Step Back and Pull It Together:

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Step Back and Pull It Together

• Reflective Practice at All Program Levels

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• Christopher Watson, Ph.D.
• University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
• watso012_at_umn.edu
• Shelley Neilsen-Gatti, PhD.
• University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis
• slneilsengat_at_stthomas.edu

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Teaching in the REAL world
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Scenario

• Char, one of your teachers, has asked you to
  observe a child who is struggling in her
  classroom and she doesnt know what to do with
  him You have been in to observe Chars classroom
  twice and each time she gets a funny look on her
  face and seems very nervous.. One issue youve
  noticed is that the transition routines are
  unpredictable, chaotic, and drawn out. Not only
  is this particular child struggling, but also
  several children. Youve scheduled a meeting
  with her to discuss your observations.
• In pairs, practice having a conversation about
  this, with one person acting as Char and the
  other as a mentor.
• Take about 2 minutes for this activity.

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Follow-up Discussion

• Quick silent reflection jot down on a piece of
  paper
• How do you think this conversation went?
• Do you think Char will change the transitions
• As Char, how did this help you?
• How did the interaction feel to you?

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Roadmap for this Session

• Definitions of Reflective Practice
• Philosophy and skills associated with reflective
  practice
• What does reflective practice look like?
• Practice
• Finding a way to implement reflective practice

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Analyzing Behavior Change

• Change can be difficult for adults.
• Teachers sometimes think they are implementing
  strategies successfully when in fact they arent
• Feedback from others and reflection can lead to
  change

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To Grow Professionally Teachers Need

• Subject knowledge
• Data
• Strategies
• Support

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Support

• Resources (materials, colleagues, the Internet)
• Mentoring
• Technical Assistance
• Consultation
• Coaching
• and
• Supervisionadministrative and reflective

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Philosophy of Relationship-based Work Heart and
the Mind

• All learning takes place through relationships -
  adults learn through relationships, as children
  do.
• Paying attention to the quality of those
  relationships is central to effective
  professional development
• Reflective practice can be a powerful way to
  provide experiences that change the way we think
  about ourselves and others

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Purpose of Reflective Practice

• Think differently so we can act differently
• Allow us to apply knowledge and skills integrate
  in a meaningful way new knowledge and strategies

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Directive vs. Reflective Supervision

• Reflective
• Facilitates introspection via non-directive
  analysis examining ones own actions and
  interactions
• An interactive process of observation, reflection
  and action
• Internally generated solutions - the possibility
  of reaching a better solution than any of the
  original solutions
• Fosters the ability to self-assess and generalize
  effective actions to other situations

• Directive
• Expert model sets up and maintains unequal
  power without exploring interactions intentions
• A one-way interchange between one with knowledge
  and skills and other
• Externally generated solutions
• The same solutions are applied in each similar
  situation

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Reflective Practice in Education

• Dewey (1933)
• a way to grow professionally
• open mindedness, whole-heartedness
• responsibility

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Reflective Supervision in the Field of Infant
Mental Health

• Selma Fraiberg (1970s) clinician who wanted to
  better understand the role that a babys
  relationships with important others played in
  healthy development
• Schon (1983) and Bowman (1989) importance of
  self-reflection as a key element of
  professionalism/effective practice
• Killion Todnem (1991) reflection for action
• Bertacchi Coplon (1989) professional use of
  self

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Reflective Practice/Reflective Supervision

• recognizes the importance of relationships in
  our work
• lasting behavioral change is caused by internal
  change, which in turn requires intersubjective
  experiencethat is, a change of both heart and
  mind that requires the presence of another
  person.
• (Schafer, 2007)

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• Reflective practice is never solitary
• it is always shared.

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Reflective Supervision

• Attention to the lived experience of others
• The supervisory relationship as a safe holding
  environment where supervisors recognize the
  supervisees accomplishments, accept and partner
  to overcome shortcomings, and support and share
  in the work of the supervisee
• (Gilkerson Ritzler, 2005 Gilkerson
  Shamon-Shanok, 2000
• Heffron, 2005 Heffron, Ivins Weston, 2005)

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Parallel Process

• As a result of being heard by the supervisor,
  the supervisee can better listen to families and
  be curious about and discover the things that are
  important and meaningful to them about their
  child and themselves
• (Heffron, Ivins Weston, 2005)

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• How you are is as important as what you do
  (Pawl St. John, 1998)

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Externalizing the Internal

• During reflective supervision you articulate the
  unspoken thoughts/reactions/feelings that you
  experience while interacting with children,
  families and colleagues.

