DELIVERING & RECEIVING FEEDBACK
Case Study 1
Rachel has been working in early childhood for 4 years as a Certificate 3 educator (for 2 years at previous service and 2 years with your service). This is your first time working with Rachel this year in the birth - 2 yrs room. At the last room meeting you asked Rachel and the other two staff members to think of an experience they can do with the children in the morning session next week as you need to be on the late shift to cover the ECT requirements and you won't be starting until 10.00am.
Rachel put forward that she would take a focus group of children she has been observing to the tables to do some finger painting as she noticed they loved getting the paint all over their hands on Friday. You agreed that this experience was appropriate and asked Rachel to work with her colleagues to plan and implement the experience for Monday morning. Rachel already knows the procedure of gathering materials, considering her teaching techniques and preparing the space.
There was an incident with a parent that you had to take care of on Friday afternoon and you were stuck in meetings with the Director so you didn't get to follow up with Rachel to see if her experience was ready to go before she left on Friday. It was on your mind when you left for the week.
Monday morning when you arrived at 9.50am you enter the room to find Rachel holding on to a child who is kicking and screaming trying to place him back at the paint table experience she had planned. Two other children were taking the paint from the table to the bathroom and filling up the paint pots with water. Rachel was pleading with the other child to sit on the floor like she had told her to and 'don't move'.
If this is a repeated issue our supervisory role may need to be applied. We can influence, inspire and model however if the issue persists, we must make a meeting with Rachel to go through a set of very specific reminders about her roles and responsibilities. This is where code of ethics, laws, job descriptions can come in. You might do this or you might ask your senior to help. be prepared with a set of empathy points but action points. Focus on strengths and allow Rachel to reveal her weaknesses. See if you can drill right down to one specific barrier to her success.