1) Critically explore the developing professional in relation to self-evaluation.

Professional development profiling. 

Learning outcomes.

These need to be covered to pass. 

1) Critically explore the developing professional in relation to self-evaluation. 

2) Critically analyse and evaluate significant areas of professional development. 

3) Develop, implement and critically evaluate a self-evaluative strategy recognising professional success and future directions. 

4) Critically evaluate a range of reflective models to inform the students reflective process.

Writing guidance.

Introduction. 200 words.

• The value of understanding self.
• Understanding of professionalism V being a professional.
• The link between reflection and the development of reflective practices in order to improve professionalism.
• Understanding of what professional practice is.

Part one of critical analysis. Critically evaluate a range of reflective models to inform the students reflective process. 600 words.

• Analysis of models (more than one!) in relation to this analysis build your own model that is relevant to you – part two.
• Mention why some are not applicable to the serious physical incidents which occur in my setting.
• Use other theorists’ critiques of reflection models in order to build own.

Part two of critical analysis. 3)Develop, implement and critically evaluate a self-evaluative strategy recognising professional success and future directions. 600 words.

Create a model which is relevant to special educational needs and serious physical incidents.

o          Create your own reflective model.

o          Justify your selection of a critical incident to use with your reflective model you have created (I have chosen a serious physical incident as these are the ones that normally occur within my setting and these are the ones I always think back to)

o          Go through your model you have created, section by section and demonstrate the relevance to an analysis of practice.

o          Evaluate its use.

Conclusion. 100 words.

• Summary of reflection of your learning and how this will help you in moving forward.

Information on myself and critical incident that will be used.

I am a teaching assistant working in a special needs primary school. I work with years 5 and 6 children who have a range of needs, some of which exhibit extremely challenging behaviour. Most things I reflect on within my role are normally serious incidents which involve physical aggression towards staff or other pupils.

My critical incident. (put this in appendix and make reference to it if it takes up too much of word count)

I took my class and another class of pupils, total of 20 pupils and a total of 8 adults, on a trip to the local supermarket. While paying for their items one child said something to another child which upset them, the child kicked the till in anger but then seemed ok after this. When getting back on to the bus to return to school the child who had previously kicked the till wanted to sit in the front of the bus (which is allowed) but another teacher asked them to sit in the back as that was not where they sat on the way to the supermarket. The child refused to leave the seat and the teacher instructing them to sit in the back did not let the bus go until the child had moved. The child seem to appear more and more frustrated with the teachers instruction and became very upset and withdrawn, saying “I just want to go back to school for lunch” the teacher replied by saying “we are not going anywhere until you have moved”. At this point the child swore at the teacher, took off their seatbelt and got off the bus, the child then said, “I’m going home” and started to walk away from the bus. I began to follow the child asking them to stop so they could stay safe, the child refused and continued to walk away from the supermarket. I continued to ask the child to stop, telling them I would need to hold on to them if they did not stop as they would be putting themselves in danger as they were getting closer to the road. The child did not stop, and I had to use a restraint in order to keep the child safe. During the restraint the child continued to try and get away and became very physical toward staff that came near and myself carrying out the restraint. I had to hold the child for about 15 minutes until the senior leadership team arrived to support as the other staff with me were not trained nor had experienced this kind of behaviour before.

 

1)    Reflecting on the triggers of an incident is essential in order to learn from this incident and be able to eliminate triggers in the future. During the critical incident there were two triggers identified, firstly, the other child who said something to upset the child, was a trigger. Moving forward from this and when visiting the community again, the two children will be kept as separate as possible to stop this from happening again. The second trigger identified was the teacher who asked the child to move, I often use the term, “pick and choose your battles” and in this case I would of let the child sit in the front, there was no issue with this and looking back the child was actually as far away as possible from the child who triggered him first of all.

