What is Critical Reflection? Critical reflection refers to the ability to examine all aspects of your program, practice, and service environment with honesty and purpose. It is the process of analysing, questioning, and reframing events and experiences for the purpose of learning and improving practice. The ultimate goal of critical reflection is to deliver the best possible outcomes for the children in our care. Why is Critical Reflection Important? Critical reflection helps us make changes and improvements to our practice, knowledge, actions, interactions, and learning environment. It is a crucial part of meaningful learning and practice improvement. Put simply, critical reflection makes us better educators and enriches children’s learning. Questions to Promote Critical Reflection Questions to promote critical reflection should dig deeper than surface-level observations of what learning occurred. They should seek to investigate alternative approaches, evaluate the learning that occurred from different perspectives, and form a specific, timely, and measurable action plan for improvement. True critical reflection requires a readiness for change, a willingness to challenge yourself and others, and the ability to adapt and take on feedback.
How to Explain Montessori Academy’s Process of Critical Reflection At Montessori Academy, we critically reflect in several ways to ensure that our educational program and practice is engaging and enhances children’s learning and development. Daily Practice of Critical Reflection Daily, we complete the critical reflection on our daily EYLF Curriculum Planning sheets to review what activities were most engaging, what worked and why, how children were included, what learning occurred, and how it linked to the EYLF outcomes. We also record spontaneous teaching moments, lessons learned, and plan where to go from here to extend on children’s interests and skills. We use a green pen to record intentional teaching, a blue pen to record children’s interests, and a black pen to record sustainability and spontaneous learning activities. We use different coloured pens to track key learning moments to inform our future practice. The next step is implementing the ideas that come from the process of critical reflection. We do this by adding or changing activities on our daily EYLF Curriculum Planning sheets, adding the interest to our Web, and recording our observations and learning stories through KeptMe. These observations are then shared with our families through KeptMe, and we receive feedback through likes, comments, and general feedback at pick up and drop off. Critical reflection is embedded in our daily practice and informs our approach to educational programming. Weekly Critical Reflection Weekly, we reflect on the EYLF Curriculum Planning sheets, family feedback, comments on KeptMe, WOW moments, and children’s interest web. These reflections form the basis of our educational program for the following week. Each week, we actively look for ways to incorporate the EYLF Learning Outcomes into our program and practice to support children’s belonging, being, and becoming. Monthly Critical Reflection Monthly, we review and reflect on one Quality Area company-wide. Montessori Academy shares recommended resources through the Staff Newsletter, which includes ACECQA articles, podcasts, and other resources that encourage reflection on the nominated Quality Area. Families provide feedback on the nominated Quality Area through monthly National Quality Standards (NQS) surveys. Montessori Academy recently introduced a gift-voucher prompt to encourage higher parent-participation rates and more meaningful feedback. Services review survey feedback in the monthly staff meeting and share their key learnings, ideas, and reflections to improve understanding and competency relating to the nominated Quality Area. Follow Up and Follow Through Once services have reviewed the survey feedback and reflected together as a team, they compile their findings and form an action plan with specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART) goals. The goals and action plans for each Quality Area are added to the Service’s Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) and communicated to families via email. This process encourages collaboration and a sense of shared responsibility between families and educators. Progress towards achieving goals is recorded in the QIP and sent to families for their input. Collaborative relationships between families, educators, and children are crucial to reflective practice. 
What is reflection? Reflection is a meaning-making process that is conducted toward goals related to both personal and intellectual growth. It is also a developmental skill that needs to be strengthened with practice, modeling, and feedback (Dewey, 1916; Rodgers, 2002; Schön, 1983). As illustrated below, reflection is a critical link in the learning process that enables “doing” to become “doing with understanding.” Further, knowledge and skills gained through reflection can enhance learning in future experiences. There are many mutually reinforcing benefits of reflection, which can be framed in three main categories. Specific examples of benefits within each category are listed below.
What is the evidence? Reflection is an important part of learning that pushes the learner to think more deeply or differently (Entwistle & Peterson, 2004). Asking directed prompts can facilitate and guide this deeper thinking and connect experiences (Ash, 2009; Krause & Stark, 2010). Reflective activities strengthen one’s metacognition, which is an awareness of one’s thoughts and knowledge, enabling one to consciously choose when and how to use particular strategies for learning and problem solving. This ability is essential for learning in complex environments (Bransford et al., 2000; Flavell, 1976), such as experiential learning. CATLR Tip Meaningful reflections go beyond simple recall of information and descriptions of what happened; rather, meaningful reflections exhibit original thinking that goes beyond the surface. Prompts that elicit meaningful reflection:
Additionally, reflection activities are most effective when they include an opportunity for the learner to share the reflection and receive feedback from peers, an educator, and/or others. References Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning: The power of critical reflection in applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1(1), 25-48. Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York, NY: The Free Press. Entwistle, N. J., & Peterson, E. R. (2004). Conceptions of learning and knowledge in higher education: Relationships with study behaviour and influences of learning environments. International Journal of Educational Research, 41(6), 407-428. Flavell, J. H. (1976). Metacognitive aspects of problem solving. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), The Nature of Intelligence (pp. 231-235). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Krause, U. M., & Stark, R. (2010). Reflection in example- and problem-based learning: Effects of reflection prompts, feedback and cooperative learning. Evaluation & Research in Education, 23(4), 255-272. Rodgers, C. (2002). Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective thinking. The Teachers College Record, 104(4), 842-866. Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books. |
What is meaningful reflection in childcare
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