Critical Reflection in ECE after Integrating Digital Technology

Having a reflective practice in early childhood education is important if you want to ensure that are being responsive to a child’s learning needs in relation to technological skills, capabilities, knowledge and interests. As an educator, you would need to engage with questions of philosophy, ethics and practice with the intention to gather information and to gain insight that will support, inform and enrich your decision-making.

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Why is Critical Reflection important in Early Childhood?

Critical reflection in early childhood education is just as significant as it is in primary education and other sectors of education. As the EYLF emphasise “it involves closely examining all aspects of events and experiences from different perspectives”. From this perspective, you should be able to frame your reflective practice with a set of more specific questions.

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It also makes up one of the five key principles that reflect contemporary theories and research evidence concerning children’s learning and early childhood pedagogy. This principle along with the others in the EYLF underpin early childhood practice so that all young children are supported and progress through their early learning outcomes.

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Additionally, early childhood teachers working within the EYLF need to submit critical reflections on the use of, teaching decisions and pedagogies, and purpose of ICT in early childhood learning environments as evidence of teacher practice at both the Proficient and Highly Accomplished level where they are expected to lead critical reflection with colleagues.

What is Critical Reflection in Early Childhood?

The NQS (National Quality Standard – ACECQA) state that to be confident educator in critical reflection is the ability to understand how it differs from evaluating, summarising and recording what you see and do.

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For example:

In relation to ‘looking in detail and creatively’, you would:

• Think about your teaching practice and program decisions.
• Explore multiple perspectives.
• Make the links between theory and practice clear.
• Make purposeful changes to practice to improve children’s early learning outcomes.

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Reflective questions for early childhood educators would involve key questions such as:

• What do we know about this child?
• Why did we make the decision/respond the way we did?
• Were we guided by our philosophy and theories about how children learn (with a focus on equity, inclusion and diversity)?
• How did we feel about the decision?
• What went well?
• What didn’t go well?
• Should we continue, improve or change the decision/practice?

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Other reflective practice questions for early childhood educators that would explore ‘feelings’ would include:

• What were my feelings when it happened?
• Why did I feel that way?
• How can I use these feelings to motivate change for myself, the team, and the service?

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Critical reflection in early childhood education can therefore be used as tool for professional and personal growth especially when questions are asked such as:

• Can I share my critical reflections at a team meeting?
• Can I develop ideas for improvement?
• Can I implement a change and what will it look like?

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The NQS also recognises that critical reflection is about:

• A process that usually takes place after the decision/ practice, etc., has occurred.
• Done individually or in a group, such as with educators, children, families, or other professionals. A group setting gives us other perspectives.
• Used to enhance our professional practice, identify improvements, and inform the decisions we make.
• Used to strengthen our program, providing ongoing quality experiences for our children, with a particular focus on equity, inclusion and diversity.
• A continuous process of engagement.
• Done in daily diaries, reflective journals, meetings and reflection sessions.

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How often do early childhood teachers have to ‘critically’ reflect?

The process of critical reflection in early childhood education is an ongoing process and there are no set rules how often you should set aside time to document your reflections.

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?How to Practice Critical Reflection?

One way that you can practice critical reflection in early childhood education is to engage in collaborative reflective practices. This is a good way to promote change as learning together can make it easier to experiment with new ideas and ways of teaching and learning with ICT in early childhood learning activities.

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Collaborative practices also help to motivate you in making positive changes in children’s learning. Having a critical friend can:

• Inspire you.
• Challenge you.
• Support you.
• And lend an ear and offer friendship when the process becomes too overwhelming.

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Another way is to also develop a Learning Journal that will reflect your beliefs and practices about children’s learning with ICT in early childhood learning environments.

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You could also develop a philosophy statement with your own team that will address questions like ‘What do we believe’ or ‘Why do we hold such beliefs’ and ‘How can we transform these beliefs into practice’.

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Steps for Critical Reflection in ECE

As a guide to start your critical reflection process, the EYLF outlines as according to Aussie Childcare Network , the following:

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Identify a concern

The first step is to choose an issue for critical reflection – this can happen in a formal setting like a weekly staff meeting or informally over lunch break when perhaps some educators begin discussing the challenge of conducting group time for children and how most seem unwilling to join. With educators generally agreeing that none of them are happy with the way group time seems to be working, you have an issue suitable for critical reflective practice.

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Gather information

The next step is to collect evidence on what is currently happening and look for patterns. In the above example, staff may decide to use different ways to collect the information about children’s participation in group time, like taking observations and photographs of the children at five-minute intervals to see where the children were positioned and how they were participating, as well as asking children questions about what they understood group-time to be.

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Once information is collected, it is time to analyse the data and reflect upon what the information is telling you. For example, in the above instance, educators may find that though a small group of children appeared to be highly engaged in the group times, a relatively large number of children remained disinterested and some even complained of it being too teacher-driven

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Frame a question to be explored

Once you have identified what is not working, ask how might the situation be improved. So in the above example, a question framed by educators might be, “How can we rethink group time to make it more meaningful to the children?”

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Decide upon action

This is mainly focused on ways to change a practice that is no longer working for example, in this instance, the staff may decide to?offer ‘workshops’ around music, stories, puppetry, and gardening to children instead of group time so that it would be both be focused on the child’s interest and involve hands-on activities.

Let children could choose between group time and the workshop, thereby giving them more agency and reducing the chances of non-compliance.

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Evaluate the change

This is when educators would examine whether the new practices have addressed the issue first identified. Thus in the example, the staff would collect another round of observations and photographs, and then get back to discuss whether they revealed any changes, for example, children who had previously struggled with group time may now appear to have fun in the workshops. On the other hand, if evidence shows children still disengaged from the activities, educators may have to return to the evidence with a fresh set of eyes to identify patterns they may have missed out on earlier – like higher chances of task refusal in the late afternoon than mid-morning, based upon which a different framing question would have to be drawn up and action is taken.

Critical Reflection as Part of Technology Integration and Digital Play-based Learning Professional Development to support Pedagogical change

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