Professional Development

While maintaining a strong focus on child and family evidence-based practice, you must continue to build on your knowledge and skills to contribute effectively to meeting the goals of your organisation and the children and families diverse needs.

Your need for training and skills development does not end when you finish your initial training; it continues throughout your career. You will continue to need to:

• Increase your knowledge
• Develop new skills and ways of working with children, families, and colleagues
• Remain up to date on new research, standards, and frameworks
• Apply theoretical knowledge to real-world applications
• Build and maintain professional networks and healthy relationships.

Self-development includes diverse activities, from professional reading to professional development plans and goal setting. It involves various approaches and ideas, all designed to help you improve and optimise your work performance.

Personal development is often considered alongside professional development. It is used by staff who seek to develop personally and achieve their goals. These staff are more motivated and engaged at work, have a better work-life balance and are more likely to sustain a long-term career in early childhood education and care and at their service.

Watch

Review this YouTube clip about the value of Continuous professional development by Developing People Globally (DPG)

Development Opportunities

Staff development topics can be based on a wide variety of areas to meet compliance needs and build staff skills that enhance workplace behaviours and practices.

Learning opportunities arise through training in areas such as:

• Orientation
• Policies and procedures
• Practice skills – reflection, behaviour support, inclusion, sustainable practices
• Soft skills – communication, problem-solving, leadership, conflict management
• Compliance and systems – industry regulations, record keeping, report writing, child protection and mandatory reporting
• Safety and first aid
• Teamwork and organisational culture.

Types of Learning and Development Options

Personal and professional development can be achieved using a wide variety of methods. It is ongoing and continually builds on skills and knowledge to keep you up to date with the sector. It aims to build employees' skills, provide reskilling, build knowledge, and enhance capacity and competency in their job. It also provides the opportunity to build skills towards promotional opportunities. Some areas, such as technology and sector trends, are constantly changing and evolving, and there is a need to keep pace with the changes. Employees will also feel valued and empowered; as a by-product, it will positively impact workforce retention.

Learning opportunities can be formal (structured) or informal (organic, experiential).

Formal

Formal learning opportunities are structured, intentional, systematic, instructor-led (or at least facilitator structured) and goal-oriented. They are often delivered in a structured environment, e.g., a classroom or designed online course. It is planned and developed on a schedule. Formal learning is also known as structured learning, as it is planned and designed in terms of how it will be delivered, tracked, and used by learners.

Formal learning includes:

• Classroom-based face-to-face courses
• Online eLearning module, webinars – self-paced or using web conferencing technology
• Workshops – case studies, scenarios, and role-plays
• Guest speakers to present on selected topics
• Lunch and learn sessions for short/quick sessions
• Organisation conference
• Town hall meeting - all-staff meeting to share information and take questions
• Community of practice – a group with a common concern coming together to share best practice and build new knowledge
• External seminars/conferences – including tutorials and focus groups
• Courses that lead to an accredited qualification.

The benefit of formal learning is that it provides controlled content to ensure that every learner is exposed to the same information. It allows for a topic to be delivered and repeated with the same objective for every audience. However, this is also a downfall for formal learning, as it assumes every participant requires the same information and is generally not tailored to meet individual needs. Contemporary formal learning is eLearning or online learning, where an instructional designer will build structured learning on an online platform (also known as a learning management system [LMS]).

Formal learning is most effective where there are benefits gained from group participation, for example, values-based learning or leadership development. It is also useful when there is a need for consistent content consumption, for example, compliance training such as workplace health and safety or industry regulations.

Informal

Informal learning is also known as incidental, experiential or experience-based learning. It can also be self-directed, organic, and self-paced learning and can occur naturally as part of carrying out a job and interacting with others.

Informal learning opportunities in a workplace include:

• Coaching
• Allocating Subject Matter Expert/champions as a specialist sources for information, advice and support on a particular topic
• Mentoring
• Buddying and on-to-job training
• Accidental/incidental/unintentional learning – organic learning, learning from mistakes
• Self-paced learning
• Participating in networks, forums and communities of practice (can be defined as semi-structured)
• Research on needed topics – books, articles, blogs, videos and podcasts.

