Professional Growth Through Reflective Practice

One definition of reflective practice is. “The ability to reflect on one’s actions to engage in continuous learning.”Reflective practice “Involves paying attention to practical values and theories that inform everyday actions and leads to insight.”

Reflective practice cultivates a proactive way to examine our work, form questions, and gain insight.

As an educator, reflective practice is a way of life. Reflective practice is the guiding light of our co-learning journey with the children. Engaging in professional development through reflective practice can take many forms. Reflective practice is a process that develops through careful documentation and examination. As we engage in reflective practice, we make small changes in our work with children that gain momentum and add up over time.

Educators use different methods for collecting information to reflect on their classroom experiences. I will share five strategies I use to reflect on my work with school-age children. Each reflection approach has enhanced my professional development journey and growth as an educator.

Morning Pages. Every morning, I reflect by writing three handwritten pages to explore my thoughts and feelings about the teaching experience. My writing may be about a specific project, a big idea, or a problem I am trying to solve. Writing morning pages helps clear out old thoughts and prepare me for a new day. During each session of free writing and thinking, I come up with several ideas to utilize in the classroom the same day.

End of the Day. Each day, after the last child goes home, I sit down and write a reflection on what happened that day. I do not write about everything that happened. I write about what caught my attention and what questions I have about the experience. This reflection is not a call to action. I re-read my end-of-the-day thinking the following morning before the children arrive to prepare my mind for the day ahead.

Examine Documentation and Ask Questions. Once or twice a week, I re-read and re-write the documentation from my work with children. My examination is a time of slow reading where I examine what happened during a particular project, explore questions about what I observed, and shape ideas about where the work is going. During this process, many questions come up that supports new ideas for discussion and action with the children.

Share your Experiences with Peers. Another reflective practice is sharing ideas and questions with other educators. In the classroom, we observe the investigations of the children. Each educator has opinions and questions about their work. Sharing our observations with another educator helps us grow and support each other. Sharing ideas with peers is a practice that produces questions, ideas, and possible roads for the learning journey to travel.

Share Documentation with Mentors. The last practice is one of the most beneficial I engage in each week, where I meet with the experienced leadership of the school to share our classroom work. Since our program leadership is not in the classroom continuously, we come together once a week and share our classroom documentation. Mentors listen and offer a new perspective to our work with the children. They also ask questions and challenge our thinking which helps educators form new insights into their work and guide our learning journey forward.

Engaging in reflective practice will enhance your work with children. Reflective practice supports self-care through an honest examination of your daily experiences. If you do not engage in reflective practice, I encourage you to begin this practice that will benefit you and all members of your learning community.