thankyou

13/01/2019 at 11:46 am

I really enjoyed your article and would like to extend on and strengthen my knowledge on reflections and documentation. Thank you

13/01/2019 at 5:28 pm

Such an informative article. I want to read more from you.

09/02/2019 at 11:38 pm

Thank-you for this great article. centre has just purchased an on-line software package that parents are able to logon to this app and see what their child has been doing through out the day. This new software package includes areas where we must critical reflect. This article will help me de-mystify the different reflections that we are required to write.

01/05/2019 at 12:01 pm

Thanks so much for sharing this. Great simple explanation. I will use this guide for my uni essay.

17/09/2019 at 3:04 pm

Thanks you , what a great article. Lots of helpful info. Thanks for sharing.

11/11/2019 at 12:19 pm

Love your article.Its clear of what we need to do.Thank you.

28/08/2020 at 7:54 pm

Thank you so much for this Jodie, l really enjoyed reading it and gave me something to think about and use.

23/01/2021 at 12:33 pm

Hi Jodie, Thank so much for the knowledge article.

26/10/2021 at 1:38 pm

Would love to more info on on line learning

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Critical reflection and ongoing professional learning: Assessment for children’s learning

About this resource.

Before using this resource, read the  Introduction: Assessment for children’s learning . The introduction provides insights into the importance of assessment in quality, evidence-based ECEC practice with cultural responsiveness at its heart.

Effective assessment involves thinking deeply and critically about the evidence you have collected relating to children’s learning, development and wellbeing. It also involves continually appraising and building your own knowledge and skills in assessment practice. Critical Reflection (Element 1.3.2) is embedded in the National Quality Standard (NQS).

Assessment strategies that support this Principle include:

• Develop reflexive practices through ongoing professional learning to identify and address personal bias and inequities, and the impact these have on pedagogical practice.
• Consider how theory and professional resources can provide ideas and perspectives that both affirm and challenge your thinking and practice. Use resources that translate research and evidence into ideas and concepts that you can use in everyday practice (such as the early childhood learning trajectories).
• Reflect on your own assessment practice to identify areas in which you feel capable and confident, as well as those you can further develop. Build your knowledge of assessment approaches that can assist you to provide a holistic and authentic representation of each child’s learning and development.
• Reflect on what is occurring in your service, access knowledge and ideas from outside your service, and make connections between the two. Research evidence can enhance critical reflection by introducing new assessment practices or supporting you to assess your current practice in relation to an evidence base.
• Draw on a range of professional sources to support the critical reflection process and to ensure that it reflects the social and cultural differences within the service. Consider how theory, service philosophies and underpinning ethics (such as the  ECA Code of Ethics ) are pivotal in promoting and sustaining equity, inclusion and socially just practice.

Reflection questions:

• Which areas of learning and development do you feel most confident noticing and assessing? How can you deepen your knowledge of how children learn?
• How do you gather evidence and ideas to improve your assessment practice? How can you access reliable sources from inside and outside your service?

This practice resource is part of a series of 8 Assessment for children’s learning practice resources:

• Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships
• Partnerships
• Respect for diversity
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives
• Equity, inclusion and high expectations
• Sustainability
• Critical reflection and ongoing professional learning
• Collaborative leadership and teamwork .

They link to the  early childhood learning trajectories  suite of resources including the Learning trajectories user guide, Evidence report and the Play-based learning and intentionality practice resources.

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. (2012).  Developmental milestones and the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standard .  https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-02/DevelopmentalMilestonesEYLFandNQS.pdf

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. (2016).  Sustainability in children’s education and care .  https://www.acecqa.gov.au/latest-news/blog/sustainability-childrens-education-and-care

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. (2019).  Documentation – What, why and how .  https://www.acecqa.gov.au/latest-news/blog/documentation-what-why-and-how

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. (2020a).  Guide to the National Quality Framework.  https://www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/about/guide

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority. (2020b).  Children with disability in ECEC and school age education.  https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-08/ACECQA-DiscussionPaper-DSEConsultation_1.pdf

Australian Government Department of Education. (2022).  Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia V2.0.  https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf

Alvernik, K. (2018). Systematic documentation: Structures and tools in a practice of communicative documentation.  Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 19 (1), 72–84.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1463949118762147

Arthur, L., Beecher, B., Death, E., Dockett, S., & Farmer, S. (2018).  Programming and planning in early childhood setting  (7 th  ed.).   Cengage.

Blaisdell, C., McNair, L., Addison, L., & Davis, J. (2021). ‘Why am I in all of these pictures?’ From learning stories to lived stories: The politics of children’s participation rights in documentation practices.  European Early Childhood Research Association Journal, 30 (4),   572–585.  https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2021.2007970

Brebner, C., Attrill. S., Marsh. C., & Coles. L. (2017). Facilitating children’s speech, language and communication development: An exploration of an embedded, service-based professional development program.  Child Language Teaching Therapy ,  33 (3), 1–18.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0265659017702205

Bruno, A., Galuppo, L., & Gilardi, S. (2011). Evaluating the reflexive practices in learning experiences.  European Journal of Psychology Education, 26 (4), 527-543.   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-011-0061-x

Commonwealth of Australia, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. (2021).  Keeping our kids safe: Cultural safety and the national principles for child safe organisations .  https://www.childsafety.gov.au/resources/keeping-our-kids-safe-cultural-safety-and-national-principles-child-safe-organisations-guide-0

Cowan, K., & Flewitt, K. (2021). Moving from paper-based to digital documentation in early childhood education: Democratic potentials and challenges.  International Journal of Early Years Education.  Advance online publication.  https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2021.2013171

Dawson, J., Laccos-Barrett, K., Hammon, C., & Rumbold, A. (2022). Reflexive practice as an approach to improve healthcare delivery for Indigenous people: A systematic critical synthesis and exploration of the cultural safety education literature.  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19 (11), 6691.  https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116691

Department of Employment Education and Workplace Relations. (2009).  Belonging, being and becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia.  https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2018-02/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf

Department of Employment Education and Workplace Relations. (2010).  Educators’ guide to the Early Years Learning Framework for Australia.  https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/acecqa/files/National-Quality-Framework-Resources-Kit/educators_guide_to_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia_2.pdf

Dockett, S. (2011). Ethical assessment.  Every Child ,  17 (3), 7–8.

Edwards, S., & Nuttall, J. (2009). Introduction. In S. Edwards & J. Nuttall (Eds.),  Professional learnings in early childhood settings  (pp. 1–8) .  Sense Publishers.

Elliot, S. (2019, May 1). Education for sustainability.  The Spoke .  https://thespoke.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/education-for-sustainability/

Elek, C., Gibberd, A., Gubhaju, L., Lennx, J., Highfold, R., Goldfeld, S., & Eades, S. (2022). An opportunity for our little ones: Findings from an evaluation of an Aboriginal early childhood learning centre in Central Australia.  Early childhood Education Journal, 50,  579–591.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01174-5

Epstein, A. (2014).  The intentional teacher: Choosing the best strategies for young children’s learning.  The National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Flottman, R., Stewart, L., & Tayler, C. (2012).  Practice Principle 7: Assessment for learning and development  (Evidence Paper) .  University of Melbourne and Department of Education and Early Childhood Development.  https://www.education.vic.gov.au/documents/childhood/providers/edcare/pracassess.pdf

Hallahan, G. (2021, September 15). The assessment bias trap: What the TAGs taught us.  TES Magazine.  https://www.tes.com/magazine/news/secondary/assessment-bias-trap-what-tags-taught-us

Harrison. L., Bull. R., Wong, S., Elwick, S., & Davis, B. (2019).  NSW assessment study: Review of formative assessment practices in early childhood settings.  NSW Department of Education .  https://education.nsw.gov.au/content/dam/main-education/early-childhood-education/working-in-early-childhood-education/media/documents/formative-assessment/nsw-preschool-assessment-study-review-of-formative-assessment.pdf

Hart Barnett, J., & O’Shaughnessy, K. (2015). Enhancing collaboration between occupational therapists and early childhood educators working with children on the Autism spectrum.  Early Childhood Education Journal, 43 (6), 467–472.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-015-0689-2

Hedges, H., Cullen, J., & Jordan, B. (2011). Early years curriculum: Funds of knowledge as a conceptual framework for children’s interests.  Curriculum Studies ,  43 (2), 185–205.  https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2010.511275

Indigenous Allied Health Australia (2019).  Cultural responsiveness in active framework.  https://iaha.com.au/workforce-support/training-and-development/cultural-responsiveness-in-action-training/

Kennedy, A. (2018, July 10). Reflective practice: Making a commitment to ongoing learning.  The Spoke.  https://thespoke.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/reflective-practice-making-commitment-ongoing-learning/

Klaar, S., & Wank, A. (2022). ECE as an educative and multifaceted practice for growth: To assess and evaluate teaching and learning by documenting children’s actions and re-actions.  European Early Childhood Research Journal, 30 (4), 557–571.  https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2022.2070649

McMullen, M. (2018). The many benefits of continuity of care for infants, toddlers, families and caregiving staff.  Young Children, 73 (3),38–39.  https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/jul2018/benefits-continuity-care

National Association for the Education of Young Children and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education. (2003).  Position statement: Early childhood curriculum, assessment and program evaluation.   https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/globally-shared/downloads/PDFs/resources/position-statements/pscape.pdf

National Indigenous Australians Agency. (2021).  National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood strategy .  https://www.niaa.gov.au/resource-centre/indigenous-affairs/national-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-early-childhood-strategy

Nolan, A., & Raban, B. (2015).  Theories into practice: Understanding and rethinking our work with young children and the EYLF.  Teaching Solutions.

Waters, C. (2019, October 1). Learn more about learning progressions.  ACER Discover.  https://www.acer.org/au/discover/article/learn-more-about-learning-progressions

Keywords: educator reflection, educator professional development

• Assessment & measurement
• Professional learning
• Cognitive science
• Introduction: Assessment for children’s learning
• Sustainability: Assessment for children’s learning
• Equity, inclusion and high expectations: Assessment for children’s learning
• Partnerships: Assessment for children’s learning
• Collaborative leadership and teamwork: Assessment for children’s learning
• Secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships: Assessment for children’s learning
• Respect for diversity: Assessment for children’s learning
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives: Assessment for children’s learning

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Critical Reflection

A presentation from the 2022 ECEC Roadshow on critical reflection and how it should drive your practice.

- Great. Thanks very much for that, Kate. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the New South Wales Department of Education's webinar on critical reflection. My name's Belinda Wakeford and I'm one of the state operations managers in our quality assurance and regulatory services, which sits within the early childhood education. You may also know us as the reg authority. As we begin this morning, we have a video we'd like to share with some children acknowledging country.