The benefits of informal learning are that it meets the learners' immediate needs exactly when they need it. It is usually one-on-one or learner-driven research. The most cost-effective and most individualised training opportunity is on-the-job learning. This provides the employee with training while carrying out the job in the workplace, where the job naturally occurs. This is often done as part of models such as orientation and induction of new or promoted workers and trainees or apprentices.

Sector Networking and Professional Associations

One opportunity to participate in informal learning and professional development is networking using professional associations. Through these organisations, you can gain insight into sector best practice, the code of ethics and National Quality Framework guidelines, and many other topics that can benefit your professional development.

Using social media for information networking can provide access to other practitioners and organisations in your field and the opportunity to share information and knowledge about all topics related to professional practice.

Activity 2A

Networking

The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority website has valuable information, from laws, regulations, and standards to reports, articles and current research.

Go to ACECQA, research ACECQA's professional development opportunities and sign up for its newsletter. 'Like' their Facebook page or follow their Twitter feed for networking opportunities. Find and follow them on LinkedIn if you have an account.

Visit the Early Childhood Australia to learn about the organisation's upcoming opportunities for networking and professional learning.

Government departments also use social media to share information. Locate your state or territory government department's Twitter feed or Facebook page to find information relevant to your professional development. Record your findings.

Ensure that you keep notes for future reference, as this information will support your assessment and professional practice.

Mentoring and Supervision

In many organisations, a formal relationship exists between less experienced workers and mentors or supervisors. These relationships are designed to provide support and guidance so that early-career educators can build their skills and competencies with direction from a person with highly developed skills and extensive experience.

Such relationships require ongoing commitment in terms of both time and focus. There must be management-level support for mentoring and supervision arrangements to provide appropriate time and resources.

Some people find that mentoring is a support model that works well for them, while others find that it takes time to become familiar and comfortable with this approach. The quality of the relationship between the mentor and the educator significantly influences the outcome of this approach.

The 90-Day Learning Cycle

Some organisations use a 90-day learning cycle that encourages educators to plan their learning over 90 days. Learners dedicate time to writing goals to help them to achieve specific competencies for their learning over the ensuing 90 days and to reflect on the experience once the cycle is complete.

This approach focuses on learning as an ongoing, continuous process rather than something rushed through in the few weeks before a professional learning plan review deadline.

In the 90-day approach, employees are encouraged to be accountable for their own learning goals and to develop suitable strategies to help them achieve their goals. They can share, reflect on and discuss their learning process and challenges with other team members. They can also collaborate and develop goals appropriate for the team or consider how individual goals can fit together to achieve whole-team goals.

Learn More

You can download the 90-Day Cycle Handbook to find out more about this method of structured inquiry to support your practice.

Activity 2B

Your 90-day plan

Establish a 90-day learning cycle plan by answering the following questions:

• What are your 90-day learning goal/s?
• What strategies will you use to achieve this goal?
• What are the indicators of success?
• How are your goals and strategies aligned with the organisation's vision and strategic direction?

Ensure that you keep notes for future reference, as this information will support your assessment and professional practice.

Personal development plans (PDP) are widely used in many organisations to guide and record employees' ongoing growth and development. They are written plans that set out an employee's learning opportunities. The goals will arise from performance plans and align with organisational objectives. Usually, the plan has a 12-month timeframe.

They vary widely in content, timelines, and approach, but most incorporate the following key features:

• An overview of the competencies that the employee has recently focused on and of intended competencies for the future.
• Written by the educator (although they are often completed in a template format generated by the service).
• Used as a basis for, or to structure, the educator's conversations with a supervisor or educational leader who provides feedback and prompts self-reflection.
• Used to guide decision-making and future planning.

PDP help to answer the following questions:

• What are you able to do already?
• What do you want to learn next?
• How can you achieve this learning?
• What will success look like for you?
• What indicators will show that your skills and knowledge are improving over time?

