The Value of Self-Reflection for Early-Childhood Teachers

Dr. Cynthia DiCarlo:

I think really explaining the value of it to your teachers, that it’s just not a box to check. Kind of like we all have to do assessments in the classroom, and a lot of times people just kind of hurry up and go through it and don’t really understand how that’s supposed to be used. This is not something that you do and you check the box that you did it. What you are doing is it has to be a couple of things you have to buy into. Number one, the tool that you’re using. You have to understand the way that it was created, understand the benefits that it’s going to have for you, and really the benefits because the ultimate outcome is positive outcomes for young children. And so if there is a tool that is going to help you do something better so then children have a more positive outcome, the teacher has to first buy into that tool and then recognize her role.

The research is just unequivocal that the best thing to increase positive outcomes for young children is a highly skilled, highly qualified teacher. And so that’s who you want to be. You want to be that highly skilled, highly qualified teacher. And so when you promote the self-reflective piece as a vehicle of improving your practice, so you are doing the best that you can and making your time with young children better and more meaningful and increasing positive outcomes for young children, that’s really what needs to happen. It has to be the buy-in. I’ve been in the fields for a really long time and I’ve worked in community centers all across metropolitan areas, and I’ve seen teachers when I go in and maybe I used to do intervention for children with disabilities, and so I would go in and see a child once a week, and it was really, really difficult to get buy-in in those situations because I actually had someone tell me one time that she’s going to make the same amount of money whether she does what I tell her or not.

And that’s tough. And so fortunately for us, the people that we have at our lab are really very passionate and very driven, and that’s who you want when you’re interviewing people to work at your site or at your school. You want people who this is not just a job that this is a calling, a passion something, because when you’re invested, no matter what it is, no matter what the job is, you want to do really well. And so if you can sell the tool that you’re using to reflect and you can sell the video self-reflection as that vehicle to improve and you’ve hired the right people, then it all comes together beautifully.