Theory into Practice

Provocation: Documentation is a fundamental tool for the learning of the adults and the children.

Our project is focussed not only on how we engage with children and families, but how we think, design and reflect on our professional engagement with our work as educators.

Pockets of promising practice have existed within teacher teams; our challenge was how to leverage these practices whole school. Toward this end we designed and facilitated professional development to strategically improve educators’ reflective practices through greater intentionality and increased collaboration.

In leading the learning we nudge and stretch educators in their thinking. This involves processes and structures that engage educators in reflective practices:

• provocations,
• professional reading,
• dialogic encounters,
• shared professional development,
• time for collaborative engagement,
• a focus on continuity of learning,
• intentional planning,
• high expectations,
• researching children’s learning processes,
• collegiate engagement,
• educator inquiry,
• practice checks,
• observations,
• use of documentation.

The most significant strategy has been supporting educators to consider the evidence of the impact of their chosen strategies by reviewing their documentation of children’s learning.

This approach to our work has increased the collective efficacy within our site for our children’s learning.

There is an importance in reflecting upon documentation alongside a commitment to action. Educators design and implement effective strategies whilst documenting children’s learning and engagement in order to reflect upon their impact and then intentionally stretch children in their learning.

Time dedicated to the processes used with educators has created space for teachers to engage in deep thinking and collaborative planning for children’s learning.

Documentation of children’s engagement in learning and the evidence of the learning processes provides the basis for the reflective practices of educators. Thus supporting a whole school focus on improving children’s literacy learning specific to meaning making.