@conference{
author = "Ševa, Nada and Đerić, Ivana and Čolaković, Dušica",
year = "2024",
abstract = "Reflective practice in learning communities is becoming increasingly important for Early
childhood care and education (ECCE) practitioners to continue their professional development.
This paper explores the professional change experienced by ECCE teachers and counsellors
while applying the Model of the Professional Learning Community (MoPLC), which promoted
reflective social practice. This program was organized into four stages: 1) two-day training on
implementation of MoPLC for ECCE practitioners; 2) six months of reflexive practice in
professional learning communities covering topics relevant to the development of curriculum
within the preschool institution (PI); 3) one-day professional meeting of PIs that started with
the implementation of MoPLC at the same time, focused on further analysis of practices and
the formulation of action plans; 4) implementation of action plans within each PI during the
six months. The main research questions were: 1) What changes do practitioners perceive in
reflective-social practice as a result of implementing the MoPLC? 2) Which professional
changes are considered the most significant and why? The participants were 22 practitioners
(6 ECCE counsellors) from five PIs that started implementing the new ECCE curriculum
“Years of Ascent” in 2019. We used the participatory technique, The most significant change
(MSC) stories, to enable the evaluation of changes in complex reform processes of professional
learning. Practitioners wrote stories six months after the implementation of the MoPLC in their
PIs (January-February 2023). Writing of the stories was prompted with several questions,
including what their most significant change was and why. To identify the most significant
changes, thematic analysis was conducted on 121 sentences from stories. Most participants
recognize differences in their reflective social practice due to implementing the MoPLC.
However, only 55% value this professional change as the most significant for strengthening
their practice. Unlike ECCE counsellors, a quarter of teachers had difficulty articulating
reflective insights regarding their practice, i.e., defining why the change is significant. This
might be related to differences in the levels of metacognitive competencies in teachers vs.
counsellors, which is crucial for critical reflection during professional learning. The question
of further improvement of the training programme within the MoPLC in developing
metacognitive competencies is raised.",
publisher = "Beograd : Filozofski fakultet",
journal = "XXX scientific conference: Empirical studies in psychology",
title = "Reflective practice in early childhood care and education learning communities: the most significant change stories",
pages = "119-119",
url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_ipir_1088"
}