Self-development plans are usually completed on a regular cycle in conjunction with other colleagues and, typically, the direct supervisor. There may also be involvement from human resources staff, mentors, and educational or team leaders.

Self-development plans schedule training and development over a year to allow ample time to be devoted to developing skills and attaining goals. These plans can link closely with the broader goals of a team and the organisation, allowing for training needs across a whole organisation to be met effectively through carefully structured plans. The risk of a 12-month timeframe for a PDP is that there can be a tendency to delay completion until the last minute, thereby negating the value of the plan as a learning tool or needing change during the year and the plan is not updated to reflect new focus areas. Some services conduct check-in meetings on a more regular basis (e.g., 3 monthly) or have systems to ensure continuous improvement.

Watch

Review this video by Chrissy Scivicque on What is a Professional Development Plan? To find out more about developing a plan:

Example

Review this sample self-development plan developed by an educator. It sets out the goal, development area, strategies to achieve the area, resources required to achieve the area, timeframes to achieve the area, way to measure and review progress and a review schedule.

Writing Goals for Professional Development

Writing effective goals is one of the keys to successful self-development. Goals are overarching statements that set out what is to be achieved. They should be well-defined and measurable. They should have objectives that support their achievement. Goals should have a time frame for implementation and methods you can use to measure your progress. They will also have a review schedule, so they are not forgotten, and success can be identified when a goal is achieved.

Many people use the SMART acronym to ensure the effective setting and achievement of goals.

Example

Here is an example of a development goal written by an early childhood educator:

I will develop my skills over the next quarter to engage with the programming and contribute once to each part of the cycle of planning by implementing one experience each week.

You can see that this educator would be able to confidently identify the outcome of their goal and know that it is a realistic goal to achieve within the timeframe they have set. People who like clarity and have a learning style that suits clear thinking, structure, and timelines tend to appreciate written goals as an effective professional development approach.

Activity 2C

Career Goal Setting

Consider your short- and long-term professional goals and decide on career goals that can be applied to the early childhood education and care sector. Write your goals. Ensure you use the SMART model.

Ensure that you keep notes for future reference, as this information will support your assessment and professional practice.

Everyone has a preferred learning style and learns differently, depending on their situation, stage of life and preferences. Understanding your preferred learning styles will enable you to establish a professional development program that suits your needs.

While you may have a preferred learning style, this does not mean you cannot learn effectively using other strategies. You may even find that your chosen style or strategy includes a combination of learning styles.

Three broad categories of learning styles can be used to understand learning preferences.

Visual or spatial – like seeing and looking and are spatial learners. Spatial learners prefer to look at images, pictures, and diagrams. Visual Learners learn best from Illustrations, posters, flow charts, diagrams, and the use of colour. Training should use posters, handouts, brochures, and presentations.

Auditory or aural – are hearing and listening learners. Aural learners prefer to learn by listening, including sound and music. They can include verbal learners who prefer to listen to read information or to have concepts explained. Auditory learners learn best from discussions, lectures, and listening to audio. They prefer a variety of tones, rates, pitches, volumes, music, and slogans.

Kinaesthetic – are physical hands-on learners. They are physical learners who prefer to do, act and experience learning opportunities physically. Kinaesthetic learners learn best from touching and doing. They like activities, hands-on work, role-plays, and note-taking. They need regular breaks to move around and can be engaged by having objects to occupy their hands, such as a fidget spinner.

Ensuring that the learning being offered suits the learner's style will make the experience more meaningful and applicable. For example, kinaesthetic learning would benefit from on-the-job coaching compared to classroom-based learning. Auditory learning needs an opportunity to discuss new concepts, whilst a visual learner benefits from graphs and graphics to illustrate points. A well-designed learning opportunity should aim to cater for all styles of learning.

Many learners are multi-modal, so they learn best with various delivery methods. Many research studies have found that the most popular learning preference is visual, with more than 50% of people having this as a preference.

Learners may also have preferences for other ways of learning, such as:

• Logical - Logical learners prefer reasoning, systems, and logic.
• Social - Social learners enjoy the interaction of a group. They gain ideas and experience from other learners.
• Solitary- Solitary learners prefer to learn independently and in their own time. They may prefer self-directed or distance learning.

