There are many models of reflection out there. It can feel overwhelming when you do a course on reflective practice in the early years or read a book about it because often a number of different models are put forward and explained. Adopting one, simple model of reflection and actually doing it, is more important than understanding lots of theories of reflection but never actually practising them.
A simple process of reflection involves three stages:
- Description
- Analysis
- Evaluation
First, we describe the situation we find ourselves in, including the feelings that it provokes in us. Second, we analyse why we have the feelings that we have about this situation. Third, we evaluate what’s working about the situation and what’s not, and we open up the possibility for alternatives.
Practically, it is helpful to use questions to prompt your reflection in line with these three stages. This is particularly important when you’re just starting out with reflection and you’re not used to distinguishing between description, analysis and evaluation. You can use the following prompt questions if you find them helpful:
Description:
- What happened?
- Who was involved?
- When and where did it happen?
- How did I feel during the situation?
- How did I feel immediately after the situation and how do I feel now?
- What do I know about others’ feelings about the situations?
Analysis:
- Why did things play out the way they did?
- What are the reasons for this situation occurring?
- What do I know about underlying causes but also, what don’t I know?
- What explains my behaviour in the situation?
- What explains others’ behaviour in the situation?
- Why did I feel the way I did?
- Why do I feel the way I feel now?
- What do I know about the reasons for others’ feelings in this situation?
Evaluation:
- What do my feelings tell me about what went well or what’s working?
- What do my feelings tell me about what didn’t go so well, or what’s not working?
- What do I need to find out more about in order to understand this situation better?
- What do I need to know in order to be clear about a good way forward?
- I wonder what would happen if…
Here’s an example reflection from a baby room leader using the description, analysis and evaluation approach.
Sonia’s reflection: Babies’ mealtimes
Description
Recently, we made a shift as a baby room to more independence at mealtimes. This change was something that the nursery manager wanted to do rather than it coming from the team. The nursery manager ordered new chairs for the babies, instead of the high chairs we were used to. With these new chairs, the babies were free to come and go at mealtimes. While this is a nice idea, it has been a bit of a nightmare to actually make this change happen. There is a lot of stress and panic among the baby room staff – myself included – who feel out of control. At the moment, we’re just about keeping it together and laughing about the situation and how chaotic the lunchtime feels. But I can feel that bubbling underneath that, there is a lot of stress that will spin out of control soon.
Analysis
I know that management wanted to bring about this change because they’re passionate about children’s rights and finding ways to apply rights-based practice in the baby room. They felt that making some shifts at mealtime to allow more independence would be a ‘quick win’ in this direction. I realise that there are two layers to what I’m feeling about this situation. On the one hand, I’m genuinely stressed about the changes in practice around mealtime and the feeling of chaos and fatigue among the team. But on the second layer, I’m quite upset and angry about this change just being imposed on us – the idea that such a major change for us could ever be just a ‘quick win’ feels completely misguided and like we haven’t been properly consulted about the best way forward. Aren’t we the ones who work with the babies every single day? Wouldn’t it be us that knows about how to support them through their mealtimes? It annoys me that the nursery manager often does this – hears about a ‘great’ idea and then makes it happen for us, rather than finding out more about how it will work in practice and what it will mean for us day to day.
Evaluation
We might have come up with a plan for more gradual change if we’d been consulted. It’s not that we’re anti-independence or anything; I can also see the benefits of babies feeling more independent and in control! But the way the change happened doesn’t feel right and I can’t see it panning out well. I wonder what would happen if we had the chance to pilot the change with a smaller group of babies and pay more attention to what is happening. I wonder how the team would feel if there was more openness about the change – if we didn’t just feel we had to like it or lump it, but rather that it was a genuine experiment and exploration that we could find out about together. I wonder what would happen if we felt empowered as a team to look into more about rights-based practice in the baby room and how that might feel for us and what it might look like, so that rather than taking something as a package from someone else, we’re developing something that feels authentic to us. I wonder how management would feel if we were to take this suggestion back to them – if we were to ask for that openness, and to be brought on board.