- We place our hands on the ground to acknowledge Aboriginal land. We place our hands in the sky that covers Aboriginal land. We place our hands on our heart to care for Aboriginal land. We promise.

- Great. Thank you. Thanks for that, Kate, and I'd like to acknowledge that I'm meeting you today from the beautiful Dharawal land on the south coast and I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the various lands on which you're all joining us from today and pay my respects to elders past and present. I extend that respect to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants and colleagues that are joining us today. So to get us started, a few housekeeping bits. As Kate mentioned, your microphone and video and chat functions have been disabled for the webinar today. During the registration process, you were invited to send through some of your questions, and we had a huge response to this and received well over 300 questions from the group, which is fantastic. For that reason, we deliberately made a decision to close off the Q&A function just for today. What we have done though is use some of those common themes from your questions to inform what we've included in today's session, and we'll talk directly to a few of those popular questions towards the end. Please do note though, the Q&A function will remain in place for the remaining Roadshows. We acknowledge some of you would like to know how do we document to get exceeding. I have that question frequently when during A&R, and we've been asked directly, what do the department want to see? What are the officers looking for? And I just want to start by saying the purpose of critical reflection is to support your continuous improvement journey to enhance your service quality and practice, leading to improved outcomes for children, and that's what we're going to be focusing on today. This is not about us as a reg authority. It's about you and your service. If by the end of this morning's session we haven't been able to address your question, there will be further opportunities for you to connect with our team, and we'll share details about how to make contact later in the session. For any questions that you might have relating to your service operation, you can also contact our information and inquiries team who are able to support you. I'm just going to get lovely Kate to pop the details into the chat for you now. We're also going to be using a few interactive features during today's session, including Menti. Hopefully you're familiar with that if you've been to some of the other Roadshows this week. So can I please ask you to have your phone or another device to scan and have that ready? The code will pop on the screen so that you can interact with us, and finally, as you would've been informed when you came in, this session is being recorded and you'll be provided with information about how you can revisit the session once our Roadshows have completed. So today, we will look at reflection versus critical reflection, and our focus is to understand the difference between reflective practice and critical reflection in order to support your continuous improvement journey. So what is critical reflection, when is reflection more of an evaluation, and how does critical reflection drive your practice and quality improvement journey? This morning, we'll hear from Alison, who's one of our experienced authorized officers, as well as a service leader from the sector who has kindly joined us this morning to share with you their critical reflection journey, and we're hoping after today's session that you'll walk away with a deeper understanding of critical reflection, and importantly, how this might drive your quality practices. We know critical reflection is part of the National Quality Standard. If we look within Quality Area 1, Element 1.3.2 speaks directly to critical reflection of children's learning and development. Critical reflection is also one of the three themes that services need to demonstrate at the standard level to be rated exceeding the NQS. Some of the participants online with us today submitted questions around what's the difference between critical reflection in relation to 1.3.2 at the element level and critical reflection as one of the exceeding themes, and we weren't surprised to see this question come through commonly, as we know that this causes, broadly, some confusion across the sector. We acknowledge it can be confusing with the same terminology that's used for both. So I guess to look at what the difference is, I think I need to start by noting what's the same, and that is they both require critical reflection which involves closely examining all aspects of events and experiences from different perspectives. Critical reflection outlined in Element 1.3.2 is about how educators critically reflect specifically on children's learning and development, both as individuals and in groups, to drive the program and their practice. Some examples of how we focus on children's learning and development is through reflection in action, such as altering experiences where they're not, our children not engaging, or adapting the program to include all children, rather than adapting a child's routine or requirements to fit the program. We may also document critical reflection of the program and our practices by analysing our teaching strategies to determine if they're supporting our learning goals that we've created for individual children, or analysing if group experiences and learning goals are being achieved. So as you can see, critical reflection in this capacity has a focus on how children's learning is being evaluated and analysed and what changes are made to support their learning and development within the program. Exceeding theme two, practices informed by critical reflection, involves a deep level of regular and ongoing analysis, questioning, and thinking that goes beyond evaluation and review. Critical reflection informs practice when the continuous reflection of all educators individually and together informs decision making and drives continuous quality improvement. It's about the how and the why we do what we do and it's a universal theme that can be applied across all standards of the NQS, and it's not specific to children's learning and development per se. I'm now going to introduce you to Alison Hendry. Alison is one of our amazing authorised officers in the continuous improvement team, and Alison came to the department with extensive industry experience. She has a clear passion for critical reflection and quality improvement practices that are informed by theoretical and philosophical research in this area. Welcome, Alison. Thanks for joining me this morning.

- Okay. Hi, everyone. Great to see so many of you participants are online with us this morning. Before we deep dive into critical reflection and what that actually means, I'd like to hear from you all. I'd like to hear, what do you think critical reflection involves? So we're all going to use Menti now, if you could. Could you tell me in a few words what you think is involved in critical reflection? You can use the QR code on your screen or go to menti.com and enter the code that is on the top of your screen there. Then type in a few words, and I'll give you a few minutes. We'd love to see your thoughts and it is anonymous, so please feel free to join in. Great. I can see some of our words coming in and they are fabulous. A lot of people are saying analysing, which is exactly right. Thinking. Oh, I think a lot of you are really on the right track there. Look at all these responses. Fabulous. Thank you so much, everybody, for providing these responses. That's great. I can see that analysing is clearly something that's at the heart of what a lot of people believe is involved in critical reflection. Fabulous. Okay. So now we're at a point where we're going to look at what is the difference between reflection and critical reflection. What we want to understand is what is reflection and when does reflection transform into that critical reflection space. So theorists tell us that reflection is deliberate. It's conscious. It's a way of making sense of what we've been doing, and realistically, it's a way that we learn from the experience. John Dewey, who I have affectionately named the grandfather of critical reflection in education, most famously said, "We don't learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience." So if reflection is about meaning making, then what's critical reflection? Again, theorists tell us that critical reflection is the relationship between theory and practice or theory and experience. ACECQA reminds us that critical reflection really is multifaceted. It's multilayered. So it's no wonder we all, at times, find it hard to break this down and have a really good understanding of what's involved and then how we engage in the process. This is not easy. So if you find critical reflection smooth sailing, you might not be examining deeply enough. Critical reflection involves critical thinking and multiple perspectives. There's purpose in it and it's used to support enhancements or change or refining practice. Critical reflection is the link between thinking and doing, and my favourite part of these theorists' quotes is that "critical reflection can truly be transformative." This is where we see it come alive. Maybe potentially Freire sums it up best when he notes that "Critical reflection on practice is a requirement of the relationship between theory and practice. Otherwise theory simply becomes 'blah, blah, blah,' and practice is pure activism," but I'm sure you all want to know what the grandfather of critical reflection will tell us. Well, he tells us that critical reflection requires active, persistent and careful consideration of the conclusions that we draw and the knowledge base that we've relied upon to come to those conclusions. So if we now know what reflection is and what critical reflection is, let's see what it looks like when we put them side by side and try to identify what is the difference. We know that reflection is a very practical, in a very practical everyday sense is looking back on an experience to learn from it. Therefore, we know that reflection is a means of building knowledge. However, we know that there's a change to reflection to make it critical. The Australian Institute of Radiography has actually given us a very simple way of looking at when that change from reflection to critical reflection occurs. We know that critical reflection is a process of analysing, considering and questioning experiences within a broad context. Critical reflection can therefore be broken down into a continuous cycle involving the process of practice, reflection, viewing these two elements through a lens of theory, and then reflection or analysis on what we've discovered in that process. From a pictorial view, this ongoing and continuous cycle looks like this. If we start at practice, this is all about the things that we are mostly doing on a daily basis. We're noticing. We're observing what we're feeling. We're thinking about what we're doing. It's really about evaluating. For example, did the environment set up support the learning outcomes? Were the children engaged? Did the new routine work for the morning session, or are families able to understand and access the rostering structure? The next step is also probably something that many of us are doing in terms of that reflection step. We're recording. We're examining. We're confronting the situation we're experiencing and challenging why we're doing what we're doing. We may be writing in a journal or discussing at team meetings why something isn't working and collectively decide to make a change. For example, does the environment allow for children's agency? Collectively, we decide that it doesn't, as children are unable to access resources independently, so we decide to add an open bookshelf so that they can house resources that children can independently obtain. The element that needs to be added to this cycle in order for this to become critical reflection is theoretical influences. The reason why it's important that theory or philosophical influences become part of this ongoing continuous cycle of critical reflection is because these perspectives will underpin the why of what we're doing. It will guide the change. It informs the practice or informs the shaping of a new practice through research or exploring theoretical perspectives. We might read various articles or guiding documentation, such as recognised publications or other sources sharing best practice. We might meet and talk with some subject matter experts or attend professional workshops to learn more about the area that we're critically reflecting on. When we put together our original practice or evaluation and reflection with theory, we're able then to make an informed analysis. This informed analysis is another form of reflection whereby we could rewrite or re-evaluate or critique or challenge those original beliefs that we held or the original way that we did things in order to close the loop and inform our ongoing practice. Realistically, the process of critical reflection needs to take the first two steps of practice and reflection and review those through a framework of theory or philosophical influences in order to analyse critically what we're doing now and what we might do in the future. As I said, the magic happens when we close the loop and use our critical reflection or analysis based on theory to inform, improve or change our practice. As such, the outcome of our critical reflection, or simply the results, might include an uplift of practice or a creation of a new practice, creation of a new policy, a change to the environment, or a refining or affirmation of current practices. It's only when we close this loop that the process of critical reflection has been completed. These outcomes are important and they are examples that demonstrate how your service practice has been informed by critical reflection, which aligns to the exceeding theme two under the NQS. I would just like to give you some additional examples from published research and also recognised bodies who have tried to clarify the difference between reflection and critical reflection. So Dr. Jan Fook, who is an internationally renowned scholar widely recognised for her work on critical social work, practice research and critical reflection, tells us that the difference between reflection and critical reflection lies in that analysis step that we've been talking about, as this brings together the theory with our original reflection, and together, there is likely to be some transformative change, change in our behaviour or change in our practice. Effectively, this is an informed change of practice. Similarly, ACECQA reminds us that critical reflection occurs when educators consider, question, analyse, research, utilize recognised guiding documentation, and re-evaluate planning and decision making that informs practice and process. ACECQA also reminds us that the concept or culture of ongoing self-assessment and continuous improvement, as we've just viewed on the previous slides, the continuous nature of the cycle of critical reflection, all of which ultimately aims to lead to improved outcomes for children, families, educators and service leaders.