Watch

Watch this TEDx talk by Tesia Marshik - Learning Styles and the Importance of Critical Reflection:

Activity 2D

Learning Preference

Do you know how you learn best?

Take this quiz to find out your learning preference. This test looks at visual, aural, read/write and kinaesthetic.

Ensure that you keep notes for future reference, as this information will support your assessment and professional practice.

Several factors contribute to successful professional self-development.

Let's take a closer look at how each factor contributes to successful professional self-development.

Using Critical Reflection

Reflection involves thinking openly and analytically about key topics or questions that focus on the reflection. The insight educators and other staff gained during critical reflection can improve the quality of the service's practice.

Reflection provides a vehicle to review, question and assess beliefs and practices. It can support decision-making on actions and development that will enhance future practices. Critical reflection assists educators in identifying areas of development and provides an opportunity to build their knowledge and skills. It should be conducted regularly to explore the educators' thoughts, feelings, and experiences. It is a valuable method for extending and refining professional practice and informing future development. Educators use critical reflection to identify the need to acquire new knowledge and make positive changes to practice. Reflection enables the team to openly discuss success and areas for improvement using positivity and support.

Reflection involves thinking openly and analytically about key topics or questions that are the focus of the reflection. The insight educators and other staff gained during critical reflection can improve the quality of the service's practice.

Activity 2E

Professional Reflection Review

Refer to the reflection models that have been shared in this unit and models that you may have used in your workplace. Answer the following questions.

1. Which models of professional reflection have you used in the past? Considering the models you have now learnt about:
2. What were the positives and negatives of each approach? Ensure that you keep notes for future reference, as this information will support your assessment and professional practice.

Measuring Performance and Progress

Goals are ineffective if you cannot recognise the point at which you achieve them. This is where the concept of performance and progress measurement comes into play.

Consider the goal in the previous Example box in Topic 2.2. This educator has given themselves a goal of four months to incorporate programming into their daily practice. To know if they have been successful, they will need to keep some data on their performance throughout the process. There must be a clear, documented link between the goal and the outcome.

This could be done by:

• Documenting actions completed and changes to their work performance in a self-reflection journal
• Completing an evaluation report regarding their contributions to the program and its outcomes
• Keep records of their contribution and participation in programming and the implemented activities.

The educator will need to know how they are progressing towards their goal and recognise the point at which they have achieved it in full. Progress can be recorded using a simple diary entry system to assist you in reflecting on your work and progress towards a particular goal.

Methods of monitoring and review can include:

• Confirming planned training was completed with assessments submitted.
• Training received is implemented in the workplace.
• Using self-reflection to evaluate developments and improvement in the identified area.
• Seeking verbal or written feedback from peers, parents, or supervisors to review how others perceive the development in the identified area.
• Conducting monthly reviews of the progress in the identified area to check if activities, as planned, have occurred and identifying outcomes.
• Reviewing specific quantitative measures to chart success, such as achieving the target of completing academic reading and research requirements or recording a reduction in behaviour incidents.

Example

Consider the development goal written by an early childhood educator in the previous Example box in Topic 2.2. Here is how they could measure their progress and record the information in a dairy or journal:

24/4

I wrote out some contributions to the programming on post-it notes and asked my team leader to review them before I put them on the program.

30/4

I planned an activity each week for one child and then moved on to group-planned experiences. I also started documenting the critical reflection on the program with support from the team. I will continue to improve this.

During your work, feedback from others is a valuable gift to allow you to review your work practices. However, this can be challenging, and you may feel like you are being criticised for the way that you are doing your job. Yet if you take a moment to think carefully, the feedback can be highly valuable.

Feedback can guide your work performance, practices, knowledge, and skills; therefore, you should strive to view it positively. To be useful and relevant, feedback should tell you something about what you are doing well or where you need to improve, and it should be specific and clear.

The feedback that says, 'Great job!' is flattering and positive but is not useful because it does not tell you what you did that was so great, leaving you ill-informed about how you might repeat your performance.

