how do educators use critical reflection in children's education

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The Importance of Critical Reflection in Early Childhood Education

Butler Diaries @ May 24, 2022

What is Critical Reflection

Simply put, critical reflection is critical thinking directed inwardly rather than outwardly. It’s a lens we use to look at our own practices and beliefs as childcare professionals. Through it, we examine what it is we do and why we do it: Are our actions and decisions valid or are they influenced by another person or group? Is there a better way to teach children?

If you struggle understanding where to focus your attention, the Weekly Programming and Reflection Child Educator Diary can help provide you the prompts you need to critically reflect on your program and use your reflection to improve your program, practice, and outcomes for children.

Reflection vs. Critical Reflection

What is meaningful reflection in childcare? In education, reflection and critical reflection are both used to describe an opportunity for educators to evaluate and improve upon their methods. The main difference between reflection and critical reflection is that critical reflection requires an educator to look at a situation from a different perspective or standpoint than he or she normally would—often in order to explore alternatives for improvement. Critical reflections also allow educators to consider multiple perspectives as well as challenge their own thinking, leading them toward more informed decision-making.

These prompts can help you critically reflect.

How do the Frameworks Define Critical Reflection?

The EYLF and MTOP V2.0 describe the difference between Reflection and Critical Reflection for Educators:

"Reflection involves educators thinking intentionally about their own and others’ practices, with certain aims or goals in mind. Critical reflection is a meaning-making process that involves a deeper level of thinking and evaluation. It requires engagement with diverse perspectives such as philosophy, theory, ethics and practice and then evaluating these in context, leading to pedagogical decisions and actions that are transformative. As professionals, educators collaboratively explore, identify and evaluate diverse perspectives with respect to their own settings and contexts. In this way, critical reflection informs future practice in ways that demonstrate an understanding of each child’s ongoing learning, development and wellbeing, and have implications for equity and social justice."

https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf We have found that the reason most educators struggle to successfully critically reflect is because there aren't quite sure how to apply these reflections to improve practice. When you address diverse perspectives as you reflect in the Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary , collaborate with your team, children, and families, and use these reflections to inform your following week's program and children's learning, you are critically reflecting. Our  Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary  is designed to help make this cycle of planning visible.

If you need more help understanding the cycle of planning and would like practical examples, you can check out this article.

Why is it Important in Early Childhood Education?

To understand why critical reflection is so important, let’s talk about its opposite: unreflective practice. We do things every day without questioning whether they’re right or wrong. This can be helpful if we know our actions are grounded in years of experience and a deeper understanding than others possess. But when we don’t think critically about what we do, we aren’t growing and learning from those experiences as a professional educator should. Unreflective practice means you’re not learning from your mistakes. In fact, most educators are so busy taking care of young children that they don’t always have time to stop and reflect on how they could have made things better for those children. A lack of critical reflection leads to apathy and an inability to self-correct or improve. As early childhood educators, we should reflect critically on our practices and beliefs, just as anyone in any profession does; it’s part of practicing our craft to ensure we are getting better at what we do. It is important that you reflect critically on what you have observed and how you will use these observations to improve your practice.

As an educator, it is important to consider how your own values and cultural beliefs may influence your practice and how children are viewed. It is also useful to consider how children might view themselves or others around them within their social context. This ensures that as an early childhood educator, you are always questioning your own practice for improvement but also striving for equity for children and their families.

How do you use Critical Reflection Effectively?

There are different ways in which you can critically reflect in early childhood education. Discussion with your peers and colleagues, observing children in their environments, reviewing current research and even consulting subject experts are all ways to work out how to observe a child effectively. Over time, you will get a feel for when something needs to be questioned or challenged within your practice. Observing children is an integral part of quality early childhood practice but it is always important to critically reflect on what these observations mean for your teaching practice. In Early Childhood Education, it is important these reflections are documented and a record of your reflective journey is kept for Accreditation.

The Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary is designed to support you in embedding critical reflective practice into your every day work with children through a weekly Reflection Spread that informs your following week's practice.

When to Critically Reflect?

If you’re wondering how often you should critically reflect, we suggest starting at least once per week. This may seem like a lot, but if you make a goal of doing one reflective session per week, over time it will become easier to incorporate more critical reflection into your daily practice. Eventually, critical reflection becomes a part of your daily programming, practice, decisions, and conversations with your team and families.