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Professional Use of Self

• Sensing and knowing how we are reacting while we
  are teaching/intervening/talking with a child,
  parent, or colleague to inform ourselves about
  the other person and/or our relationship with
  them (anxiety? fear? irritation? resistance?
  hostility? defensiveness?)
• Trying to figure out what we are reacting to
  (the environment? staff dynamics? a particular
  person?) (Siegel, 2006)

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Containing

• Ability to contain strong emotions while
  sorting them out
• Creating a safe holding environment (for
  ourselves, for children, for their families)
  where emotions can be expressed and explored

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Mindfulness Practice (related to Sphere of
Influence)

• What we can take responsibility forand what
  we cant.

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Kelly

• Kelly is a home-based service provider
• She provides services to Dominic, an 18-month old
  with developmental disabilities. Kellie has been
  working with Dominic for about six months and
  sees so much potential, but is worried about his
  lack of progress and follow-through at home.
• Here is an excerpt of her time with Dominic
• An unknown male answers the door and lets her in.
  
• The beer bottles piled up in the garbage can and
  the house smelling of stale beer and cigarettes
  indicates another party.
• Dominic is excited to see her and waddles over
  with a big smile. He immediately grabs for the
  bag of toys.
• In addition to Dominic, Stephanie, the 20-year
  old mother, has a 4-year old son and a 7-month
  old daughter.
• This is the third address in 6 months
• Kellys plan with Dominic is to practice working
  on sorting common objects, model for Stephanie
  how to engage Dominic with games, songs, and
  books and show her how to encourage Dominic to
  use words and gestures to request preferred
  items.
• 4-year old brother is aggressive towards Dominic
  and non-compliant with mom. Mom raises her voice
  a lot to respond to the older brother and
  sometimes this scares Dominic and he starts to
  cry.
• Kellys time goes by quickly and she doesnt get
  everything on her plan accomplished. As she
  packs up to leave, Dominic starts to cry as does
  the baby. The older brother screams, shut-up, I
  cant hear. Stephanie says, I dont know how
  much longer I can take this.

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Figure 1 The Anne Gearity Model
Mom feeling she cant make it much longer
Behavior problems of older brother Student not
making progress Mom not interacting Baby having
issues Feeling ineffective Frustration Guilt
Before Reflective Practice Group
Before Reflective Practice Group
After Reflective Practice Group
After Reflective Practice Group
Experiences are processed so you can use what you
know.
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What Does it Look Like?Six Characteristics of
Reflective Practice Dialogue

• Open body language
• Open-ended questions
• Wait Time
• Inviting and Containing
• Interpreting/validating feelings
• Asking a follow-up question

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Role Play

• Corey Geoff

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LookListenLearn

• Look(observe) what do you know about this
  supervisee?
• ListenWhat is her perspective? What emotions
  does she embody?
• LearnDevelop your best educated guess as to
  whats going on. Identify your goals for this
  interaction and what response from you would best
  support those goals. Modify if necessary. (
  Parlakian, 2001)

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Char

• Char, one of your teachers, has asked you to
  observe a child who is struggling in her
  classroom and she doesnt know what to do with
  him You have been in to observe Chars classroom
  twice and each time she gets a funny look on her
  face and seems very nervous. One issue youve
  noticed is that the transition routines are
  unpredictable, chaotic, and drawn out. Not only
  is this particular child struggling, but also
  several children. Youve scheduled a meeting
  with her to discuss your observations.
• In pairs, practice having another REFLECTIVE
  conversation about this, with one person acting
  as Char and the other as a mentor.
• Take about 5 minutes for this activity.

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Were Too Busy Solving the Logistics Problem

• Meet over lunch or breakfast
• Use the telephone
• Correspond via e-mail
• Exchange video materials followed by a telephone
  or e-mail discussion
• At group supervisory meetings, invite a few staff
  members to share their work

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Where weve been.

• Definitions of Reflective Practice
• Philosophy and skills associated with reflective
  practice
• What does reflective practice look like?
• Practice
• Finding a way to implement reflective practice

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•      
• By three methods we may learn wisdom first, by
  reflection, which is noblest second, by
  imitation, which is easiest and third, by
  experience, which is the most bitter.
• (Confucius, 551-479 BC)