Effective, useful feedback tells you that you did an excellent job and how and why you did an excellent job. This allows you to learn from the feedback and apply it to future situations.

Responding positively to effective, useful feedback allows you to learn something relevant from it, as opposed to being threatened or offended by the feedback. If you receive useful feedback at work, ensure that you think about it carefully. Take your time to consider what it means and whether you agree with the feedback that you have been given.

Sometimes it can take time to acknowledge that the feedback you have received is correct, particularly if the feedback is negative; it is always challenging to hear that we have not done something well. Remember that feedback is usually provided with good intentions to help you improve. If you do not agree with the feedback, it may be valuable to reflect on it to see if it is something you are unaware of and cannot see yourself.

Feedback allows you to improve your work performance continuously, contributes to achieving your team goals, and ensures children and families get the best experience with you.

Example

Here are some examples of useful feedback:

• Your interactions with that family really helped them feel at ease, particularly how you greeted them and their child as soon as they arrived and were so attentive and kind during their visit.
• This week's program looks really engaging and is professionally written. It would be easy for anyone coming into your room to be able to implement this program.

And here are some examples of less useful feedback that do not provide any specific information about what worked well:

• Well done!
• That is great.
• Thanks for your work today.

Giving and Receiving Feedback

Feedback is a critical component of ongoing skill and knowledge development in any workplace; it allows you to learn about your performance and to understand how it might affect others. Feedback can involve verbal, written and non-verbal communication between two or more people. It is an exchange of ideas and knowledge based on personal opinions, values, judgements, and an accepted view of best-practice service provision in the workplace. There are various ways of giving and receiving feedback, both formally and informally.

360-Degree feedback

The 360-degree feedback approach is common in many education and care services workplaces. It is useful because it includes information from various sources rather than a single point of view. The review aims to provide a broad view of the person's strengths against a rating scale. Topics in the 360-degree review will be the key competencies and the desired behavioural attributes required to succeed in the role and service. One of the areas that would be reviewed is self-awareness and interpersonal skills.

An effective 360-degree process invites feedback from people who interact with the person, which is combined in a structured way. This can include families, peers, supervisors, and co-workers. It provides insight for the individual receiving feedback on how others perceive them and their practices/skills. This is a useful, holistic way of collecting information to identify needs and guide future learning and professional development.

Learn More

Review some sample 360-degree review sample 360-degree review questions that could be asked of employees by Qualtrics.

Surveys

Surveys are a handy way of collecting information from peers, co-workers, and other sources in your work team. They can be completed using a paper-based or an electronic approach. Online tools such as SurveyMonkey are widely used to quickly and effectively collect and store feedback data.

Surveys allow for specific questions and topics to be covered, yielding insight into areas that are relevant for the work team and organisation at a particular time.

Surveys can be problematic in some situations; for example, they might not be appropriate or adequate when:

• Respondents have low levels of English language literacy
• The questions are biased or lead the respondent to a particular response, either deliberately or inadvertently
• There are too many questions, or the questions are exceedingly long or time-consuming to complete
• There are concerns about the confidentiality of collected information
• A particular opinion or point of view irrelevant to the survey's focus is being pursued.

Surveys should be thought through carefully before they are distributed. Consider what information is needed and whether a survey is the best way to obtain it. Think about what will become of the information after the survey has been completed and how data will be stored and used.

Example

Did you know that the average staff survey response rate is 30%. Surveys are a great source of anecdotal data about how others feel about working with you or their feelings about the service provided. If a survey is shorter than 10 minutes (and fewer than 12 questions), you may get an average of 80% response rate.

Verbal Feedback

Verbal feedback refers to formal or informal comments between two or more people. Verbal feedback can include the following components:

• Knowledge of performance - This refers to telling a person about their actual performance and how it relates to an outcome or event. For example, 'You've filled out this record of child disclosure of abuse very thoroughly using lots of detail and clear information, and you have demonstrated a good knowledge of child confidentiality requirements because you've stored the record in a secure location.'
• Knowledge of results - This is telling a person the outcome of a situation or action without referring to their actual performance; for example, 'You've done a good job with this child disclosure report.'

