Study topic 18 Table of Activities from Book 3

Study Topic

Activity Number

Page Ref

Activity Activity Type

Time Taken

ST18 1 132 The reflective practitioner

Allow about 20 minutes

Read through the questions below and make notes in your notebook in response to each, giving reasons for your responses. Read all the questions before starting to make notes.

What opportunities have you had to think about your own practice? Describe these and include both positive aspects of practice and any limitations.

How do you record these events or ‘conversations with yourself’ or with others? How is this information used?

Reflection and Notebook

20 minutes

ST18 2 134 Reflecting in and on action

Allow about 40 minutes

Select a recent surprise, a ‘blip’ that you have had in your work, which has caused you to consider or reflect on your routine practice. In your notebook note down what knowledge-in-action was challenged by this surprise and what understanding you gained from your reflection. How has this affected your practice?

Reflection and Notebook

40 minutes

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ST18 3 137 Your community of practice

Allow about 1 hour

Involvement in a community of practice has both explicit (visible) and tacit (invisible) aspects. Explicit aspects might include the curriculum framework with which a specific setting is working, and tacit aspects might include traditional ways of interpreting this in the setting. This activity invites you to consider ways in which you learn with and from your colleagues. First, think about the questions listed immediately below.

How has your practice been influenced by another practitioner?

When and how did this occur?

Did they share information at a meeting?

Did you learn from something that you saw in your own setting or when you visited another setting; or from something that was explained as an aspect of practice at a training event or which you read about in a magazine or book, or saw relating to practice on a video or the Web? And which you then used?

To what extent did what you read, see or discuss emphasise your own view of the way in which children and/or families should be supported in their learning? This is seeing in others your own principles, policy and practices.

What principles, shared policy and practices have you recognised in others that might differ from your own?

If, as we suspect, you have engaged with others and have therefore started to consider a shared view of practice, now try to answer the following questions.

How does belonging to a shared ‘community of practice’ help you to reflect on and improve practice?

What do you see as barriers to or challenges involved in developing a community of practice in your early years setting or, if you work alone, as part of a network of similarly minded professionals?

Now turn to Reader 2, Chapter 24, ‘Creating contexts for professional development’ by Angela Anning and Anne Edwards. As you read, reflect on similarities and differences between Anning and Edwards’ experience of multi-agency working and your own experiences as detailed in your responses to the questions above.

Reflection, Reader, and Notebook

60 minutes

ST18 4 140 Multi-agency working

Allow about 40 minutes

Draw a diagram with your setting at the centre and with lines moving outwards to show which agencies and other settings you have contact with. If you work at a children’s centre, we suggest you list those agencies that have contact with the part of the centre you are most familiar with.

Look at your diagram. Use this as the basis to consider which of the NFER approaches given above best fits your own situation. Try to identify why this is the case.

Reflection and Notebook

40 minutes

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ST18 5 143 The effective early years leader

Allow about 1 hour

Look again at the qualities of a leader provided in the statements (below, and on page 142 of Book 3).

Become well versed in working practices seen as determining success in early years settings

Clear knowledge of strengths and weaknesses of self and colleagues; understand roles, responsibilities and expectations of each other

Develop understanding about professional heritages of teams you operate in; understand training/practices of other professionals

Effectively transfer information about children and families

Engage in partnership working; promote links between the settings a child attends

Engage in and develop ‘joint training’ initiatives between professionals in and beyond setting; take time to share views, opinions and expertise

Be aware of expertise and strengths in professional teams and services; facilitate ways of allowing team members to share expertise

Provide strong leadership and good systems of information to parents, colleagues and inspection services

Recruit people who are willing to work as a team and share a positive view of working with parents

Provide simple, clear policies that underpin and value children and families

Spend less time formulating policies and more time ‘doing’; evaluate, refine, change and update policies in practice

Take initiative and innovate; encourage colleagues to do the same

Coordinate children’s services in and beyond setting for maximum impact for children and families

Agree standardised procedures as far as possible, recognising differing professional procedures

Translate languages used by distinct professions into language understood by all

Lead by example

Admit mistakes

Offer clear leadership vision; for example, promoting a shared view of partnership working with parents

Maintain ongoing evaluation of curriculum framework, where appropriate using local quality assurance procedures

Find ways to reflect on practice, also encouraging colleagues and parents to do so

Celebrate achievement; value professional development

Recognise responding to change is a predictable ‘given’ and may be one of the very few

Reflection and Notebook

60 minutes

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continuous elements of one’

(Reed, 2008)

You may want to photocopy the statements and cut out each one so that you are able to look at them separately. Then make notes on the following questions.