Some Questions to Consider when Critically Reflecting in your Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary

Some suggestions of critically reflective questions to ask yourself from EYLF V2.0 and how they can be recorded in your Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary are:

• "What is our understanding of each child, their culture and context?"  Learning Data, Parent Input
• "What questions do we have about our work? What are we challenged by? What are we curious about? What are we confronted by in relation to our own biases?"  Professional Inquiry, Was it a good/challenging week? Why?
• "What theories, philosophies and understandings shape and assist our work?"  Professional Inquiry, Intentional teaching/Learning experiences covered
• "In what ways – if any – are the theories, knowledges and world views that we usually draw on to make sense of what we do limiting our practice?"  Professional Inquiry, Intentional teaching/Learning experiences covered
• "What other theories or knowledge and world views could help us make sense of what we have observed or experienced? What are they? How might those theories and that knowledge affect our practice?"  Learning Data, Professional Inquiry
• "Who is advantaged/included when we work in this way? Who is disadvantaged, excluded or silenced?"  Were programmed goals & projected outcomes achieved?, Intentional teaching/Learning experiences covered, Professional Inquiry

https://www.acecqa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2023-01/EYLF-2022-V2.0.pdf

How to Embed Critical Reflection into your Practice and Inform Future Planning

As stated above, critical reflection can be a powerful tool to analyse what is happening during your interactions with children. It also helps you to become more self-aware as a person and thus becomes an important practice when working with others. However, it can be intimidating to begin reflective practice and often people are put off by its potential complexity. You need not worry! The key to embedding critical reflection into your work is just getting started - making time and space to think about your experiences is vital. Using tools that encourage critical reflection as part of your programming and documentation can help you embed it into your practice. Our Weekly Programming and Reflection Diaries include a weekly critical reflection with prompting points to assist you in effectively reflecting on your program and making recording your reflections manageable. You can access a guide for reflecting in the diary's weekly reflection space here  and download your handy Linking Theorists to the EYLF Outcomes PDF to support you in linking experts in your programming and reflections. Also see some critical reflection in early childhood examples here.

The Early Years Learning Framework V2.0,  https://www.acecqa.gov.au/nqf/national-law-regulations/approved-learning-frameworks 

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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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• Amplify! Blog

Where to get started with critical reflection and why it’s important for quality early education

Understanding how to use critical reflection is an essential part of professional development for educators. We explore what critical reflection is, why it’s important, and models to consider. 

By CELA on 19 Oct, 2023

Early education and care professionals play a crucial role in shaping the future of children. As such, it’s important to engage in continuous learning and professional development. One essential aspect of this is critical reflection. In this article, we’ll explore what critical reflection is, its importance in early education and different models to consider in your critical reflection practice. 

What is critical reflection? 

The critical reflection process involves deep analysis and evaluation of experiences and actions to gain new insights and knowledge. It goes beyond thinking about what happened and delves into understanding why it happened and how things could have been done differently.  

Jannelle Gallagher, CELA Early Education Specialist, explains that critical reflection is different from reflective practice.  

“Critical reflection takes reflective practice to a different level beyond where educators unpack their own practices with certain aims or goals in mind,” says Jannelle. “Critical reflection is a meaning–making process that involves deeper thinking, analysis, and evaluation of the effectiveness of planning and implementation of the curriculum and the impact on children's learning, and well-being.” 

The importance of critical reflection in early education 

The importance of critical reflection is highlighted in the updated Early Years Learning Framework V2.0. The term is embedded in all areas of the document, appearing 24 times, a stark contrast with the EYLF 2009 version where the term appeared only three times. 

By asking questions, considering multiple perspectives, and identifying areas for improvement, critical reflection empowers educators to grow both personally and professionally. It supports a deeper understanding of beliefs, values, and biases, and how these factors influence their interactions with children, families, and colleagues. Educators can use critical reflection to develop strategies to enhance their practice and provide more responsive and individualised support to children.  

The process takes the educators on a journey led by their own curiosities and wonderings where pedagogical decision-making has a transformative impact on future practices,” explains Jannelle. “Educators who engage in critical reflection challenge practices that contribute to inequities or discrimination. They demonstrate an understanding of each child’s learning, development, and well-being.

Different models of critical reflection 

One widely recognised model of critical reflection is Gibbs' reflective cycle , which involves six stages: Description of the experience, feelings about the experience, evaluation of the experience, analysis of the experience, conclusion and action plan, and reflection on the process. It encourages educators to reflect on their experiences, identify emotions, critically evaluate actions, analyse the situation, draw conclusions, and create action plans for improvement. 

Another prominent model is Kolb's experiential learning cycle . It emphasises the idea that learning is a cyclical process that involves four stages: 

Concrete experience: In this stage, learners engage in direct experiences or activities that serve as the foundation for learning. 

Reflective observation: Learners reflect on their experiences and observe what they have encountered, identifying patterns, connections, and personal insights. 

Abstract conceptualisation: Based on their observations and reflections, learners develop abstract concepts, theories, or frameworks that help them understand and make sense of their experiences. 

Active experimentation: Learners apply their new understanding and concepts by actively testing them in practical or real-world situations. This stage allows for further learning through trial and error, feedback, and adjustment. 

A third model is Borton's model of reflection . This model involves three key questions: 

• What?  
• So what?  
• Now what?  