Knowledge of performance is seen as the better approach because it gives more detailed and specific information that can help to improve performance in the future.

Seeking Verbal Feedback from Families and Co-workers

Many people who work in the early childhood sector make it a regular part of their routine to seek verbal feedback from others, such as colleagues and families. They request feedback by asking questions such as, 'What was your opinion of our team meeting today?' or 'What benefits did you gain from the small group discussion activity?'

They also seek opinions from families by enquiring about the time, approach, location, and outcomes of the services and supports provided. They might ask a family questions such as, 'Have you found the transition process effective, or do you still have questions before your child starts?'

Learn More

Promoting reflective practice by  Child Care technical Assistance Network.

Utilising and Reflecting on Feedback

Staff may collect feedback through a variety of methods.

Once information is collected, it must be used promptly. You can use feedback to:

• Improve service quality
• Make services more relevant
• Improve outcomes for children and families
• Increase service efficiency
• Better meet the needs of a specific family group or demographic
• Improve team performance
• Align team outcomes with the goals of the organisation.

Feedback can be applied in a range of diverse ways, so the information that you collect must be in a form that is relevant and useable for your particular situation.

The documented feedback has been collected in a reputable, honest, and valid way and has answered the questions you were seeking information and feedback. In contrast, feedback irrelevant to your questions and goals or not recorded accurately or validly is not useful. Here are some further key points about feedback:

Feedback can be evaluated by carefully matching the information you have collected with the questions or goals you have. Think about what it is that you want to know:

• Do you want to learn about the characteristics of the children and families who come to the service?
• Are you curious how families feel when leaving their children for the first time?
• Are you looking for feedback about how your service is valued within the broader community?

The types of questions you want to answer will significantly influence the types of feedback you need to collect and how you evaluate it. In some settings, there is a formal approach to using feedback and reflecting on what it means for the service. People spend time carefully collecting feedback from families and others associated with the service, analysing how it relates to service goals and outcomes, and then considering what it means for the future. These feedback methods are focused on service quality and continuous improvement, and they aim to use feedback to help them to improve services from year to year.

Services use their Quality Improvement Plans (QIPs) to maintain focus on continuous improvement and ask questions such as the following:

• What are our strengths?
• How do we align with the National Quality Framework?
• How do we collect feedback?
• How does this information guide our future decisions and direction as a service?
• What can we do to improve in the future?
• What do we do with the information we collect?
• What are we already doing well?

Feedback can help to inform you about small problems or issues that can be easily addressed to improve the quality of work. For example, feedback might inform you that a certain page on your website is difficult for families to access or that your phones often go unanswered for a long time when families call. The advantage of seeking feedback about small issues is that you can quickly take action to fix the problem. You might need to employ a web designer to improve the accessibility of your website, for example.

These small changes can significantly improve service quality for families and others, particularly if the changes are made promptly and effectively. For example, suppose that families are frustrated that they cannot contact the Director. The service can create a phone procedure for the person who answers the phone when the Director is unavailable.

People who notice something changes after giving feedback are more likely to be satisfied with the service you are providing. Minor changes made quickly in response to feedback can also prevent larger problems from occurring in the future when a problem is not addressed. Feedback is an easy and efficient way of helping everyone do their jobs well.

You will unlikely enter an early childhood education and care workplace with all the knowledge and skills you will ever need. Most people who work in this sector embark on a lifelong learning process. They understand that learning is not something with a definite beginning and end point; rather, it occurs every day and adapts to suit the changing needs of your children, families, colleagues, and organisation.

There will be times when you need to access further learning or to seek out knowledge or information from others. There will also be times when you need to carefully consider your actions concerning the legal and ethical requirements that apply to the early childhood education and care profession.

As new research is completed and new models of service provision developed, you may need to modify your work practices to suit these. One certain thing is that an ongoing commitment to learning will help you and your organisation to provide best-practice services for all.