- Oh, thanks very much, Alison. That was really great. I think that summarises that really well, and really key for me is that connection of theoretical influences, or simply put, who and what's guiding our practice on our reflection or evaluations and then challenging these. So that's great. Thank you very much for that insight, Alison. I'm now going to introduce Bernice Mathie-Morris, who is the director of early learning at Bomaderry Community Preschool. Good morning, Bernice, and thank you for joining us. It's really lovely to have you today.

- Morning. It's lovely to be present and to be able to have the chance to share some of our practices that we engage with at Bomaderry Community Preschool. Before I start, I'd like to acknowledge that I'm meeting with you today on the lands of the Dharawal people on the beautiful south coast of New South Wales. So yes, I'd just like to start by saying at Bomaderry Community Preschool, we love to engage in critical reflection. I think that comes back to, and reflection, it comes back to our love of learning. So we always say that it's important to involve children and impassion children to have that love of learning, but as adults too, it's really, really important. So that practice of reflection and critical reflection for adults is something that continues to drive us and to want us to learn more, which then helps us, as in a practice, to drive that critical reflection and also those outcomes and that best practice. So at Bomaderry Community Preschool, we reflect every day, but we do choose, you can't possibly choose everything that you reflect on to critically reflect on. As Alison has said, and Belinda, there is so many things in that process, so you can't engage deeply with every single little thing that you want to reflect on but choose something that you think will have the greatest engagement with your staff, but also something that's going to create those quality outcomes for your children and your families and your whole centre. So we too have a great connection, I guess, with John Dewey and his work. So we always say we just don't learn from doing, from that experience. We learn from reflecting deeply on those experiences that we engage with every single day. So today, I'm just going to share with you two questions that we have recently used to deeply critically reflect on and to walk you through the steps of how we have done that, and every centre, every program will look very different. This is just something that we find works for us and it guides us through in a very, well, I guess, a very organized space to get to the outcomes that we want to get to. So if we could have the next slide, so two of the questions that we've recently engaged with in with critical reflection was, why is it important to understand the conceptual mathematics development as educators and teachers in the early years program, and how do aesthetics and relationships within an early education program impact on the cognitive, relational functioning of educators, children and families? So we also, we always start with practice. What does that look like for us in our service? So that is educators noticing, so noticing what's going on with the children, the families, our environments, our interactions with each other. The feelings. How is everyone feeling? That is a really big part, so making sure we're taking note of that as well. How are the children feeling? How are the families feeling? As educators, what are we feeling? How do we approach that? Then questions, lots of questions. We always encourage everybody to question each other, and it's not seen as a negative in our service. It's a positive. So I will often walk through our rooms and be with the children and the other educators and say, "Tell me more about this," and we really encourage that with all educators to be able to do that. Our wonderings, share our wonderings, and they are really valid in this process as well, and we also ask educators to reflect on their own teaching strategies, the resources and the environment. Conversations that we have are really important in the process as well, and then our intentional and spontaneous programming. So there's so much that goes into our days that helps us inform and to be able to critically reflect as we move through. So you wonder what, you say, "Well, how do we document all of this?" And you can't possibly be able to document every single thing, but we do, the next step for us is that reflection step. So we have something called a reflective document and it is a Google Doc that we just use and everyone can have access to that, and we all have different colours and everyone writes in that and we make comments on each other. So that's where we document our noticing, our feelings, our questions, our wonderings. We also then bring them to a team meeting and then to our whole team meeting and discuss every single one of those. Everyone has a voice, and then we also use, obviously, those conversations with families and children, and we document that in there. So it's not a formal document. It's just something that we add to. We might think of something and just quickly write, type it in there, and the beauty of a Google Doc is that everyone can see that and have access to it. So we're constantly thinking about that. I encourage also in that reflection process is evaluations and critiquing on our planning and our documentation as well. So anything that we're thinking about within that reflection evaluation, we pop into that Google Doc as well. Educator meetings is a great time to have great, robust conversations around what we have written, what we have thought, and what we have been discussing in that critical reflection document, and robust conversation sometimes can be really challenging. I will acknowledge that this process is not an easy process, but if you look at it as a point of being able to move forward and I always get so inspired because I know I'm going to learn more. So that's why it is something that's very passionate for me and for our team. Can we have the next slide, please? Thank you. So then, as Alison and Belinda have talked about before, we move on to that next step of theory. This is where a lot of people go, "Oh, this is a little bit too hard. This is really challenging," but it's not. It's inspiring, and as Alison and Belinda has said before, there's so many things within this theory section that we can tap into and learn so much from. So we use lots of different readings, academic journals, sector publications, Department of Education, Bedrock, Pedagogy+, Rattler, textbooks. We have a lot of university students that come to us, so we also tap into lots of resources like that. So what we often do is, as educational leader, we will choose something and it might be three or four documents and we share that with the whole team and they reflect on that and then bring that to a staff meeting. Another great way is to connect with your colleagues at conferences, at webinars, in-house presentations, from sector leaders, other colleagues that have a passion in a space. So it could be as simple as when we talked about aesthetics in our space, we got someone to come in and talk to us about the importance of that. Engaging within our community. Not all of us live close to a university, but the use of webinars and connection through the internet has created a whole other world for us. So we engage as much as we possibly can with universities in projects. So we did a mass project with Wollongong University. So put yourself out there. Make connection with those universities, and they're always doing beautiful projects and really engaging projects that I think your teams will learn so much from, and then once we've taken that, all of that theory, then we link it to our reflections, previous reflections, and our wonder, that first stage of reflection and practice. Then we put it all together. So that analysis, how do we do that? So we come together, as I said, at that team meeting and we discuss the most important questions . What did we learn and what did we get from all of those readings, from those engagements with other professionals? Is there anything that we need to change? If so, how and how are we going to do that? Is there any policies that need to change as a space in there as well? Environment changes. Is there anything that links to our environment that we need to change? And then we make some decisions around what we're going to do to move forward as a result of that whole reflection process and our practice and then engaging with theory, because often when we engage with that theory, there's so many things that come up that we have not been, we did not know, and so many people have very different opinions and thoughts. I think the most important thing with that is to make sure that you're reading some great, reputable documents that are something that you can rely on. So that's another just important little tip. So then we make those decisions, and some of the easy ways to document that in terms of having that, I guess, that documentation so that you can share that with the department when it comes to assessment and rating, we always record on audio, on iPods, and we keep that critical reflection document. We always save all the readings that we've done and just annotate them. It doesn't have to be any formal documentation, but just annotate. Keep all your staff meeting records, all of those types of things and all of that is just then available. It becomes part of your everyday practice and then it's available for anyone to see when they come in and you can share that with them. I would say it doesn't, sometimes it takes a long time. It doesn't mean you have to critically reflect in two weeks. Sometimes it might be months, so enjoy the journey. That's what I would say. Enjoy the journey of critical reflection, because it is something, once you really start getting into it, you become very passionate about it. It challenges you, but you get to the space where you just keep wanting to go because you keep learning so much more. So thank you. I hope that I have been able to shed a little bit of light on how that critical reflection can become an integral part of your journey and that it can be something that you can easily achieve.

- That's wonderful, Bernice. Thank you so much for sharing with us really great examples of how your service engages with critical reflection, and I'm sure that many of our colleagues joining us online have found this really beneficial. I think it's really interesting to see in your practice and reflection subject areas some of the practical things that your educators, some of the educators online would be able to recognise and relate to. So you've mentioned about observations and evaluations and looking at your teaching strategies and interactions, but also the use of the collaborative documentation used to support your critical reflection. It sounds like that Google Doc work is working really well for your team.

- It certainly does. It's something that was a little bit of a adjustment for some people that had never used a Google Doc before, but it's very easy to use. It's just very versatile, so everyone can have access to it. Everyone can see in current time as people write in it and it's not a critical thing that we go, oh, that, you don't have to worry about spelling and grammar. It's just writing it. So it just takes that pressure off everybody.

- Beautiful, I love it, and you made really clear how theory is recognized as an important part of the process together what the end result or action, and I really loved hearing about your overall approach. I can see the excitement and passion that you've shown us would be inspiring for your team. I literally think I could listen to you all day, Bernice. So thanks so much for joining us. That was really, really informative.

- Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity to share.

- Lovely. Okay, so we've covered a lot of things this morning. We're just going to move on now. It's time to get a bit of a pulse check to see what we now know about the difference between reflection and critical reflection. If I can just have the next slide, please. Thank you. So you won't need, oh, I'm going to give you three scenarios. So I'll share these with you and I'm going to ask you to use the poll that's on your screen. It'll just appear. You won't need to use your device for this one. I'm going to give you the scenarios and ask you to identify and think about each example to tell us whether you feel that it's an example of reflection or critical reflection. So we'll have that pop up. The poll will just appear on the screen. Thanks so much to the lovely support team who are doing an amazing job in the background there today for me, So the first scenario is during Assessment and Rating, a service shares their daily critical reflection sheet, which includes evaluations of the daily program, such as routine times and placement of furniture and layout of experiences. The sheet is also used to inform where experiences may be set out the next day, where additional supervision may be needed, or what the experiences are that are not being utilised. So I'm just going to get that poll up for you. So if you can use that to let us know whether you think this is an example of reflection or critical reflection. Great. Thanks so much. Just give everyone a moment to have a little look at that. Gosh, we've had a good, big group on today, which is great to see. Okay. How did we go with this one, Alison?

- Okay. So Belinda, this is an example which highlights evaluated reflection, where the daily happenings are noticed and observed. While the program is evaluated and used to guide future learning opportunities, placement of both resources and supervision and engagement of children, it does not include any theory-based analysis that's being used to change, shape or uplift practice. Something to think about, if you're using a form or document with the term critical reflection in the title, it doesn't necessarily ensure that critical reflection is occurring. This scenario is a scenario demonstrating reflection.

- Excellent, thank you, and we'll move on to our second poll question. Wonderful. Thank you. So during an Assessment and Rating visit, an authorised officer asks to see evidence that supports a stated key practice, that is, that indicates that critical reflection has been completed on changing the service programming template. So the ed leader at the service explained that the educators decided the programming template was no longer working for them and they've chosen to move to using an online programming application. The authorised officer asked what process was undertaken in changing that template, and the ed leader advised that one of the educators who'd been on a prac placement saw the online programming application and that service was awarded exceeding in Quality Area 1, so the team decided to change over to the application as well. I'm just going to get the poll to pop up for you. If you could let us know, do you think this is an example of reflection or has it moved to critical reflection? And that will just pop up for you in a moment. Wonderful. Thank you. Yeah. Where are we at? Excellent. Our poll's being quite tricky and putting all three up at once this morning, and that's okay, showing our flexibility and adaptability.

- That's right.

- So how did we go with this one, Alison? Where are we landing with this?