2)    Reflecting on behaviours exhibited is useful as this enables staff to be prepared for these if working with the child in future, for example, if the child pulled hair during the incident it would be wise for staff to tie back long hair when working with them. During this incident the child did show some very challenging behaviours these included, trying to abscond, kicking and swearing at staff.

3)    Ensuring staff know what did and didn’t go well is also key and enables staff to learn from reflection. Discovering what didn’t go well enables staff to ensure this does not happen again and enables them to use what did go well to, possible to stop triggers escalating to behaviours. What didn’t go well during this, was the teacher who asked the child to move, again going back to triggers. It is evident that if the child is on the bus it does not matter where they are sat but that they are on the bus and safe and not trying to run away. Also, during the restraint, several adults got too close and were kicked, if this was to happen again staff should stand back and not try to intervene.

4)    It is vital to ensure all this information gathered is then utilised correctly. The triggers and behaviours witnessed can be added on to the child behaviour management plan or if they do not have one, can be used to create one. The do and do nots can also be implemented into the child’s behaviour management plan. Since the incident all relevant information has been added to the child’s behaviour management plan.

5)    Furthering staff knowledge (which was recognised as a significant area for professional development) is a vital part of this reflection model. Using the critical incident, staff can acknowledge where they think they need to gain more knowledge to be able to put it into practice in the future. I feel that after this incident, I need to read more on how to remove specific triggers from situations and learn some de-escalation techniques for working with children who show challenging behaviours. This will enable myself to continue to further my knowledge on how to deal with serious incidents within my setting and to put what I have learnt into practice (if applicable). It is evident that other staff need more training for situations like these.

6)    Plan of action. Since this incident the child has not been allowed out into the community for any trips. There will be meetings put in place to discuss when the child can visit the community again. When the child can visit the community again, there will need to be a detailed plan of how the child will be managed in line with their behaviour management plan and what staff will do if an incident like this were to happen again.

 

In part one of this assignment I recognised ‘knowledge’ to be a significant part of professionalism.

  “Knowledge is another of the seven dimensions of professional practice recognised by Brock (2009,p.4) and again is crucial for any professional working within any special educational setting. Knowledge can be recognised in many definitions of professionalism and is said to be obtained through academic study in conjunction with or followed by practical knowledge. Many theorists such as Eraut (1994), Hargreaves (2001), Goodson and Numan (2002) as cited in Brock (2009,p.9) acknowledge that academic study and practical knowledge need to be intertwined and Moyles et al. (2002) cited in Brock (2009,p.9) declares importance for the two”.

“In relation to self-evaluation, I believe that knowledge needs to be a continuing part of anyone’s development who works within a special educational needs setting as it is forever changing, and there will always be a new child with new needs or new theories of how to work with specific needs. I believe that some academic knowledge of special educational needs is a necessity before people start within a setting but on the job knowledge and learning through experiences are also vital. My knowledge of special educational is always growing and improving as I continue to work in the occupation”. (piece of writing from part 1 of assignment)

If this could be implemented somehow into the model of reflection created that would be great! I found a useful piece of writing that may be of use to reference this in.

Developing and changing practice in special educational needs through critically reflective action research: a case study by Lyoyd, Christene.

Reading material. Around 15 references is sufficient for this assignment.

Reflecting on ‘Reflective practice’ By: Linda Finlay, Phd, BA(Hons), DipCOT

Knowing and/or experiencing: a critical examination of the reflective models of John Dewey and Donald Schön Cristyne Hébert

Technical rationality in Schön’s reflective practice: dichotomous or non-dualistic epistemological position Elizabeth Anne  Kinsella

Behind and beyond Kolbs learning cycle. Russ Vince

Appleby, Karen and Andrews, Mandy Reflective practice is the key to quality improvement

Professional knowledge and the epistemology of reflective practicenup_428  3..14Elizabeth Anne Kinsella

Developing critically reflective practiceNeil Thompson a & Jan Pascal

Possible design for model of reflection. (created by myself)