Seeking Specialist Advice or Training

Often, people begin work in the early childhood education and care profession with a broad skill set and knowledge base that can be applied to various situations and needs. Over time, this knowledge and these skills tend to become more specialised as people begin to work in roles within the sector. This can happen due to the following:

• The requirements of the organisation change in line with new funding models, programs, or government directions
• The educator's requirements change in line with their changing interests.

Seeking specialist advice or training can help you to ensure that you have the necessary knowledge and skills for the work that you are currently doing or for work that is likely to arise in the future. This can help you plan your own professional self-development and contribute to team planning decisions in your workplace.

Before you can access appropriate specialist advice or training, you need to identify your needs. Here are some ways in which you might identify specialist advice or training needs:

Identify areas for training by participating in a training needs analysis of your team.

• Read your full position description and locate tasks that require specialist knowledge or skills that you do not currently have.
• Consider the knowledge and skills required to work in a new position, such as a leadership role.
• Reflect on sector trends and innovative practices described in journals, on websites or at conferences and consider whether these could be applied to your work practice.
• Consider the QIP goals of the service and how you can enhance your learning to support the implementation of the goals.
• Identify long-term goals for your organisation and team, and then consider which knowledge bases and skill sets will meet these goals.
• Once you have identified the specialist knowledge and skills required, you can begin to plan how you will seek these out.

Specialist knowledge and skills can be accessed by:

• Engaging a specialist to collaborate with your team on building skills and knowledge about a particular project or QIP goals
• Participating in webinars or conferences on a specialist topic
• Arranging for your team to visit another service or organisation currently using different skills and, or approaches to your own
• Building a professional learning network for your team that promotes regular dialogue and sharing of ideas, concepts, approaches, and feedback
• Observing a specialist practitioner at work, either directly or through a video link.

You should ensure that your approach to accessing specialist knowledge and skills is appropriate for your work type and situation. Consider how the cost, time commitment and location of a particular activity or provider might affect your ability to access the approach. Some activities are expensive, may not be located close to where you live and work, or may not be available at a suitable time.

You may use technology to help you access specialist information and training, such as watching a TED Talk, accessing an online seminar, using videoconferencing software, or participating in an online forum.

Professional Reading and Learning

When you work in the early childhood education and care sector, there is an expectation that you will stay informed of the latest research, standards, and evidence from Australia and overseas. To stay up to date, set aside time each week to review relevant articles and websites and engage in dialogue with other workers about the significance of the research you have read. Look for articles that appear in peer-reviewed journals and those on professional or peak-body websites.

Be wary of journals that do not have a named editor, which is not held in academic library collections and are not referenced by organisations or groups with which you are familiar. Also, be wary of blog posts and websites that may contain information that is not evidence-based, or that refers to out-of-date or highly controversial ideas. Although wide-ranging professional reading is useful, it is wise to carefully consider how research is relevant to your current work and organisation and how well it represents best practice in early childhood education and care.

Some people find their learning style better suited to absorbing information through podcasts or text-to-audio technology tools. Others prefer to complete professional reading and learning by attending a workshop or training activity, either at their workplace or externally.

Ideally, you should seek professional reading and learning activities that suit your learning needs and preferences. You can often maintain a library membership at a university or TAFE library for a fee, and doing so will allow you to access journals and other useful resources. Your organisation may also maintain memberships to certain subscription services that will allow you to download and read individual journal articles.

Some workplaces encourage employees to set aside professional reading time and discuss and consider the relevance of the information they read during team meetings.

Activity 2F

Successful Professional Development

Choose one of the factors that lead to successful professional development and explain how it will help develop your skills in the workplace.

Ensure that you keep this document for future reference, as this information will support your assessment and professional practice.

Learn More

• The Sector - Early Education News
• Early Childhood Australia
• Early Childhood Research Quarterly
• The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA)
• Publications and research – for example, the Queensland Government - Early Childhood Education and Care

In a globally connected world, it is important to consider the emerging practices used in Australia and other countries. Many countries experience similar issues, needs and conditions to Australia and have developed various approaches to providing early childhood education and care.