- There's some good results here, and I've got to say, I think people are starting to, are understanding what is involved with reflection and critical reflection. However, scenario number two or poll question two highlights reflection where a change of practice has occurred, although that change of practice appears to come purely from an operational decision and it's not driven by any theory-based reflection or discussion on practice and there's no evidence of any analysis occurring. So whilst a change did occur in practice, it wasn't driven through that theory and analysis, so this is an example of reflection.

- Excellent. Thank you, Alison, and our last one, I think some of you might have already completed this one, but I'm going to go through it anyway for those playing along in order. During the Assessment and Rating visit, a service explained that they're on a journey to embed inclusive practice, which was instigated when a child enrolled with mobility restrictions. So the educators hired and trialled specialised equipment that the child would need to assess their accessibility and barriers and identify barriers to learning. They met with the child's family and their specialists to develop strategies for inclusion, and the educators attended a workshop and consulted current research to expand their knowledge on inclusive practice, and they reviewed and updated the inclusive practice policy. Through the journey, a broader understanding of inclusive practice developed and a case study was completed on how the service and families understood inclusive practice and how this is demonstrated at their service daily. The case study was reviewed at quarterly interview intervals to ensure it's relevant, robust, and ongoing changes of practice were analysed. So I'll just get the last poll up there, final question for you. What are we all thinking? Looks like we're nailing it there, Alison.

- I completely agree. That's some really clear results there from the audience, from who's listening in. That's great. Yeah.

- Okay, great. So what are your thoughts on this, Alison, reflection or critical reflection?

- Well, first of all, I'm going to say excellent job for everybody. Thank you for participating in the polls, and this is our last scenario question. A lot of you actually answered that correctly. So scenario three is an example of critical reflection. This example highlights critical reflection through the approach of practice reflection, theory reflection and analysis. This critical reflection also has the component of being ongoing, with a review of the change of process practice undertaken, a review of policy and procedure, furthering educators' understanding, and supporting the inclusion of every child. Your critical reflections may not all be this long or they might not all look like this, but it's about what is relevant and reflects the practices in your service. You may notice this scenario refers to a case study which was relevant to this particular scenario. That's not always the case as each critical reflection will be unique to the topic.

- Great, thanks, Alison, and for those of you who may be still a little unsure, I think you'll find this next part of the session will be really helpful. We're now going to address some of those really popular questions I mentioned earlier that came through with your registrations, and I absolutely know that we're not going to be able to get to all of them due to the sheer volume that we received. However, as mentioned earlier, you can reach out to our team following today's session to talk about your own service and experience, and I will get their details popped up in the chat for you in a moment. So Alison, are you ready for me to run through some of our top three popular questions?

- Yes, I'm ready. Let's go. Thanks, Belinda.

- So multiple services have asked, where do we start and how long does it take to complete the critical reflection process?

- Yes, this is a great question actually and one we get often. So critical reflection will often start organically or it may require a conscious decision to identify opportunities. It may derive from highlighting something in your practice or your reflections. It may be something you choose to complete in response to a critical incident or to address feedback provided. Most commonly, critical reflection is undertaken by services to inform better practice or to uplift practice or to make a change to the environment. Additionally, services may choose to complete critical reflection to align their practices against the National Quality Framework. As we discussed earlier, critical reflection often starts in the noticing or observing of a practice or a situation. It may be about paying attention to what you're feeling and what you're doing. Often it's evaluative and this may lead to deeper questioning about the practice or situation. This is often how the critical reflection process starts in a service. Because critical reflection is unique to each service and each service context, how long it takes will be dependent on the processes the service undertakes. So some critical reflections may take less time than others as everyone's aligned to the outcomes of the critical reflection and in the analysis and a change or an enhancement in practice is adopted and understood quickly. Other critical reflections may take on a life of their own and require a case study or research paper to document the depth of the analysis and reflection. Again, it will be unique to your service and what your critical reflection involves. In terms of how long this takes to complete, it's important to remember that critical reflection is a continuous cycle. So in that sense, have a natural endpoint.

- Excellent, thanks, Alison, and one of the other frequently asked questions was, how do we get people involved and on board to support that critical reflection journey?

- Yes, so, one way is that we need to create a safe and positive work culture that allows for educators to be able to be honest and open and vulnerable when unpacking reflections on practice or feedback. Unless you have this underlying culture of safety, you'll find it's difficult to get to an authentic place where true critical reflection occurs. We need to be really clear and be able to communicate easily to each other what are the benefits of the process. Think about how you get the buy-in and what's in it for the educators. Ultimately, you'll see an uplift in your own practice and you'll be part of the fabric that underpins the practices that demonstrate quality at your service. Now, we're all different and you need to find what sparks the interest in your educators in the same way you reflect on what sparks the interest in your children. Acknowledge that your team will all have different learning and communication styles and how we gel these together to support an inclusive process. For some, this will be quite structured, but for other educators, it may be more informal. Services may find the process of critical reflection runs smoother when there's someone who takes responsibility within your service or organisation to ensure that the service community is working through this critical reflection cycle. As service leaders, it's important that we role model behaviours we want to see reflected. When I was at a service recently, they talked to me about how critical reflection has underpinned the journey of transformative change that they've been on for the last few years. This service shared with me that the initial seed of the transformation occurred through honest and open reflection on where each educator's strengths lie. Through this reflection, different educators started to discover a passion or a curiosity about different areas of the service delivery. These educators were then provided space and time to lead the critical reflection and were supported through the process of critical reflection because it was new to them. The process was broken down into small parts initially with supported individual reflections taking place, and these individual reflections then were used to influence that broader and more collaborative critical reflection that was instigated across the service, and ultimately, this led to a more empowered workforce that facilitated themselves this transformative change. I think I'd also like to say it's important that we are deliberate and purposeful and it's essential to provide time for our teams to connect with each other and with this process.

- Absolutely, I completely agree, and it's really difficult beause we are time for, but I like that you call out that it's really important to plan for that and to provide time for our teams to connect with each other in this process. So one last question that we'll have time for, and I think this will be one that people want to hear about, is how should we document critical reflection?

- Okay, so Belinda, you'll know this. This is actually one of our most asked questions, and truthfully, we can't give you a template or an example sheet on how to document your service's critical reflections. The honest answer is how you document will be unique to your service. In addition to how unique the critical reflection subject or topic potentially is, some services will start at the beginning stages of critical reflection in staff meetings or room meetings and therefore start the journey. The start of that journey may documented in meeting minutes, the agenda or summary notes. There may be evidence of the theoretical or philosophical documentation that's being used to further unpack the evaluative practice and reflection. However, this is more often than not going to be an online document or a professional development session or a conversation that's been held with a subject matter expert, and it may only be documented in the analysis notes of the critical reflection summary. Finally, the critical reflection's initial findings and changes or enhancements that have been identified may be noted in a summary document, and you heard about that earlier, but that works for Bernice and her service having a summary document. That summary document can be used as a reference point to come back to later and reassess if further changes or enhancements are needed. This reference document can then be used to support a continuous cycle of critical reflection. I'd also like to acknowledge that parts of the critical reflection process may be through conversation, and many educators ask, "How do we provide evidence that this has actually occurred?" Well, firstly, I acknowledge that may well be the case, and often is, however, this may be part of the initial reflection or evaluative practice stage of critical reflection and that critical reflection process. These conversations will lead to something and have further depth involved to them to allow for an informed change or enhancement. The conversations then become the spark that may well be noted simply in the summary of the critical reflection that's used as the reference point and may recorded as the initial seed that started that particular critical reflection journey. In regards to different methods of actually recording critical reflection, some of the ways you might consider documenting your critical reflection is in journals or mapped out and documented in services' online applications, maybe in services' unique template forms with specific probing questions to guide the reflection. Maybe it's in important improvement planning documents or even potentially through a whiteboard mind map that's been photographed to reflect back on later. There is no one way to document your journey. These are just some suggested variations. Be creative. Get others involved to ensure it's relevant to your service context. If you network with other services, have a chat and see what they use and what they find helpful. As Bernice said, enjoy the journey. What I would say is your critical reflection journey is your own. It's really important to document it in a way that's meaningful and useful to you. Ensure it's user friendly, accessible, and understood by those who are involved and those who'll be guided by it.

- Fantastic, Alison. That's great, and I think, you know, we can't give you a magic template that's going to solve it, but I love the examples that you have provided, and we heard from Bernice what works well for them for that service, and I think, as you said, be creative. Have a chat to others. Find out what works well for you and your educators at your service. So thank you for that. I think you've given those online some food for thought here, Alison.

- Thanks, Belinda.

- Okay, so let's move on. If we look at some of the words we've used today, active, analysis, research, thinking, examining, ongoing, cycle, you can see that there's not one way of describing or engaging with critical reflection. We can't give you a template, as we've just mentioned. It's not that simple. It is relevant to the individual context of your service, and we recognise, as Alison mentioned earlier, it's not an easy process, so take heart. You're not alone if you're finding critical reflection challenging, and as Alison mentioned earlier, if you are finding it easy, then perhaps you're not digging deep enough. This is not about ticking a box and I acknowledge we certainly have not answered the common question I get often is, how do I get exceeding? What this is about is supporting continuous improvement and identifying areas or opportunities for change and inform change in your service program and practice to ultimately improve the outcomes for children. We do though hope today has given you some insights in the differences between reflection, that may be more evaluative in nature, and critical reflection, and also given you some information about the continuous cycle of critical reflection and how each of these aspects of the process are important to consider and use to inform your practice. I'd like to thank you all for joining us today and for all of the questions that you provided and sent in. As I mentioned, if you'd like to make contact with our team, the details are in the chat. The information inquiries team is also available to talk to you about anything to do with your service operation, and following today's session, you will receive a link to a short survey and I'd really encourage everyone to complete this. The feedback that you share with us really does help us to provide purposeful and relevant Roadshow sessions in the future. In our last slide, as we're going, as people are leaving the session today, I'm just going to leave this up so you can see the sources of the references we've used in today's presentation and some suggested further reading. So thank you all again for joining us. I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Thank you.

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Reflective Practice in Early Childhood Education

Reflective practice in early childhood education – growing as educators and learners

Reflective practice in early childhood education has been described as a process of turning experience into learning. That is, of exploring experience in order to learn new things from it. Reflection involves taking the unprocessed, raw material of experience and engaging with it to make sense of what has occurred (Boud, D. 2001).

What is Reflective Practice?

Reflective practice supports you in making sense of a situation. It enables childcare professionals and teachers to grow and develop their own working theories, philosophy and pedagogy. For any educator, your reflections, both individual and team, provide valuable data and evidence of your developing pedagogy and professional growth.

As a teacher, manager, mentor and early childhood education facilitator, I believe we often use reflective practice throughout our working day. These daily reflections include anticipation of, during and after events. Reflections, or more importantly recording regular reflections is often an action that is overlooked due to the many demands placed on busy early childhood professionals.

