A major goal of the Reflective Practice Center (RPC) is to build the empirical evidence base around reflective practice. The use of reflective practice continues to increase in the early childhood workforce, helping to improve the effectiveness of professionals who work with very young children and their families. Internationally recognized experts at RPC identified best practices in reflective supervision* and created the Reflective Interaction Observation Scale (RIOS)™, an observational tool to measure them. We are using the RIOS™ in collaboration with researchers across the country to make reflective supervision an evidence-informed practice.
Our current research interests include the following:
- How does reflective supervision generalize across infant/early childhood fields? What may be unique in different fields?
- How do variables such as dosage, frequency, and format (e.g., in person vs. online) affect the process and outcomes of reflective supervision?
- What are the impacts of reflective supervision on the practitioners who participate? And on the adults and children they serve?
- How can we train reflective supervisors to provide the most effective support?
Many of our projects are enriched by collaboration with other universities and organizations. Contact Dr. Alyssa Meuwissen, Research Associate at CEED, if you are interested in discussing possibilities around research on reflective practice.
*Throughout this website, we refer to the provision of reflective support by either a reflective supervisor (within an organization) or a reflective consultant (from outside the organization) as reflective supervision.
Selected RPC resources
Selected RPC publications
-
- Gatti, S. N., Watson, C. L., & Siegel, C. F. (2011). Step Back and Consider: Learning From Reflective Practice in Infant Mental Health. Young Exceptional Children, 14(2), 32 – 45. https://doi.org/10.1177/1096250611402290
- Harrison, M. (2016). Release, reframe, refocus, and respond: A practitioner transformation process in a reflective consultation program. Infant Mental Health Journal, 37(6), 670-683.
- Susman-Stillman, A., Lim, S., Meuwissen, A., & Watson, C. (in press). Understanding how reflective supervision/consultation supports early childhood professionals’ social and emotional well-being. Early Education and Development.
- Watson, C., & Gatti, S. N. (2012). Professional development through reflective consultation in early intervention. Infants & Young Children, 25(2), 109-121.
- Watson, C., Gatti, S. N., Cox, M., Harrison, M., & Hennes, J. (2014). Reflective supervision and its impact on early childhood intervention. In E. Nwokah & J. A. Sutterby (Eds.), Early childhood and special education: Advances in early education and daycare (Vol. 18,pp. 1–26). Bingley, UK: Emerald Group.
- Watson, C., Goldberg, S., Mayse, S., Meuwissen, A., & Weatherston, D. (2018). Witnessing and exploring together the reflective supervision relationship: The second annual reflective supervision/consultation symposium. Zero to Three, 38(6), 39-47.
- Watson, C. L., Harrison, M. E., Hennes, J. E., & Harris, M. M. (2016). Revealing “The space between”: Creating an observation scale to understand infant mental health reflective supervision. Zero to Three, 37(2), 14-21.