Reflective practice in early childhood care and education learning communities: the most significant change stories

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.