Starting this month, CounciLINK's regular "Teacher Tip" article transforms into a new monthly feature: "Take a Moment to Reflect". Each month we will continue to feature tips and strategies that support teacher and caregiver practice but we will also add the opportunity for you to reflect on the topic and share your reflections with the rest of the CDA community. We kick off this new series with an article exploring the value of reflection, itself...
Reflection
Being an early childhood professional in today's world is an incredibly complex endeavor. In addition to all of the expected, traditional tasks associated with our work, we now find ourselves responsible for many new professional requirements or challenges like naturalistic observations, data collection, individualized education plans, cultural competence, standards alignments, evidence-based curricula, dual language learners and so much more. Now, more than ever, it is critical that we become reflective practitioners who are acutely aware of the impacts that our teaching practices have on the children and families we serve. By reflecting, we can become more strategic in intentionally accomplishing all that is asked of us every day.
Reflection is the internal process of thinking through how we make decisions and arrive at opinions as well as the way we examine events that have occurred and the circumstances that surround them. It is the purposeful act of contemplation that leads to deepened perspectives and new solutions.
Know thyself.
- Socrates
Knowledge of self is the foundation of professional competence. In order to nurture the young children and families in our care, it is critical that we be our authentic selves each and every day. Understanding our own tendencies, beliefs, biases, strengths and fears allows us to balance who we tend to be as subjective people with who we must be as objective professionals.
Reflection on our practices and on our daily lives with children can also help us:
- uncover patterns of children's behaviors we are trying to understand
- evaluate the effectiveness of a curricular activity, routine, schedule or room design
- understand recurring issues we may be having with a particular parent, coworker or supervisor
Interested in becoming more skilled at reflection? One idea to consider is "metacognition" or thinking about your thinking. You may already be reflecting by reviewing behaviors or events that occurred ("Tara spilled the juice and I rushed over with a paper towel"). Instead, try to create a habit of remembering your own thought processes during those events ("When I saw Tara spill the juice, I thought 'I'd better clean that up before someone slips and falls' because I am responsible for keeping the children safe").
By noticing the way your mind works, you may uncover core beliefs about your teaching that influence the way you do your job. For example, a teacher who believes "I am responsible for keeping the children safe" will likely do her job differently than one whose core belief is "I am responsible for facilitating children in learning how to keep themselves safe". The first teacher may be "babying" the children in her care while the second may be helping them become autonomous, learning how to take responsibility and care for themselves, their environments and each other - values and skills they will carry with them for a lifetime. By reflecting metacognitively, we may discover key insights about how our thinking influences our doing.
Ultimately, the purpose of reflection is intentionality. We become practitioners who make intentional professional choices by first being practitioners who are consistently reflective about why we do what we do.
In next month's column, we will explore the idea of "intentionality" in greater detail.
What are some ways you reflect on your professional practices? Do you keep a log or journal? Do you regularly have "reflective dialogues" or conversations with your colleagues? What has been the value of reflection for you? Please take a moment to send your thoughts about reflection to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Next month, we will share the wonderful wisdom we've gathered from all over the CDA community.