Getting to the crux of true reflective practice – it’s more than just looking back! It’s about taking the time to think about values, assumptions and beliefs. It’s all very well to reflect by saying: “Well, we tried … and it didn’t work!”. What I have observed to be good reflective practice, is for early childhood educators to make time to work through these questions:

• What role have you played in this?
• What you did and why?
• How does this reflect the principles, and goals of our curriculum and our philosophy?
• What would you do differently to support a better outcome?
• What does this say about your teaching strategies and our role as educators?

Some educators may need support to strengthen their skills for deep reflective practice. This will allow them to truly unpack the inconsistencies between espoused beliefs and practices (what we think we do) versus actions in practice (what we really do). Reflective practice in early childhood education can support a greater understanding of who we are as teachers and how our own values and beliefs impact what we do and why.

Reflective Practice in Storypark

Using a reflection plan with goals within the Storypark planning area is ideal for assisting teachers in clarifying their ideas, musings, and evidence and can support deeper reflection. Sharing these reflections with fellow educators, colleagues and/or someone who is removed from the situation can provide external perspectives. It can be helpful as there is little benefit from being too insular and relying on just your own interpretations. The role of a “provocateur” can be a valuable one. A plan can be completely private or you can invite a mentor, manager or colleague from within your early childhood centre.

The evidence we gather in a plan or teacher story can provide a rich source for reflection. Yes, we have the stories we craft and create but we also have the data found within the reports area of your early childhood centre’s Storypark account and within your portfolio area. The learning tags you use provide learning trends that can highlight the learning you have focused on and recorded over any period of time. If you have used the learning tags to highlight the MAIN learning, then you will be able to create a picture of your own pedagogical focus .  Also highlighting your lens on learning – what does it illuminate for you?

Reflection Models

Some examples of reflection models to support the creation of your own reflective practices:

Want to know more about using :

Learning Tags: https://intercom.help/storypark/general/learning-tags-and-sets/what-are-learning-tags-and-sets

Learning Trends Reports: https://intercom.help/storypark/for-teachers/reports/what-are-learning-trends

My Portfolio Report: https://intercom.help/storypark/for-teachers/teacher-portfolios/teacher-profile-reports

Planning: https://intercom.help/storypark/for-teachers/planning/create-a-plan

OʼConnor, A. & Diggins, C. (2002). On reflection: reflective practice for early childhood educators . Lower Hutt: Open Mind Publishing.

Campbell, Melenyzer, Nettles, & Wyman (2000). Portfolio and Performance Assessment in Teacher Education. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Peters, J. (1991). Strategies for reflective practice. Professional development for Educators of Adults . New directions for Adult and Continuing Education . R. Brockett (ed). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Boud, D. (2001). Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice. In English, L. M. and Gillen, M. A. (Eds.) Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education . New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education No. 90. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 9-18.

Sharon Carlson, Professional Learning and Development Manager at Storypark

• Posted in: Educator Professional Development , Inspiration
• Tagged in: Educator Professional Learning

Posted by Sharon Carlson

Sharon's early years were supported at home by her Mum in Taranaki. She later became an ECE ICT facilitator for CORE Education, and then Storypark. Sharon has successfully supported the implementation of a diverse range of ICT products and services around the country and is helping make sure Storypark is awesome for teachers and children's development.

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[…] Reflective practice supports you in making sense of a situation and can enable you to grow and develop your own working theories, philosophy and pedagogy. Your reflections, both individual and team, provide valuable data and evidence of your developing pedagogy and professional growth. This article looks at reflective practice (both as an educator and a learner) and looks at a few reflection models to help you develop your own action plan. Get started here. […]

[…] thing. As educators, we belong to a profession that believes in the idea of lifelong learners. Self-reflection and professional goals help us achieve that. Not all learning needs to be a training course or a […]

[…] The mirror stands for reflective practice; […]

[…] will be considerably different from those who work with preschool-age children. Through the art of reflective practice, the simple notion of inquiring with the educators in your room may be enough to get the ball […]

[…] also helps to allow time for reflection, as well as the time needed to develop skills in a range of approaches to reflective practice – an example for this could be journal writing, critical conversation, and focus groups. The […]

[…] curricula and frameworks that place an importance on partnerships with parents and community, reflective practice, collaborative inquiry, educators as co-learners, pedagogical documentation, responsive […]

[…] process means we can sweep over what was occurring for children. It means we leave little room for reflection and can miss the deeper learning happening for […]

Reflection helps in making sense of the situation and understanding where one went wrong or did well and what we can do better. Reflection helps us learn new ways of solving and supporting children in development.

The lens model can be very helpful for children with special needs because if we are only looking from our perspective, we won’t realize that we could potentially be leaving children behind

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Learning Stories: Observation, Reflection, and Narrative in Early Childhood Education

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As an early childhood educator committed to equity of voice, I believe that educational activities with preschool children should be based on daily observations of children at play both in the classroom and outdoors. These observations should include teachers’ reflections and, as much as possible, families’ opinions and perspectives on their children’s learning, curiosity, talents, agency, hopes, and dreams. As a preschool teacher in a multi-language setting, I am required to conduct classroom observations to assess children’s learning. This has led me to the following questions:

• How can early childhood educators support and make visible children’s emergent cultural and linguistic identities?
• How can teachers embed story and narrative to document children’s growth and strengthen families’ participation in their children’s education?

In this article, I describe Learning Stories, a narrative-based formative assessment created by New Zealand early childhood education leaders. Learning Stories provide a way to document children’s strengths and improve instruction based on the interests, talents, and expertise of children and their families.

Learning Stories as Assessment

In New Zealand, educators use the Learning Stories approach to assess children’s progress. This narrative tool is a record of a child’s life in the classroom and school community based on teachers’ observations of the child at play and work. It tells a story written  to  the child that is meant to be shared  with  the family. Learning Stories serve as a meaningful tool to assess children’s strengths and help educators reflect on their roles in the complex processes of teaching and learning. As formative assessments, they offer the possibility of reimagining all children as competent, inquisitive learners and all educators as critical thinkers and creative writers, genuinely invested in their children’s work.

How Learning Stories Are Distinct

Learning Stories break away from the more traditional methods of teaching, learning, and assessment that often view children and families from a deficit perspective, highlighting what they cannot do. By contrast, Learning Stories offer an opportunity to reimagine children as curious, knowledgeable, playful learners and teachers as critical thinkers, creative writers, and advocates of play. Learning Stories are based on individual or family narratives, and they recognize the value of Indigenous knowledge. For native, Indigenous, and marginalized communities, the telling of stories or historical memoirs may be conceived as something deeply personal and even part of a “sacred whole,” as Maenette K.P. Benham writes. When we engage in writing and reading classroom stories—knowing how they are told, to whom, and why—we uncover who we are as communities and, perhaps, develop a deeper appreciation and understanding of other people’s stories.

Educators can use Learning Stories to identify developmental milestones with links to specific assessment measures; however, the purpose is not to test a hypothesis or to evaluate. At the root of any Learning Story is a genuine interest in understanding children’s lived experiences and the meaning teachers, families, and children themselves make of those experiences to augment their learning. As Laura Hope Southcott reminds us, “Teachers choose a significant classroom moment to enlarge in a Learning Story in order to explore children’s thinking more closely.”

Although no two Learning Stories will be alike, a few core principles underlie them all. The foundational components include the following:

• an observation with accompanying photographs or short videos
• an analysis of the observation
• a plan to extend a child’s learning
• the family’s perspective on their child’s learning experience
• links to specific evaluation tools

Suggested Format of a Learning Story

The following format is a helpful guide for observing, documenting, and understanding children’s learning processes at any given moment during the school day. It also may help teachers organize fleeting ideas into a coherent narrative to make sense of classroom observations or specific children’s experiences.

• Title: Any great story begins with a good title that captures the essence of the tale being told. Margie Carter suggests that the act of giving a title to a story be saved for the end, after the teacher has written, reflected on, and analyzed the significance of what has been observed, photographed, and/or video recorded.
• Observation: The teacher begins the story with their own interest in what the child has taken the initiative to do, describing what the child does and says. When teachers talk and write the story in the first person, they give a “voice” to the storyteller or narrator within. In their multiple roles as observers, documenters, and writers, teachers bring a personal perspective that is essential to the story. They write directly to the child, describing the scene in detail and narrating what they noticed, observed, or heard. Accompanying photographs, screenshots, or still frames of a video clip of the child in action serve as evidence of the child’s resourcefulness, skills, dispositions, and talents.
• What Does It Mean? (or What Learning Do I See Happening?): These are questions teachers can use to reflect, interpret, and write about the significance of what they observed. This meaning-making is best done in dialogue with other teachers. Multiple perspectives can certainly be included here; indeed, objectivity is more likely to be reached when the Learning Story includes a variety of voices or perspectives. Ask your coteachers or colleagues to collaborate to offer their pedagogical, professional, and personal opinions to the interpretation of the events.
• Opportunities and Possibilities (or How Can We Support You in Your Learning?):  In this section, teachers describe what they can tentatively do in the immediate or distant future to scaffold and extend the child’s learning. How can they cocreate with children learning activities that stem from individual or collective interests? This section might also reveal teachers’ active processes in planning meaningful classroom activities while respecting children’s sense of agency.
• Questions to the Family:  This is an invitation for a child’s family to offer their opinions on how they perceive their child as a competent learner. It is not uncommon for a child’s family to respond with messages addressed to the teacher. However, when teachers kindly request family members to reply directly to their child, they write beautiful messages to their children. Sometimes, the family might suggest ideas and activities to support their child’s learning both at home and school. They might even provide materials to enhance and extend the learning experience for all the children in the class.
• Observed Milestones or Learning Dispositions:  Here, teachers can link the content of a child’s Learning Story to specific evaluative measures required by a program, school district, or state. They also can focus on the learning dispositions reflected in the story: a child’s curiosity, persistence, creativity, and empathy. The learning dispositions highlighted in a Learning Story reflect the emerging values of children and the values and beliefs of teachers, families, schools, and even the larger community.

Learning Stories in Practice

My preschool is part of the San Francisco Unified School District’s Early Education Department. Our school reflects the ethnic, economic, cultural, and linguistic mosaic of the school’s immediate neighborhood, which consists primarily of first- and second-generation immigrant families from Mexico, Central America, and Asia. When children enter our program, only about 10 percent feel comfortable speaking English. The others prefer to speak their home languages, meaning Spanish, Cantonese, and Mandarin are the most common languages in our school.

One child, Zahid, revealed his story-telling skills by sharing the story of his father’s attempt to cross the border between Mexico and the United States. (See “Waiting for Dad on This Side of the Border” and “Under the Same Sun” below.) The resulting Learning Stories provided a structure for documenting Zahid’s developmental progression over time and for collecting data on his language use, funds of knowledge, evolving creative talents, and curiosity for what takes place in his world—all of this in his attempt to make sense of events impacting his family and his community.

