The Little Book of Reflective Practice

A Practical Guide to the Early Years

Annie Pendrey

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000554861
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

The Little Book of Reflective Practice is bursting with big ideas which will encourage you to be curious, reflective and courageous in your professional learning journey. It introduces the key reflective theories alongside case studies from educators to show how these can be applied to improve practice.

The journey from being to thriving is set out in several chapters each providing different themes which will encourage you to capture your reflections, record your learning and development and apply theories of reflection to your professional practice. Full of practical guidance, activities and questions to prompt reflective thinking, the chapters cover:

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• getting started

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• how to write reflectively

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• creating spaces to be reflective

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• using reflective practice to set targets for your learning and professional development

Spaces for capturing your reflective thoughts and reflective activities are provided througout, alongside sections where you may wish to stop and engage in deeper thinking. This book will be invaluable reading for early years practitioners, tutors and early years students on level 3 courses and Foundation Degrees.

1 Being Me

DOI: 10.4324/9781003174851-2

Introduction

Appreciating and beginning to understand who we are as individuals and professionals is the very start of any reflective and academic journey. The theme of belonging and being me will introduce you to the concept of self-awareness and introduce you to a variety of activities which will hopefully give you a better understanding of yourself and in turn enable you to evolve from being to thriving.

Let Us Start With Bungee Jumping

Have you ever bungee jumped or undertaken an activity which fills you with fear? Whilst, I have never bungee jumped I do believe reflection is a little like this experience, you are fitted out with all the equipment, straps, buckles and a cord which offers you ultimate safety but then you are counted down and expected to take a leap of faith.

This leap of faith is very much like reflection. Reflection is personal and whilst it is hoped it will set you on the path to seek possibilities and opportunities to thrive, a little like bungee jumping it must be SAFETY FIRST!

So, as you enter the bungee jump into reflection and the theme of belonging and being me, as best as possible this theme will aim to cater to all your safety needs, alongside the advice not to overthink the process, very much like you would not overthink when your toes are on the edge of a cliff, and you hear the countdown to the jump! But take a leap of faith, take this imaginary bungee jump with me into reflection and believe in yourself.

Theme 1a – Courage

As we take the first tentative steps into reflection and reflective practice, it very much reminds me of my most favourite film, The Wizard of Oz. In the film there is a Cowardly Lion who upon his journey along the yellow brick road and into the Emerald City sings to Dorothy, Scarecrow and the Tin Man, ‘What have they all got, that I ain’t got? Courage’.

But if you have ever watched the film The Great Wizard before the Wizard betstowed courage and a medal upon the lion, the Wizard remarked that the Lion was mistaking courage for wisdom and bravery. Having the bravery to stand up to the Wicked Witch can be alikened to how you have already shown a level of bravery commencing your studies and/or reflective journey.

Starting any new professional or academic journey is scary and so the opening theme for this book is Belonging and Being Me where we begin with exploring what is courage and why do we need courage to reflect upon our professional practice.

So, what is courage? Courage could be best described as one’s inner strength to face and control fear, enter difficult situations despite what we may deem to be dangerous, but I also feel that courage is about displaying a level of perseverance, persisting in our attempts to conquer, adjust or reflect upon the situation.

Let us return the lion in The Wizard of Oz and it doesn’t matter if you have never watched the film, all you need to know is that the lion was scared of his own tail and yet went on to fight to release his friend Dorothy with his companions, Scarecrow and Tin Man from the Wicked Witch. It is here we can begin to explore the different types of courage that Lion portrayed and in turn you may wish to reflect upon your own courage.

It is thought that there are many types of courage which include the following:

1. Emotional Courage – this is best described as ‘follow your heart’, display your emotions and despite possibly not feeling brave follow your heart in the decisions you make. In the case of the lion, despite being petrified of the Wicked Witch, Lion listened to his heart and whilst he felt emotions that were both positive and negative, he knew he had to rescue Dorothy.
   

   Reflective Thoughts
   Stop a while and consider a situation where you feel you may need to display emotional courage. Share with your peers or mentor if you wish or simply have a quiet reflective moment.
   Once you have done this, you may find you generate other reflective thoughts as you read more about the different types of courage. If so, pause and capture your reflective thoughts.
2. Physical Courage – this is not something which when used causes harm but is the physical courage to persevere, to be self-aware and develop the resilience to pick yourself up and start again.
3. Social Courage – this type of courage I believe to be both physical and emotional, the type of courage that asks you to be you and to display courage in the face of adversity. This is the type of courage I have always tried to instil in my learners, it is the social courage to send an email to organise their own vocational placement, to put their hand up in class and ‘have a go’ and to ask for help and guidance when needed.
4. Moral Courage – we all have a set of morals we carry around with us and have you ever stopped to think how these form part of your moral courage? Moral courage could be described as the type of courage which involves being true to yourself but whilst following your morals, also displaying the moral courage to not only express your own opinions but to embrace the morals and opinions of others.
   

   Reflective Thoughts
   Stop and reflect upon what you consider to be your morals and how these are important to you in your professional journey.
   Can you think of a situation where you have displayed moral courage when working with others?
   What were the difficulties, and did you have to use any other types of courage in this situation?
5. Intellectual Courage – if you have read this far in this book, I would suggest you have already displayed courage and now it is time to explore your intellectual courage. This type of courage is thought to be the courage we use when we are broadening our horizons, opening

our minds to new adventures, learning new concepts and later in the book theories of reflection which we can use as part of our intellectual courage as we begin to write our reflective accounts.

Now you have begun this courageous journey, just like the Cowardly Lion on the Yellow Brick Road, there will be many twists and turns and a few dead ends probably, along your path, but this is when you can stop and reflect. Stop and reflect upon how much further will it be and what do you need to take with on your journey to the Emerald City, or in acheiving your qualification.

Deeper Thinking

How has learning about the different types of courage impacted upon you as a professional?

How might you use these types of courage within your reflective and professional journey?

Have you identified any areas of development from reading this section, if so, what action do you feel you need to take and what support do you need?

Final Reflection

Take some time to reflect and consider the impact this theme may have had upon you and note any questions you may wish to raise with your mentor, your tutor or any thoughts you have as to how you can capture elements of this theme within your reflective accounts.

Theme 1b – Be More...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface: Falling Down a Rabbit Hole
• Introduction
• 1 Being Me
• 2 Spreading Your Wings: Reflective Writing
• 3 Ponder and Pause a While in the Gallery of Theorists
• 4 Belonging and Thriving
• References
• Adjectives to Support the Reflective Activities