Table of activities

1. Study topic 18 Table of Activities from Book 3
Study Activity Page Activity Activity Time
Topic Number Ref Type Taken
The reflective practitioner
ST18 1 132 Reflection 20
Allow about 20 minutes and minutes
Notebook
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?
Reflecting in and on action
ST18 2 134 Reflection 40
Allow about 40 minutes and minutes
Notebook
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?
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2. Your community of practice
ST18 3 137 Reflection, 60
Allow about 1 hour Reader, minutes
and
Involvement in a community of practice has both explicit (visible) and tacit (invisible) aspects. Explicit Notebook
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.
Multi-agency working
ST18 4 140 Reflection 40
Allow about 40 minutes and minutes
Notebook
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.
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3. The effective early years leader
ST18 5 143 Reflection 60
Allow about 1 hour and minutes
Notebook
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
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4. 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?
Evidence and democratic reflective practice
ST18 6 147 AV and 30
Allow about 30 minutes Notebook 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?
Your developing practice
ST18 7 148 Reflection 60
Allow about 1 hour and minutes
Notebook
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.
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5. Your leadership and development
ST18 8 150 Reflection At least 2
Allow at least 2 hours and hours
Notebook
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
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6. 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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