The Learning Stories framework honors multiple perspectives to create a more complete image of each learner. These include the voice of the teacher as narrator and documenter; the voice, actions, and behaviors of children as active participants in the learning process; and the voices of families who offer—either orally or in writing—their perspectives as the most important teachers in their children’s lives.

Waiting for Dad on This Side of the Border May 2017

What happened? What’s the story? Zahid, I admire your initiative to tell us the tale of the travels your dad has undertaken to reunite with you and your family in California. On a map you showed us Mexico City where you say your dad started his journey to the North. You spoke about the border (la frontera), and you asked us to help you find Nebraska and Texas on our map because that’s where you say your dad was detained. We asked you, “What is the border?” and you answered: “It is a place where they arrest you because you are an immigrant. My dad was detained because he wanted to go to California to be with me.”

What is the significance of this story? Zahid, through this story where you narrate the failed attempt of your dad to get reunited with you and your family, you reveal an understanding that goes well beyond your 5.4 years. In the beginning you referred to the map as a planet, but perhaps that’s how you understand your world: a planet with lines that divide cities, states, and countries. A particular area that called your attention was the line between Mexico and the United States, which you retraced in blue ink to highlight the place where you say your dad crossed the border. It is indeed admirable to see you standing self-assured in front of the class ready to explain to your classmates your feelings and ideas so eloquently.

What’s the family’s perspective? Zahid is not very fond of writing, but he talks a lot and also understands quite a lot. He doesn’t like drawing but maybe with your support here at school he could find enjoyment in drawing or painting. —Mom

Under the Same Sun May 2017

What is the significance of this story? Zahid, I’m very pleased to see your determination to make a graphic representation of the word frontera. After so many sessions singing the initial sounds corresponding to each letter of the alphabet in Spanish, I thought you would be inclined to sound out the word frontera phoneme by phoneme and spell it out to write it on paper, but that was not the case. Instead, you decided to undertake something more complex, and you chose a paint brush and acrylic colors to represent (write) la frontera the way you perceive it based on the experiences you have lived with your family and, especially, with your dad.

What possibilities emerge? Zahid, you could perhaps share with your classmates and your family your creative process. Throughout the entire process of sketching and painting you demonstrated remarkable patience since you had to wait at least 24 hours for the first layer of paint to dry before applying the next one. You chose the color brown to paint the wall that divides Mexico and the United States because that’s what you saw in the photos that popped out in the computer screen when we looked for images of the word frontera. You insisted on painting a yellow sun on this side of the wall because according to you, that’s what your dad would see on his arrival to California, along with colorful, very tall buildings with multiple windows. I hope one day you and your dad can play together under the same sun.

This article is an adaptation of “Learning Stories: Observation, Reflection, and Narrative in Early Childhood Education,” by Isauro M. Escamilla, published in the Summer 2021 issue of  Young Children . 

Also, check out the latest NAEYC book,  Learning Stories and Teacher Inquiry Groups: Reimagining Teaching and Assessment in Early Childhood Education . You’ll learn more about how to integrate the Learning Stories approach and teacher inquiry groups into your setting.

Photographs: Header Image © Getty Images; Photos courtesy of the author Copyright © 2022 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See permissions and reprints online at  NAEYC.org/resources/permissions .

Isauro Escamilla, EdD, is assistant professor in the Elementary Education Department of the Graduate College of Education at San Francisco State University, where he teaches Language Arts in K–5 Settings and Spanish Heritage Language and Pedagogy for Bilingual Teachers, among other courses.

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Reflective Practices In Childcare

• Written by  Lorina
• December 6, 2023

Reflective practice is learning from everyday situations and issues and concerns that arise which form part of our daily routine while working in an early childhood setting. It’s about reflecting not only about what happened but why. It also guides our decision making. It forces us to analyse different aspects of experiences we offer to make judgements in what should be repeated, extended or changed. This enables us to develop and extend on children’s learning and build upon their knowledge and skills.

What Is Reflective Practice

Reflections are an ongoing occurrence that enables us educators to think honestly about our professional practice and ideas. It challenges us to take a step back to analyse our personal experiences to enhance learning and speculate upon the future and act.

Reflective practice gives a better understanding of why things happen. It assists you to recognize good practice as well as change and improve what is not working well.

The Process of Reflection

There are different ways of “reflecting” but overall it’s the same ongoing process. Observing, listening, thinking deeply about the meaning of what you have observed and heard, and using that information to inform your practice and continually respond and reflect. The reflection process includes:

Collecting Information

• Identify an issue or topic
• Gather evidence
• Talk to other professionals, families and children
• Question/Analyse
• What is happening? Why? How?
• Describe the experience
• When? Who benefits?
• Who is disadvantaged? What could be improved?
• How do you feel about it?
• What is the significance?
• Based on what you learned, decide whether change is necessary.
• What will you do as a result of this experience?
• What does this mean?
• How will you use it to inform your future?

Change or modify your practice.

• How might things be done differently?

Monitor changes you make and re-think or take new action if necessary.

• What happened? Why?
• What is you new interpretation of this experience?
• Did I achieve my objectives?
• What did I learn?
• How could I use these insights?
• What else do I need to know?

Throughout the reflection process there are a variety of questions that have been identified for you to answer. Not all these questions need to be answered during your reflection. However, it can be used to guide you in writing reflections. You can choose which questions to answer under each heading.

Sample of Reflection in Action

Collect Information – Think about all aspects of practice

The educators working in a long day care setting were concerns about a few of the newly enrolled toddlers and pre-schoolers whose families have recently arrived as refugees from Pakistan. Both parents and children are finding morning separation very difficult. The children are refusing to eat during meal times, not engaged with experiences on offer throughout the day and do not settle well during rest time. The strategies typically used to support children and their families during transition periods has not been working during these circumstances.

Question/Analyse – Use questions to challenge expectations and analyse current practices

During a recent staff meeting, the director asked a series of questions to assist educators reflect on their concerns for the children and families and what they could do to support them:

• What strategies are we currently using to help children and families settle into the centre? Why isn’t it working now? Improvements need to be made?
• What do we know about Pakistani culture?
• What child rearing practices should we be aware of?
• What do we know about these particular children and their families?
• What changes can we implement to support these families?
• Who could help us?
• What could help us?

While reflecting, discussing, analysing these questions educators pointed out that although children and families from other diverse cultural backgrounds within the setting, none of the educators had any experience working with refugee children and families.

Some educators thought the children will settle over the coming weeks once they get use to coming to the centre and when they start forming relationships with other children and room educators. Most educators were also not familiar with Pakistani culture, beliefs and traditions.

While discussing strategies one educator mentioned “In the past our transition and orientation procedures have worked well for all of us including the children and families, now it’s not working and I don’t think waiting until they get use to us is the answer”.

Upon further discussions, the educators decided that they needed to act now rather than wait, due to these families experiences differed from those families already at the centre and these families wellbeing was a priority. Educators prioritized a long and short term action plan.

Act/Do – Take action as a result on reflecting, analysing and questioning the issue on hand

Educator’s devised the following action plan that will be used immediately to support these families and children settle into care:

• Additional educators to be placed on the morning roster to welcome and assist children to settle in
• Facilitate an interpreter to discuss transition concerns with the families and gather their perspectives on why it has been difficult
• Offer meals that are familiar to the children – as parents for meal suggestions which can be prepared or served to the children
• Adapt familiar sleeping practices with those from home within the centre
• Extend and enhance educator’s knowledge on refugees, their experiences, impact on children and families

Reflect / Review

The strategies put in place had positive effects on both children and families. The settling in process has become a lot easier since having an extra educator available for support. The translator has been extremely helpful in developing open communication between educators and families and enabling parents to voice their concerns. Meal times and rest periods have also had positive outcomes as we adapt familiarity between the centre and home.

The educators within the centre will continue with their long term goals and progressively make changes to practices and policies (if required) as they develop their understandings from both internal and external influences.

This examples shows how educators used the process of reflection to:

• Discuss and think deeply about a concern
• Respected families ideas and contributions
• Implemented a series of actions
• Made a difference for children, their families overall wellbeing
• Improved understanding of refugee families
• Encouraged an inclusive environment within the centre

Questions for Reflection

Reflections involves analysing your own learning and practices. The following questions are starting points for reflecting on and discussing your own or other educator’s practices in a range of contexts and settings. This will help you to “recognize an issue or topic” which is the beginning process of reflecting.

Understanding Children

• encourage children to be agents of their own learning
• collaboratively plan aspects of the curriculum with children
• engage children’s interests, needs and capabilities
• link children’s learning between setting of hoe and the centre
• acknowledge different learning styles based on the individual child

Building Partnerships

• provide children feedback about their learning
• use conversations to create shares meaning with children
• establish positive interactions and promote shared understandings
• promote working in teams and why
• involve parents/community meaningfully and collaboratively in learning experiences

Learning Environments

• provide extended time for investigations
• scaffold learning through a variety of ways (open ended resources)
• plan and create experiences that are inclusive and culturally responsive
• create a welcoming, warms and supportive environment for each individual child
• create flexible environments that are responsive to children’s interest and spontaneity

Learning and Development

• encourage children to talk about their learning
• encourage collaborative learning approaches
• include children’s diverse backgrounds as a focus for curriculum decision making
• provide real life learning that reflects needs and interests
• integrate learning in play, real-life situations, investigations, routines and transitions

Exploring What Children Will Learn

• include individual children’s interests and needs when planning learning areas
• actively involve children to assess their own learning
• increase children’s independence in context for learning and development
• provide opportunities for creative problem solving through conversations, open ended questions and resources

How to Get Started

As you become familiar with reflective practices there are a variety of ways to begin documenting your reflections. Through documenting it enables you as well as other educators to acknowledge, understand, and recognize thoughts, perceptions and views on different issues and topics. Reflective practices can be documented in the following ways:

• Journals - Reflective journals or diaries is a simple and effective way for you to begin to record your thinking about all practices (relationships, interactions, teaching and learning, assessment, environments).
• Online – You can create a social media site/page for you and the educators you work with to encourage and support one another by sharing reflections. It’s a good way of encouraging contributions since most people enjoy using social media sites. Blogs are also another way to create a shared learning space online.
• Meetings – During staff meetings, time spent discussing practices with all educators ensures that reflections become a regular process. Whole meetings can be developed specifically around reflections while others a certain amount of time can be given within the meeting. Meetings also do not need to include all educators to reflect on practices. Meetings can be split up based upon educators working with specific age groups, room, room leaders, and assistants. It’s important that during these meetings that there is a facilitator available who can help guide the reflective process by asking questions for critical thinking and stimulate discussions. Discussions during meetings should be recorded and documented.
• Director/Educator/Mentor – Someone who ask questions, who guides you, offers a different perspective, who challenges and encourages you. Face to face, over the phone or online.
• Notice Boards – Reflective notice boards can be used in the staff room, foyer, and each room for highlighting reflective practice. Posters, quotes, questions, articles, images etc. can all be used to promote thinking and discussion. Each week/fortnight a question/issue/topic can be added onto the notice board where educators can write their comments and responses too. Further discussions on this can be supported in the staff meetings.