Keeping up to date with current industry standards of practice and new and emerging developments requires you to conduct research and then develop plans about how you will gain knowledge and skill to meet the new trend.

Sector developments that are emerging might include:

• Introducing loose parts play to the curriculum
• Using a project approach to selecting topics by letting children play a role in selecting a real-world topic to explore
• Using a primary caregiving approach to staff and child relationships and allocations
• Establishing well-being and gratitude rituals in the service
• Implementing enquiry projects in the service.

Suppose that you decide to explore and learn more about Loose Parts Play. You would need to research what it is and what is valuable about the practice that warrants its introduction into the service. The sources of your information would be specialists and leaders in that area, or you could network with others who have already implemented loose parts to their service. You also must consider the legal and ethical requirements of implementing the new practice. You will plan some training, could be formal or informal, to learn more about the topic. You will set an improvement goal in the services QIP. You must ensure you keep up to date with sector developments.

Example

Review this plan about keeping up to date with an emerging trend of implementing loose parts into a service:

You will likely gradually develop areas of interest of your own during your career in early childhood education and care, and you may decide to contribute to the knowledge base within your sector. You can become involved in current and emerging developments in various ways, allowing you to continue to enhance your ability to provide best-practice.

Here are some ways that you can contribute to ongoing, sector-wide knowledge and skills development:

• Return to study and gain a higher-level qualification, then use that qualification to obtain a leadership or management position in an early childhood education and care services workplace.
• Write articles for a peak-body magazine or website that can be read by other professionals working in similar fields.
• Write a letter to the editor responding to an article you read in their journal or magazine.
• Participate in positive, helpful commentary and interaction in online forums, Twitter, or other social media.
• Train other educators in your organisation in particular specialist skills.
• Become a mentor for a less experienced educator.
• Deliver a workshop or poster presentation at a conference.

You must recognise best practice as a changing, developing concept. We do not simply achieve best practice in our work and conclude that the job has been completed. What represents best practice five years ago may not be the same as what represents best practice today or what will represent best practice in another five years. For best practice to develop across the early childhood education and care sector, you must become an active, involved participant within your field of specialisation.

Think about what you have already learned, what you want to learn in the future and what you can do to contribute to ongoing best practice development. That way, best practice will continue to grow and change, leading to higher-quality education provision by individuals throughout the sector and for children and families.

Making the Most of Your Opportunities

It is easy to become so focused on the regular daily requirements of your job that you lose sight of your own professional need to keep growing and developing your skills. Work tasks can be demanding in this sector, and the time and energy required to meet best practice standards can be taxing. However, it is important to ensure that you maintain a productive focus on your skills and professional learning needs.

In this topic, you have learned about many ways to build your skills and knowledge in the early childhood education and care sector. Often, the challenge is not knowing what you can do to grow professionally but finding the time to do it.

Here are some quick tips that can help:

• Set aside five minutes a day to write a 'note to self' about one thing you can change for tomorrow.
• Watch someone else do their job at least once a week, consciously observe what they are doing well, and think about how you could apply these to your practice and pedagogy.
• Visit other services and find out what they are doing that differs from your service.
• Set aside a small percentage of your income each year for professional development aimed purely at building your skills and knowledge in personally fulfilling areas.
• Participate in review processes such as employee reviews or 360-degree feedback sessions to help you to learn more about your performance.
• With your co-workers, give and receive feedback regularly.
• Be an active participant in team and organisation-wide meetings and events.
• Identify a time each week when you can read, learn, and engage with the ideas of others – on websites, magazines, social media, and online forums.
• Apply once a year for a grant, some funding or other financial support to help you complete a new learning goal.
• Attend as many professional development training sessions as you can.

Even if you select only one or two of these tips and commit to using them regularly throughout a full year, you will be surprised by what you achieve by the end of that year. You will likely find yourself in a place compared to where you were at the beginning.

Activity 2G

Professional Development Plan

Using this template, write a draft of your professional development plan using the information you have learnt in this unit and from reading this Learner Guide.

Ensure that you keep this document for future reference, as this information will support your assessment and professional practice.