An often overlooked step in daily pedagogical reflection
In Notes on Complexity by Neil Theise, he identifies two important steps to filtering conclusions from our subjective experiences:
That the experience follows some pattern, repeats, and has a certain richness to it
That one shares their conclusion with a seasoned expert in your field/practice and see what emerges from that conversation
In the work of developing emergent curriculum and understanding children, I would reframe the above to:
That the observations follow a pattern and that there is a certain richness in the theory and experience that contextualize the observations
That one shares conclusions with colleagues, families, and children themselves to see what emerges in terms of comments, insights, and additional thoughts.
If you are an educator that is familiar with the process of reflecting on documentation, the first step is one one you may be more familiar with. However, the second step happens many times only once in a while, rather than on a daily basis. Maybe at monthly pedagogical meeting or by chance. But daily sharing of observations with a variety of people, including children, on a regular basis, is uncommon in my experience. And yet it offers so much in terms of deepening our practice and learning with our children.
An invitiation to consider for yourself is…
How does sharing your thinking on a regular basis with others affect your practice? How do you make this process visible over time?