Which of these qualities do you possess?

Which statements reflect your values and beliefs?

Which statements are about carrying out roles and responsibilities and which are about demonstrating leadership qualities?

What other qualities would you add?

ST18 6 147 Evidence and democratic reflective practice

Allow about 30 minutes

Watch the video sequence ‘Worms and treasure’, which focuses on staff and children at Wall Hall Nursery in Aldenham, Hertfordshire. You will see Yvette Ayres, who works part time at the nursery, and also Cindy Willey, the head teacher of the nursery, engaged in planning, supporting and evaluating children’s learning, around the schema of ‘enveloping.’ In particular, you will see Yvette reflecting, using a video diary, on the learning of a group of children in the nursery garden.

As you watch, make notes on the following questions.

What kinds of evidence has Yvette has collected?

What does each kind of evidence tell us (e.g. about the children’s learning)?

What do you learn from the video sequence overall about how Yvette and Cindy work together, and what is your evidence for this?

AV and Notebook

30 minutes

ST18 7 148 Your developing practice

Allow about 1 hour

Look at the planning chart in Appendix B (in Book 3), which contains a series of statements about promoting effective learning across all the curriculum frameworks in the UK. Try to identify examples of what you have done in the workplace, which illustrate the strategies for effective learning listed in the left-hand column. Add your responses to columns 2, 3 and 4. The idea is to make visible ways in which your own practice can be observed and extended. To help you, Appendix C gives an example of a part-completed planning chart. You may need to photocopy and enlarge the chart or you could use the electronic copy provided on the E100 website.

Reflection and Notebook

60 minutes

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ST18 8 150 Your leadership and development

Allow at least 2 hours

This activity will help you prepare for the ECA by providing evidence for discussing and reviewing practice and aspirations. Please read through all the guidance for this activity before you start.

To begin to identify some short-, medium-and long-term goals for your professional development, use the list above to consider:

• evidence of how the course (or your own learning) has refined, changed or extended your knowledge and understanding, or practice, of at least one of the aspects listed

• whether there is one aspect on which you might need to do more in order to extend and refine your knowledge of it or put it into practice. (If you feel comfortable considering more than one aspect, then do so, and of course we recognise that some may overlap and extend into other areas of practice.)

Refer to the subsection on ‘The nature of evidence for knowledge-in-action’ in Section 3 of this study topic to help you decide what you will choose to draw on or use as evidence. We recognise that you may reflect on your personal development in relation to this task. For example, you may be more confident, capable or concerned after completing a study topic. You may have completed academic assignments that have given you the confidence to feel that university-level study is for you. You may feel that you have a more insightful view of why it is important to support parents, and feel more confident in doing so. Again, we recognise that personal perspectives such as these may also influence your longer-term professional and personal aims.

If it is practicable, ask a colleague or someone who knows your work well to evaluate what you have highlighted. Discuss with them how you could develop further any area that you – or they – feel could be improved on. Consider how you would go about achieving this. Consider also how your plans fit into the overall aims and targets for your setting.

The following questions may help your views and professional plans take shape.

Has the task prompted you to design, change or refine any of your short-, medium-or long-

term professional goals? If so, which goals in particular?

How do these fit in with the plans and targets for your setting?

What is the timescale involved?

How will you find the information you need if your plans involve resources, training courses,

gaining finance to study, asking for time off to visit another setting, or buying books?

What costs will be involved?

How will you meet these?

What support, if any, is available to you? (Local authority or early years associations, for

Reflection and Notebook

At least 2 hours

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example.)

What steps will you need to take to put this plan into action?

How will you balance your professional goals with life and family goals?

Copy Table 1 (see page 151 of Book 3) onto a large sheet of paper or download the electronic copy from the course website. Then follow the instructions below.

Short-terms goals

In column 1 identify one or more short-term goals. You may have already thought about these and know what they are. In column 2 make brief notes on how you would go about achieving the goal(s) you have identified.

Medium-term goals

Now do the same for your medium-term goals. From your work on the first part of this activity you should be able to identify those goals that will take longer than a few months to achieve and which will therefore become your medium-term goals. Add these to your chart and note down how you might achieve them.

Long-term goals

Having identified those areas that you want to develop further in the short and medium term, now repeat the exercise for your long-term goals.

When you have completed this activity, if practicable ask a colleague, or someone who knows your work well, to again look at the goals you have identified. If you are unable to do this with a colleague, try asking a friend. Do they agree that these goals are appropriate for you? Discuss with them your ideas for how you could achieve them.

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