ARTE Assignment 4 (E-Reflection Journal)
Current Early Childhood issues
There has been an increasing amount of professional development agencies and organizations establishments. Specifically, in the education field, professional development programs and courses have always been catered for teachers to constantly improve and update themselves on relevant content. The rapid turnover rate of preschool teachers led us to question why were statistics not improving. This was our initial finding, we then started researching and realized there was actually a linkage between professional development and the rapid turnover rates.
The research process needs analysis and action plan documenting really broadened my perspectives on how both the teachers and the school views professional development. It helped me gain the insights pertaining to the workings when planning and conducting professional development programs. I used to thought teachers were just assigned a course, and they would have the choice to attend it. However, through countless research and the principal’s interview, I have learned of the many factors the school has to factor it in order to proceed with professional development programs. For example, the school’s budget to cater programs, the teachers’ willingness, the teacher’s timetabling, and more.
A regrettable thing was that we did not manage to get the principal’s feedback. This was a busy season for them, thus, we heard no replies from the school despite the countless requests to present our action plan. However, we acted mainly on the feedback from the mini-presentation. We enhanced and progressed our action plan with the comments and tried our best to ensure that the action plan adhered and corresponded to the issue.
Communication skills
Throughout the years, we have been introduced to different pressing early childhood issues. We had different perspectives and passions individually. It was challenging reaching a compromise and find an issue we were agreeable on. However, through the discussions and self-initiated researches, we all observed that professional development was an ongoing topic worth discovering. Thereafter, the consolidation of the needs interview questions went smoothly. After completing our individual needs analysis, we gathered our needs and chose one. Communicating how we wanted to approach it was a struggle, but it was solved through constant discussions ensuring no misunderstandings or disagreements were present.
The project was more of a team effort than just individual work put together as we always communicated for assistance from one another. This helped me improve my communication skills too because I had to voice out my struggles and communicate my thoughts on others’ problems.
Organisational skills
The beginning group dynamics was not great, we were clueless about how we wanted to approach the project and no one was stepping up to lead. Everyone seems to be a follower more than a leader including me. Discussions happened but we agreed no potential plans were worth executing. By then, I recognized someone had to step up to lead to another member and I volunteered. I finalized the final action plan by ensuring everyone was comfortable with the plan.
Tasks had to be delegated. Everyone then took up the roles they wanted before I concluded what were the deliverables. This helped me with my leadership skills as I stepped out of my comfort zone to lead a group or a project. I realized my potential in organizing roles and relevant content, this boosted my confidence in my capability to construct and put together different ideas and produce a workable plan.
Problem-solving skills
There were many problems we encountered throughout the project. A huge problem was the lack of participation in the teachers’ survey. We emailed a survey link to the school, with little responses. It was insufficient to make any substantiated deductions. We were at a loss before a team member suggested distributing hard-copy forms personally, this worked out nicely as we managed to collect 20 responses which assisted us to better support our action plan. Also, we had to create a compatibility quiz but we were unfamiliar and inexperienced. We tried three different platforms, to gauge which one could provide necessary information for both participants and the school, before choosing Google forms. Through this, I felt it was the acceptance we had in everyone’s opinion and the persistent attitude we had that countered the problems efficiently.