Chorney Rubin – professionalism and reflective practice

There are a number of elements, I suspect, that are important in terms of looking at the profession and what makes an individual a professional. You know, I think the – a lot really relies on this notion of reflective practice and thinking – some people say, you know, it’s learning is by learning by doing, I think it’s Mintzberg out of McGill that says, no, it’s not learning by doing, it’s learning by reflecting on what you’re doing. And so that this notion of professional practice is steeped in reflective practice and a commitment to professional learning. A commitment to seeing yourself as part of a learning community. The community of colleagues that you work with and the broader community of who you meet with, what you read, what you choose to talk about in terms of what’s important. The way in which you engage families in celebrating children’s learning. And learning more about how children learn at home. Sometimes we spend a lot of time wanting to share with families how children learn in the program and wouldn’t it be terrific if families could do similar things at home. And I think that’s not really the optimal way of thinking about a partnership. I think the most important question to ask a parent is a question they know the answer to: how does your child learn at home? What does your child do at home? It provides great insight as to what children can do in practice.  

So, you know, professionalism and professional practice is really aligned to seeing yourself as part of a learning community, and a learning community reads, talks, engages in discourse, ponders about research, asks provocative questions of yourselves and one another. Searches for answers together. And asks the question, can we do better? Is there something we’re not doing that we might try? Is there something that we used to do?