Staff Tool 12 Questions to support reflection/reflective practice

Reflective practice is a term used to describe thinking about our interactions with children, our observations of their play and actively questioning our motives, actions, feelings or concerns.

Reflection can be undertaken in a variety of ways including:

•Individually – writing in a diary, notes or mind maps, thinking, reading • Group – team meetings, de-briefing, supervision with managers, peer support • Actively – reflecting while doing, cleaning, driving, running, acting things out.

It is important that, having actively questioned our practice, we take action and think about what we would change; what we would continue to do in the same way; and how we share our reflections with others. Reflective practice should be used to inform future practice, policies, assessment of risk and challenge and organisational approaches.

In working through a reflection, you may be thinking of a whole play session, an individual episode of play or a series of incidents; and you may want to think it through because the way children or adults dealt with matters went really well, was unusual or puzzling, could have been improved etc.

How did I/we intervene?

What was the response to the intervention?

What was the impact? (for the child or children, colleagues, others, the environment)

What can I/we learn from this?

What are the consequences for my/our future practice?