Fall Staff Development Day

By Nancy Verdtzabella, Teacher

This past fall, Bing Nursery School teachers spent a day discussing and practicing ways to study their own teaching methods. The technique, called reflective practice, was the focus of the Fall 2010 Staff Development Day.

Beverley Hartman led the program, inspired by last summer’s explorations on this same topic at the inaugural sessions of the Bing Institute. Hartman is the director of the institute, which offers training to early childhood educators.

At the fall development day, Hartman encouraged the teachers to work in small groups and to focus on the display boards in Bing’s classrooms. The primary objective was twofold. On one hand, teachers would better understand the issues affecting the display boards’ use. On the other hand, as they discussed the displays, teachers would learn to apply reflective practice concepts.

Hartman outlined seven key types of inquiries for reflecting on practice:

• What is currently being done?

• Why is this being done?

• What are different ways of looking at an issue?

• What details and information are not obvious?

• What are each person’s assumptions?

• What is another way to think about the subject/situation at hand?

• Why might one hold on to a specific idea, or resist change?

These questions helped individuals to create transparency about their own thinking as well as recognizing other perspectives that may be at work amongst the teaching teams.

Throughout the day, staff applied these questions toward improving their thinking and communication, which helped to create a climate for open and engaging conversation. Not only did these reflective practice exercises encourage the teachers to find inspiration for exploring the intent of their display boards, it also gave them first-hand experience in the art of reflective practice, which is a valuable tool to guide educators in examining their teaching methods and intentions on a regular basis.