Critical reflection in early childhood education: a framework for personal and professional empowerment Diti Hill

1
Critical reflection in early childhood education
a framework for personal and professional
empowermentDiti Hill
2

• FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
• In theorising practice and practising theory, are
  we able to see reflection as embedded deeply in
  our teaching, rather than something that we do to
  it afterwards?
• Can we see teaching itself as an ethical and
  political commitment (Dahlberg and Moss 2005) a
  commitment mediated by reflection on technical
  and taken-for-granted day to day events and
  experiences?
• (Theory to practice continuum Diti
  Hill July 2006)

3
JOHN SMYTH (1993)Smyth, J. (1993). A socially
critical approach to teacher education. In T.
Simpson (Ed.). Teacher Educators Handbook 1993.
Brisbane QUT.

• One of the wonders of the world is that as human
  beings, we have an enormous tolerance for
  incoherence and contradiction. We have elevated
  to the level of an art form, the capacity to lead
  our lives in one kind of way, while construing
  them in a completely different way.

4

• Being socially critical means starting with
  reality, with seeing injustices and
  contradictions, and beginning to overturn reality
  by reasserting the importance of learning.
• Only when teachers take an active reflective
  stance are they able to challenge the dominant
  factory metaphor of the way many early
  childhood centres are conceived, organised and
  enacted.

5
Untangling taken-for-granted practices requires
breaking into well entrenched and constructed
mythologies that may not always be easily
dislodged.
6
Smyths framework for reflection

• DESCRIBE
• INFORM
• CONFRONT
• RECONSTRUCT

CONFRONTING being able to subject the theories
about ones own practice to interrogation and
questioning, in a way that establishes their
legitimacy.
7

• Describe
• It was a nice sunny day and we were outside in
  the playground. M crawled towards the basket
  ball hoop and started exploring it. He was
  hanging on to the basket and touching the net.
  Soon I came to join M. They both started
  playing together with the basket. I brought a
  basket full of balls and kept it besides the
  basket ball hoop. I put a few balls into the
  basket and then stepped back to observe. Both of
  them started playing with the balls.
• What is your teaching role here? You must
  identify, focus on and describe YOUR teaching
  more clearly here, in order to reflect on it.

8

• Inform
• This spontaneous play was exciting for me as it
  was the first time I saw two babies playing
  together and enjoying each others company. I
  think that they both are very social and like to
  play in groups. This also tells me that both M
  and I have the ability to concentrate if they
  are interested and enjoying the play. This
  experience is important to me because it made me
  realize that I was not thinking appropriately for
  their age.
•  
• HERE is the focus of your reflection! Did you
  have a perception that these children could not
  play with the balls like this? What do you mean
  by appropriately? THIS could be the starting
  point of your reflection. This is about you and
  your role in the learning-teaching process.

9

• Confront
• I believe in socio-cultural theory, therefore
  encourage children to play in a group and think
  that both spontaneous and planned possibilities
  can give great learning experiences to children.
  I am impressed by Vygotskys concept of Zone of
  Proximal Development or ZPD. I believe children
  learn a lot from the people who surround them-
  peers, teacher, family and whanau, community. I
  keep my approaches flexible and change according
  to the childs interest and learning environment.
  I believe children learn more in groups but with
  babies it is very challenging because of their
  interests and routines. I took the childrens
  lead in my practice- at first they were exploring
  the basket hoop, then they started playing with
  the balls and enjoyed throwing the balls. I would
  link this reflection to Te Whariki Strand 5-
  Exploration, Goal 1Children experience an
  environment where their play is valued as
  meaningful learning and the importance of
  spontaneous play is recognised.

• Does your confronting address the fact that you
  underestimated what these babies could do? What
  is so challenging about babies interests and
  routines? What does the quote from Te Whariki say
  about your own teaching here? Is socio-cultural
  theory only about learning in groups? What does
  Vygotskys theory of the ZPD mean for your
  practice in this scenario? So was this
  interaction planned or spontaneous?

10

• Reconstruct
• This was a valuable experience for me as I saw
  the interests moving from the hoop to the balls.
  I could see their great interest in balls and
  will have these resources in different varieties
  like paper, clay, big, small etc.
•  Here you evaluate the activity and suggest new
  materials rather than focus on reconstructing
  your own teaching and the learning-teaching
  process evident in the reflection. Has your
  perception of what babies can do changed? What
  is your teaching commitment to these two children?

11
Theory, pedagogy and reflectionCurtis, D. and
Carter, M. (2008). Learning together with young
children A curriculum framework for reflective
teachers. St Paul, MN Redleaf Press.

• To enter into a style of teaching which is
  based on questioning what were doing and why, on
  listening to children, on thinking about how
  theory is translated into practice and how
  practice informs theory, is to enter into a way
  of working where professional development takes
  place day after day.
• (Sonya Shoptaugh, page 9)