Educators reflect on the experience (What?), explore the significance and implications (So what?), and determine the next steps or changes needed (Now what?). It encourages a deeper understanding of experiences and the implementation of meaningful changes in practice. 

Using the Planning Cycle to reflect

Prior to joining CELA, Jannelle was a preschool director. She recalls an instance where her team used The Planning Cycle as a framework to delve deeper into their practices, known truths and beliefs. 

“Two of the children brought to our attention the idea of privacy in the bathroom,” she explains. “What resulted was a two-year project deeply exploring children’s ideas, families’ and educators’ perceptions and unpacking the intent and understanding of the legislation. This resulted in a $120,000 bathroom and toilet redevelopment. 1  

“Our practices were critiqued and analysed, internally and externally. Together we planned and implemented a curriculum plan which echoed children’s voices. Our children, families, and team of educators were involved in an ongoing cycle of review.”  

The new EYLF V2.0 discusses the notion of a robust culture of critical reflection that supports educators to question established practices and question why they work the way they do with children. 

When an environment offers an opportunity for educators to engage in deep pedagogical thinking, they are empowered and committed to their own professional development. This translates into collaboration with peers to develop capabilities and new practices resulting in high-quality early childhood education for children. 

Training and support 

CELA Webinar: How the Exceeding Themes Influence Your Practices  

CELA Webinar: Demystifying Critical Reflection  

Further reading 

Amplify!: How we made our Exceeding Themes present on assessment day  

Amplify!: A reflection on reframing inclusive early education  

References 

1. Jannelle Gallagher and Zsuzsa Millei (May 2012). Opening Spaces for Dialogue and Re-Envisioning Children’s Bathroom in a Preschool: Practitioner Research with Children on a Sensitive and Neglected Area of Concern  

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How critical reflection can guide learning in your service.

Published on Tuesday, 11 February 2020 Last updated on Monday, 29 November 2021

Reflective practice in early childhood education sets the stage for critical reflection. This ‘next level’ approach applies the same system of observing and questioning but goes further by seeking a diversity of opinion and requiring an openness to change. 

According to early childhood educator and blogger, Jodie Clarke , the aim of critical reflection is 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.” 

In addition, the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) places a strong emphasis on the importance of critical reflection, listing ‘ongoing learning and reflective practice’ as one of the five key principles of effective practice. 

This aligns with Element 1.3.2 of the National Quality Standard, which requires that ‘critical reflection on children’s learning and development, both as individuals and in groups, is regularly used to implement the program’. 

Practice and time are required to build the skill of critical thinking and it’s a powerful form of ongoing learning that can take educators beyond their own understandings and knowledge. 

What is critical reflection?

Critical reflection is a form of personal learning and development that involves thinking about practices and procedures with intent and honesty. It needs to be embedded in daily practice and can be a challenging skill requiring the ability to question and change deep-seated assumptions and practices.

Application of critical reflection starts by engaging with your own thoughts, feelings and experiences on what is occurring within a work setting and rigorously scrutinising the assumptions that underpin your perceptions. 

The next step is to draw in different viewpoints to learn and evaluate how you may change your approach or perspective on an event. This can lead to new conclusions, possible changes and new ideas to inform future planning and actions.

The idea is that you not only explore your own reaction to an event or experience but you are also examining them from alternative viewpoints, such as through the eyes of a colleague or by reviewing relevant literature and theories, and considering if change is required in your approach or perspective.

Critical reflection involves:

• Reflecting on your own personal biases
• Examining and rethinking your perspectives
• Questioning whether your perspectives generalise
• Considering all aspects of experiences
• Engaging in professional conversations with colleagues, families, professionals and community members 
• Using the reflective questions in the learning frameworks to prompt your thinking

Working with children compels constant reflection on how an educator’s practice is influenced by their worldview. Engaging in critical reflective practice allows you to examine your practice and gain insights from various viewpoints to inform future decision-making.

Why is critical reflection important?

The practice of critical reflection in early childhood education is to ensure the best possible outcomes for children. 

Critical reflection offers many benefits for an educator, as the process is part of an active learning experience to promote professional development. Some of the benefits of engaging in critical reflection include:

• Strengthening professional practice
• Generating learning
• Engaging higher order thinking and creative practice
• Helping educators make sense of experience
• A vehicle for problem solving 
• Allowing the development of deeper understandings 
• Building valuable insights to inform decision-making and manage issues more effectively

Critical reflection provides a framework to think differently about working through various issues and obstacles, and helps educators make purposeful changes to practice to improve children’s outcomes. 