Whether you are reflecting for yourself or reflecting with others, reflective practices provides you with an opportunity to learn and draw open diverse knowledge, views, experiences, views and attitudes within yourself and others.

Lucas (2012), Critical Reflections, Melbourne Vic: Australian Collaborative Education Network

Kennedy & Stonehouse (2012), Reflective Practices, Melbourne, Vic: Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

Reflecting on Practices (2006), Queensland Studies Authority

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Critical Reflection Prompts for Early Childhood Educators

Butler Diaries @ Apr 03, 2023

As an educator in an early learning centre, you have the opportunity to impact the lives of young children and help shape their future. You are not just a teacher, but also a caregiver and role model for these children. With this great responsibility comes the need for critical reflection on your practice.

Reflecting on your practice means taking time to critically examine your actions, thoughts, and feelings about your work with children. This process can help you identify areas where you can improve, as well as areas where you are doing well.

Critical Reflection and NQS

The National Quality Standard (NQS) is a framework that guides and assesses the quality of education and care services across Australia. One of the themes of the NQS is "Practice is informed by critical reflection," NQS recognises that continuous improvement requires a commitment to ongoing critical reflection and professional growth. By engaging in critical reflection, educators can identify areas where they are excelling and areas where they need to improve, and develop strategies to enhance the quality of their practice. This process can help early learning centres exceed the expectations set out in the NQS and provide the best possible outcomes for children.

Where and When to Record your Critical Reflection

Recording your critical reflections is an important part of meeting the requirements of the NQS. This documentation can help educators track their progress, identify areas for improvement, and develop strategies to enhance their practice. It's important to set aside dedicated time for critical reflection. This might be at the end of each day or week, or after a particular activity or event. By establishing a regular routine for reflection and documentation, educators can ensure that their practice is continually evolving and improving, and that they are meeting the expectations set out in the NQS.

Our Reflection spread in our Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary is designed to capture your reflections under helpful prompts and titles. This keeps your reflections organised and easy to revisit for Assessment and Rating. 

Critical Reflection Prompts for Educators

Here are some critical reflection points for educators in early learning centres to consider:

Am I creating a safe and inclusive environment for all children? As an educator, it's essential to ensure that every child feels welcome and included in the classroom. This means celebrating diversity and creating an environment where all children feel safe to express themselves. 

Am I providing engaging and developmentally appropriate activities? Early childhood is a critical time for learning, and it's important to provide activities that promote children's physical, cognitive, and social-emotional development. Consider whether your activities are challenging enough for children, or if they need to be adjusted to meet the needs of different learners. Learn more about the developmental milestones and it's links with EYLF and NQS in this article .

Am I building positive relationships with children and their families? Building strong relationships with both children and their families is essential in early childhood education. It's important to communicate regularly with families, and to build trust and respect with them. This can help foster a supportive and collaborative learning environment.

Am I staying up-to-date on best practices and research in early childhood education? The field of early childhood education is constantly evolving, and it's essential to stay current with the latest research and best practices. Consider attending professional development opportunities, reading articles and books, and collaborating with colleagues to stay informed.

Am I taking care of myself? As an educator, it's easy to get caught up in the demands of the job and neglect your own needs. It's important to prioritise self-care and ensure that you are taking care of yourself physically, emotionally, and mentally. This can help prevent burnout and promote overall well-being.

Critical reflection is an ongoing process that can help you become a more effective educator. By regularly examining your practice, you can identify areas where you can improve, and celebrate the successes you have achieved. Reflecting without using what you've discovered to improve your practice is not critical reflection. Remember that early childhood education is a critical time in a child's life, and your work as an educator can have a profound impact on their development and future success.

Want more direction on critical reflection and how to critically reflect in your Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary ? Check out this article .

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Reflective Practice: Making a commitment to ongoing learning

Whether reflective practice takes place ‘in the moment’ or ‘later’, with a colleague or alone , in this all-time favourite blog, Dr Anne Kennedy  draws attention to the crucial role of ongoing learning , providing examples, strategies and tools for educators. 

Often when discussing the national Early Years Learning Framework Principle on reflective practice, we overlook the initial words in the Principle: “ Ongoing learning and reflective practice” (EYLF, 2009, p. 13). This part of the Principle is a reminder that engaging in reflective practice is about educators making a commitment to ongoing learning and being a member of a learning community (NQS, QA 7.)

What do we mean by reflective practice?

Reflective practice can be undertaken individually or with a group or team and can be practised in the moment or it can happen later by taking the time to think about an event or some aspect of practice. Educators can reflect with colleagues, children, families and other professionals. Reflective practice means:

• thinking deeply about an interest, issue, event, or practice from different perspectives
• being honest about all aspects of practice including elements that are positive and those that are of concern
• monitoring pedagogy and curriculum as part of a cycle of continuous improvement
• listening to and learning from others
• engaging in an ongoing process and not a ‘one-off’ activity.

Why is it important to be a reflective educator?

The National Quality Standard (NQS, QAs 1 & 4) and the EYLF recognise that reflective educators are more likely to:

• develop greater self awareness about the values and beliefs informing their practice and decision making
• understand the ethical nature of their work
• examine the theories underpinning practice
• engage in a continuous cycle of inquiry and improvement
• challenge taken for granted practices
• identify and take action about gaps in their professional knowledge.

Research shows that reflective practice makes a positive difference for children, families and communities by improving the overall quality of educators’ work (Marbina et al; 2010).

How can we practice reflection?

One way to support or improve reflective practice is to use an inquiry cycle process:

Alert and aware: Being alert or aware of something that seems worthy of thinking about more deeply either individually or with others, is the first step in reflective practice. Both positive events and things that worry educators can occur every day in an education and care setting, but not everything that happens requires deeper thinking. Support from more experienced educators can help others to recognise when they need to be alert and aware.

Analysis :   After becoming aware of something that is interesting or concerning, reflective educators analyse the matter by reflecting on it in order to gain a deeper understanding. Gaining others’ perspective, asking ‘why’ questions and undertaking reading related to the issue supports the analysis process.

Action :  Reflective practice requires some type of response or action. Understanding an issue or something of professional interest more clearly helps educators to take appropriate action either collectively or individually and often in collaboration with children and families or other professionals.

Assess :  Educators and other stakeholders such as families and children assess the outcomes from the actions taken as a result of the reflection process to ensure the intentional actions are improving practice and outcomes. Informal assessment of the outcomes could include checking with families or children about how they are experiencing the changes and documenting their responses to inform further decision-making.

A reflective educator would be ‘on alert’ or aware if a toddler in the group who usually separates readily from his mum found it very difficult one morning. While the separation difficulty might be a ‘one-off’ behaviour, it is something worth noticing, reflecting on and discussing with others including the child’s mum.

Reflecting with mum on why the child found the separation difficult that particular morning might reveal that they had a very late night because of a family celebration, or that the child’s dad has gone interstate on business. If the child’s separation difficulties were due to the father’s absence, the educators could use a photo of the child’s dad to reassure the toddler that dad is away but will be coming home soon. Providing close physical contact and using comforting, reassuring words each morning would also help to reduce the child’s anxiousness about his dad’s absence.

Sometimes parents and educators might be unsure about the reason for a child’s particular behaviour or response. The action in that instance would be to continue to be alert and to reflect on what is happening in order to understand the issue more clearly.

Reflective practice strategies, tools and resources

There is a range of strategies, tools and resources to support individual and group reflective practice.

Early Childhood Australia professional resources such as the ECA Learning Hub modules are an excellent resource for supporting reflecting on practice with others or individually.

Keeping a journal or notebook supports documenting the reflective practice process. Journal notes might include what happened, why, who was involved, key points from discussions, actions that were taken and the outcomes.

Setting aside time at every staff meeting for reflecting on one aspect of practice and planning actions develops a culture of inquiry in a service or setting. The discussion and decisions from these team reflections can be incorporated into the Quality Improvement Plan (QIP).

Reflect with children every day by using questions that respect their ideas and learning: “What did you learn today?”  “What do you want to learn more about?” “How do you know that?” “What makes you think that?”

Support educational leaders’ capacity to lead or support reflective practice by providing professional learning opportunities focused on reflective practice and through coaching or mentoring by a more experienced leader.

Reflective practice supports ongoing professional learning and development by building on educators’ strengths and skills, and providing deeper understanding of the complexities inherent in their roles and responsibilities. Educators who enact a commitment to reflective practice and taking action make a positive difference to the quality of the education experience and to improving outcomes for children and families.

Marbina, L; Church, A; & Tayler, C. (2010) VEYLDF Evidence Paper Practice Principle 8: Reflective Practice . DEECD: https://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/childhood/providers/edcare/evirefprac.pdf

This article was originally published in Every Child Magazine

ECA RECOMMENDS

If you’re looking to further develop your reflective practice strategies, look no further than ECA’s newly designed online Communities of Practice program for early childhood professionals at all stages of their careers centred around STEM and play. Find out more and enrol here

Reflective Practice: A handbook for early childhood educators (2nd ed.)

By Liz Rouse

This revised edition develops the subject more thoroughly, and includes three new chapters: Reflecting on practice for meeting the professional standards; Reflecting on practice and the educational leader; and Reflective practice and managing change.

The book takes educators on a journey that will help them to gain a greater understanding of reflective practice – now a key component of the training for the early childhood educator – as it applies to the early childhood professional.  Purchase your copy on the ECA Shop here .

Related Posts

Anne Kennedy

25 thoughts on “reflective practice: making a commitment to ongoing learning”.

Great article.

Learning Hub are an excellent resource for support of children and practicing with others.

Have passion in working with children with quality education, and further children’s interests.

Take into consideration the five important principles while working with children.

Up to date documentation.

Strive to give each child an opportunity to enhance on their interests & learning.

Great article

Building strong relationships with children, family & community

Great article. Sparks deeper thoughts while reflecting on interactions with children.

Useful Article, gained lots of information to provide a opportunities for children to develop a foundation for learning and for children to become successful learners.

Provides an in depth understanding of the educator’s role in children’s learning and an onging improvement to developing skills in practice.

Thank you very good and educational information and lesson

Very good understanding of how important educator role’s to help and support children development

That was good and easy for me to understand

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It is very easy to understand, thanks for the wonderful information.

