Becoming Reflective Early Intervention Professionals: Lessons From Training Undergraduate Educators

• In Event: Issues in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

This paper will examine how preservice early intervention (EI) specialists become reflective practitioners through their internship, coursework, and their real world experiences. This qualitative study describes how students incorporate professional, practical and personal experiences and their decisions in their EI and early childhood settings (Grisham, 2000; Vacca et al., 2003). Results show that EI students are strongly influenced by their years of experience in early childhood settings and the confluence and dissonance of what they are learning in class and what they see in their internships. As nontraditional students, life experiences sometimes take precedence over professional knowledge. In addition, years of experience in early childhood education supported greater engagement with families and reflectivity.

Authors

• Angela Stone-MacDonald, University of Massachusetts - Boston

• Anne Douglass, University of Massachusetts - Boston