How to apply critical reflection in your practice

To get started use the EYLF set of overarching questions to guide reflection, these include:

• What are my understandings of each child?
• What theories, philosophies and understandings shape and assist my work? 
• Who is advantaged when I work in this way? Who is disadvantaged?
• What questions do I have about my work? What am I challenged by? What am I curious about? What am I confronted by
• 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? 
• Are there other theories or knowledge that could help me to understand better what I have observed or experienced? What are they? How might those theories and that knowledge affect my practice?

To get started, break the process into manageable chunks. Begin with just two of the questions and be patient – it takes time to explore multiple perspectives.

To be successful the process of critical reflection requires a participatory culture and leadership support, engagement is more likely to happen when there is a culture of openness and trust where everyone has a voice and is listened to. 

Educators need to feel they can openly question, offer ideas and raise concerns about their own and the service’s practice. Recognising there is no single or ‘right’ way to approach complex issues is also an important element in supporting reflective practice.

An article by Queensland University of Technology lecturer Melinda Miller lists the following key elements required to build a reflective culture:

• Direct teaching - Some educators require explicit support when learning about and applying processes of critical reflection.
• Modelling - Educators with experience in critically reflective practice are well positioned to model processes of reflection to colleagues. Examples from everyday practice can provide a basis for discussion, modelling and teaching.
• Collaboration - A collaborative approach to critical reflection is valuable because multiple voices and perspectives are included in discussions. Collaboration can occur between educators, other professionals, children and families. 
• Physical spaces and resources - Create an environment that is conducive to reflective practice. Educators require access to current literature (professional magazines, journal articles, texts) to extend their knowledge base. Prompts such as a highlighted section of an article or a question written on a noticeboard can be used to support critically reflective practice.
• Time - Effective critical reflection takes time and practice. Opportunities for individual and collaborative reflection are necessary to build educators’ skill levels.

Other strategies to support reflective practice include: 

• Establishing routines to allow reflection to occur regularly. Allocating time during a regularly scheduled meeting to reflect on practice across the service as well as personal ‘reflection’ time in a prescribed time slot during the day.
• Networking with other services. Regularly meeting with people in the wider community can provide insights into the way the service is perceived by others. This provides opportunities to explore ways the service can become more responsive to the interests and needs of families and children in the local community.

Thanks to Jodie Clarke, The Empowered Educator Online and ACECQA for their insights on critical reflection which helped write this article.

Further reading

Unpacking Critical Reflection The Spoke Critical Reflection  

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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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Program & Practice

The Process of Critical Reflection

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.

• What is my understanding of each child?
• How and why were decisions made?
• What theories, philosophies, and understandings shape my practice?
• Who is advantaged when I work in this way? Who is disadvantaged?
• How do my own thoughts, feelings, and experience influence my practice?
• What isn’t working and why? How can I improve next time?
• What am I challenged by? How can I further my students learning and my own?
• How can I incorporate feedback?
• What perspectives or theories can I draw on to enrich my practice?
• How will I track my progress towards my goals?

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. 

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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 .

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Anne Kennedy

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

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

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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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From constructive to critical and everywhere in between: education leaders’ decision-making related to harsh feedback from learners about their teachers

• Published: 02 September 2024

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• Katherine Wisener   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6093-8338 1 , 2 ,
• Erik Driessen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8115-261X 2 ,
• Amy Tan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2063-4919 3 ,
• Cary Cuncic 3 &
• Kevin Eva   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8672-2500 3  

Feedback from learners is important to support faculty development, but negative feedback can harm teachers’ motivation, engagement, and retention. Leaders of educational programs, therefore, need to balance enabling students’ voices to be heard with maintaining teachers’ enthusiasm and commitment to teaching. Given the paucity of research to explain or guide this struggle, we explored why and how education leaders grapple with negative learner feedback received about their teachers. Using an Interpretive Description methodology, 11 education leaders participated in semi-structured interviews. Discussion was stimulated by showing participants learner narratives they had previously asked to be deleted because they perceived the narrative to be overly critical. Transcripts were iteratively analyzed as codes were developed, refined, and combined into themes. Education leaders interpreted the scope, framing, and focus of the feedback to decide whether it was overly critical. Such determinations were combined with contextual considerations such as the teacher’s personal circumstances, the learning environment and how the teacher might react to think through what potential damage the feedback might do to the teacher. Throughout the process, leaders struggled with whether protecting teachers risked not protecting learners and remained unsure about the ethics of censoring student voices. Our study offers direction regarding how to optimize feedback to teachers while minimizing risks inherent in sharing negative feedback with them. Implications include that there is value in: (1) extending feedback interpretation support to teachers, education leaders and learners; (2) situating upward feedback in a coaching dialogue; and, (3) applying the same principles recommended for the provision of feedback to learners, to teachers.

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Wisener, K., Driessen, E., Tan, A. et al. From constructive to critical and everywhere in between: education leaders’ decision-making related to harsh feedback from learners about their teachers. Adv in Health Sci Educ (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-024-10367-7

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-024-10367-7

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