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thank to all your useful information

Very interesting.

Very inspiring article and full of important ideas to take on board on daily teaching practice.

Very intersting

Very interesting

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Very important information

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Reflections of An Early Childhood Educational Leader: A Sacred Space

A Sacred Space shares the reflections of Karin Hill, Educational Leader at Petit Early Learning Journey Murwillumbah. Karin reflects on her experience in the educational leadership role, beginning several years ago and how it has evolved today.

The role of the Educational Leader is legislated in the National Quality Standard (NQS) under Quality Area 7 – Governance and Leadership and focuses on the administrative and leadership systems. The ACECQA describes Educational Leaders as “agents of change” with its value extending into all areas of the NQS.

Despite being an integral part in the delivery of quality education and care, many Educational Leaders receive the standard minimum of 2 to 4 hours non-contact time due to restrictions with room ratios. As a result, practitioners and researchers view the role as a time-poor position.

Karin’s reflection addresses:

• Past experiences as an Educational Leader with minimum non-contact time.
• Being an Educational Leader at Petit ELJ.
• The Petit ELJ orientation.
• A whole centre approach to pedagogy and goals.
• An emphasis on collaboration and leadership.
• Adaptability and a focus on continual improvement.
• Moving beyond the cycle of learning in Quality Area 7.
• Advocating for changes to educational leadership.

Karin’s reflection on the educational leadership role

Being in an educational leader role with minimum non-contact time.

My journey as an Educational Leader began several years ago in a different setting to where I am now. The dual job description was for a Preschool Teacher and an Educational Leader.

Programming time for the preschool position was 2 hours per week, as was the Educational Leader role. The training I received for this role came from working alongside an Educational Leader in a team-teaching position.

When I began, I received a job description and was then mostly left to my own devices to interpret that role, prioritise tasks and manage my time. As time progressed, I was also asked to become an Assistant Director with no additional time off the floor unless the Centre Director was absent.

Wearing three different hats took its toll. The conflicting priorities became hard to reconcile. When time allocations were poor, I found it hard to decide how best to spend my non-contact time. Do I use it to program for preschool? Or do I spend it looking through documentation ?

In my best efforts to be effective I constructed a “tick and flick” approach to my Educational Leader role. I cringe when I think about it, but it had its place. I would spend my limited time circulating the studios, checking off documentation, environment and pedagogy.

When I spoke to staff it was usually followed by asking them to sign here and date there so I could keep track of progress. I tried my best to have deeper conversations on my lunch breaks, but I was burning out.

I felt like I wasn’t doing any role well. And the feeling that I was letting down children, families and colleagues was overwhelming. So, I threw away all those hats and jumped in a caravan to travel around Australia for a year with my most precious hat, that of a mum and a wife.

That year gave me time to reconnect with my passions, values, identity and philosophy. I slowed everything down. I took time to do things well, discarding the things I didn’t need. And I found my joy again.

The year ended and it was time to look for work again. I made a promise to myself to not return to the same way of being.

Being an Educational Leader at Petit ELJ

I still remember one of the first conversations I had with Petit ELJ’s Education & Practice Advisor as she described the role of Educational Leader. She used terms like:

• “Stand alone position”
• “Dedicated time out of ratio”
• “Regular professional development”
• “Leadership network meetings”
• “External consultant”

It felt like she had taken my last year of critical reflection and tailored a position just for me.

Over the last year I have found Petit ELJ to be true to their word. While the reality of working in early childhood can sometimes limit time allocations, the role of Educational Leader still feels valued.

My orientation experience as an Educational Leader at Petit ELJ

On commencement, I had a full day orientation to policies and procedures. This was followed by 2 days above ratio hours to get to know the children and staff, look into my job description and organise myself.

The following week I joined an online network meeting with other Educational Leaders and shortly after a professional development meeting with Kelly Goodsir from KG Learning, one of Petit ELJ’s sector expert partners , where we talked about our centre’s annual curriculum goal.

Expecting to go straight back into ratio, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that these meetings were not included in my Educational Leader time. The rest of the afternoon was spent putting what I had learnt into practice and discussing it with my centre leadership team.

A few days later, I received in the post an “Educational Leadership Guide” developed in connection with Kelly Goodsir. It was filled to the brim with coaching tools and support to guide my work. And then the Education & Practice Advisor told me that both she and Kelly Goodsir would be visiting our centre soon.

I panicked. Unsure of what they would be looking for and wishing I had my checklist in place, I went to my Centre Director and Assistant Director to discuss my concerns. They not only reassured me, but spent the time talking it all through with me, so when my visitors arrived I had the confidence to show them around.

A whole centre approach to supporting the Educational Leader and a curriculum goal.

Kelly Goodsir and our Education & Practice Advisor spent the whole day with me, walking through the rooms and talking with educators. I gained insights into their philosophy and values and I saw the importance of collaboration. I took note of the respect they gave to every child and educator on the way.

They also talked me through the “Guide” and their style of documenting the program. With such a well-planned induction into my new role at Petit ELJ , I was given the tools that I needed to really succeed.

The images above and below are two examples from a working document that I was able to implement: A curriculum goal in the form of a floor book.

And in keeping with Petit ELJ philosophy it is a place where the whole centre collaborates in reflecting on one area for educational leadership development. This ensures we are all moving together towards a common goal, sharing ideas and challenges and documenting our journey as we go.

An emphasis on collaboration and leadership in early childhood education

After meeting with the Educational & Practice Advisor and Kelly, I reflected upon the impact of that orientation and shared it in a letter:

Dear Kelly and Tanya, Thank you for visiting us at Murwillumbah on Friday. I feel a lot of gratitude at the moment, and thought I would express that ‘formally’, sometimes it’s nice to know how we make a difference to others. Firstly I appreciate the position created here at Petit. You are unique in how you value Educational Leadership and quality pedagogy. This is evident in the time given to Ed Leaders to complete their goals and the support given to mentor us, as we mentor others, both interpersonally and through documentation. I have never stepped into a centre before and had such a thorough induction! The videos, checklists, guides, and research resources available are phenomenal (along with time to become familiar with them and navigate them at my own pace and learning style!). But what really shines are the people, so much knowledge and patience, so much passion and understanding. I have worked through the era of checklists and standards, assessors and directors, routines and regiment. However, I have also seen ‘the before’, when childcare was messy but fun. We may have been babysitters but without the professional label, playing with children was the most important thing in our day. The team at Petit Murwillumbah are finally at a place where the pendulum will stop swinging. No longer looking for what is the right answer, or the right way of teaching, but what feels like quality, care and growth. Honestly, I feel like I will be learning alongside my colleagues. Many of the ideas and practices you spoke of I have used before (some recently), which is why I am so excited to be in this role. To be inspired and share that inspiration with others in the moment is exciting. For a long time my head and my passions have been ill-aligned with my practices. Finally I feel the breathing room to try new things and explore quality pedagogy. I feel like I don’t have to have all of the answers. Which, as I embark on my role as Ed Leader might seem counter intuitive, but I believe is a great place to start. I can’t wait to begin this journey. Kind regards, Karin

Adaptability and a focus on continual improvement

Inspired by Sir Kevan Collins’ Keynote Speech and Anne Hollands’ Australian Keynote Speech at last year’s ECA National Conference our centre leadership team collaborated on the idea of a “Covid Recovery Plan”.

It turned out that 2022 came with its own agenda and our community was hit hard by flooding. Thankfully our centre was not physically affected, other than having no power and being isolated for a week, unable to open, and weeks of no phone lines or internet.

So our COVID recovery action plan became a Recovery Action Plan.

This past year has thrown a myriad of challenges our way, and we were so lucky to have started that year having brainstormed together as a centre leadership team, strategies that would connect us as a community and support each other through unprecedented times.

One point to make here is that the challenges that came about from COVID and the floods were not necessarily unique. They were however exacerbated heavily by the situation and the temporary closures of the centre.

As we started, we created a vision board using some key words. We reflected on the strategies that we were developing and putting in place and how they would strengthen both our pedagogy and our community connections . Regardless of what was to come this would be a positive outcome.

Moving beyond the cycle of planning and learning in Quality Area 7

The above photo highlights for me how those rough times polished us. We were able to invite those who helped us get through those tough times and thank them, establishing some beautiful authentic community connections in the process.

The main reason I highlight our centre’s struggles over the past two years, is that it has reinforced my belief in the role of a stand alone Educational Leader.

With the sacred space I have been given to guide our team, I have been able to broaden my lens and move beyond the cycle of learning.

As a part of our centre leadership team, I have spent time:

• Cooking for families that had lost everything in the flood.
• Creating a donation hub within the service.
• Researching mental health support systems for families and educators.
• Holding Zoom meetings with families and teams.
• Connecting with local community centres.
• Offering a safe space for Indigenous community playgroups.
• Connecting with the Australian Army and inviting them in.
• Collaborating with our rooms’ teams on their programs to support the children through these challenging times.

All of this has been in addition to supporting the rooms and educators as we move towards our curriculum goal of developing our skills and knowledge around the programming cycle and documentation.

I could not have achieved this without the support and collaboration of my leadership team , and the support and backing of an educational service that highly values the role of Educational Leader and a committed and passionate educator team.

The embedded systems and structures that helped include:

• Online platforms including our Learning Management System .
• A strong collaborative leadership team.
• Assistance and encouragement from the Petit ELJ Support Office team..
• A committed and passionate team.
• Building stronger connections with our families and the broader community.
• Having a stand alone Educational Leader who could focus on the “bigger picture” and provide support where needed.

Advocating for changes to educational leadership in early childhood education and care

As greedy as it sounds after describing my current experience at Petit ELJ, I will always aspire to higher quality and advocate for the profession and educational leadership. And so I “embrace a combination of hard work and magical thinking”.

My utopia or wish for the Educational Leader role is to:

• Be full-time above ratio.
• Have opportunities for mentoring.
• Work alongside other Educational Leaders.
• Manage an individual budget for resources and training.
• Gain a deeper understanding from the whole sector and broader community as to the value of the Educational Leader role.

These are just a few ideas I hope our profession moves towards in the not too distant future.

I include these in the knowledge that as an organisation Petit ELJ are always moving towards world class quality in early childhood education and care. Supporting the sacred role of educational leadership is integral to their philosophy.

Advocate for world class early childhood education and care with Petit Early Learning Journey

Are you an educator who is passionate about leading the way in quality improvement and meaningful change in the early childhood education and care sector? At Petit ELJ we support our teams through a rich philosophy built on trust, collaboration, partnerships, community and engagement.

We provide all centre teams with a thorough induction process, ongoing professional development and learning and emphasise a commitment to a shared approach to pedagogy across all our services.

Learn more about a career with Petit ELJ.

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