(EYLF) Critical reflection and ongoing professional learning

Educators continually seek ways to build their professional knowledge and skills and develop learning communities. They are co-learners with children, families and community, and value the continuity and richness of local knowledge shared by community members, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders. Reflection and critical reflection are 2 terms that are often used interchangeably but are different practices. 

Reflection involves educators thinking intentionally about their own and others’ practices, with certain aims or goals in mind. Critical reflection is a meaning-making process that involves a deeper level of thinking and evaluation. It requires engagement with diverse perspectives such as philosophy, theory, ethics and practice and then evaluating these in context, leading to pedagogical decisions and actions that are transformative. As professionals, educators collaboratively explore, identify and evaluate diverse perspectives with respect to their own settings and contexts. In this way, critical reflection informs future practice in ways that demonstrate an understanding of each child’s learning, development and wellbeing, and have implications for equity and social justice. 

In practice, educators can frame their critical reflection within a set of overarching questions, developing more specific questions for areas of inquiry. Overarching questions to guide critical reflection might include: 

• What is our understanding of each child, their culture and context? 
• What questions do we have about our work? What are we challenged by? What are we curious about? What are we confronted by in relation to our own biases? 
• What theories, philosophies and understandings shape and assist our work? 
• In what ways – if any – are the theories, knowledges and world views that we usually draw on to make sense of what we do limiting our practice? 
• What other theories or knowledge and world views could help us make sense of what we have observed or experienced? What are they? How might those theories and that knowledge affect our practice? 
• Who is advantaged/included when we work in this way? Who is disadvantaged, excluded or silenced? 

A robust culture of critical reflection is established when educators as a team, as well as children and families, are all involved in an ongoing cycle of review. Current practices are examined, outcomes of those practices evaluated, new ideas generated, tried and tested. This approach supports educators to question established practices and to think about why they are working in particular ways. In such a climate, there is opportunity to engage in deep thinking about pedagogy, equity and children’s wellbeing. Educators who are critically reflective are also committed to their own ongoing professional learning and development, actively seeking out opportunities that develop capabilities, as well as collaborating with their colleagues on aspects of practice in the early childhood setting. 

As professionals, educators are committed to lifelong learning and seek out opportunities to strengthen their professional knowledge and skills to support continuous quality improvement in practice. Working in collaboration with colleagues, they identify and negotiate learning priorities, reflect on how they learn best, and look for evidence-informed learning experiences that support deep learning, critical reflection and practice change. Educators recognise that ongoing learning can take many forms. This may include professional learning experiences within settings, for example, professional conversations within teams, coaching and mentoring, professional reading, practitioner inquiry and participating in collaborative research projects. It may also include learning opportunities offered by others, for example, pursuing further study, attending professional conferences and completing professional learning programs. Within early childhood settings, team members share new knowledge and skills gained through professional learning experiences and encourage and support the ongoing learning of others.