The reflective labyrinth: An innovative tool for exploring, developing and scaffolding reflection skills at UCLan

Reflection is increasingly being embedded into higher education curricula, not only due to the benefits it has for long-term learning, but also due to it becoming a key requirement in professional competencies beyond the university context. However, due to assumptions that reflection is an innate ability already at students’ disposal, the necessary scaffolding of the thought processes involved are often overlooked. This study therefore aimed to demonstrate how the use of a labyrinth could stimulate and deepen the learning and teaching of critical reflection skills within UCLan. Reporting on initial findings from five labyrinth workshops with staff and students, this paper identified that both groups appreciated the wellbeing effect the labyrinth afforded, but differed in their evaluation of the sessions’ most valued quality. Whereas staff welcomed the opportunity, time and space to stop and reflect on their practice, students acknowledged the labyrinth’s effectiveness for learning about reflection, its models and its application to their assessments and practice. Potentially signalling their differing familiarity with the processes and goals of reflection, this study concluded that the labyrinth is a useful scaffolding tool for the learning and teaching of reflection which can be used across different subject areas, year groups and levels of expertise

Assessing early communication behaviours : structure and validity of the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales—Developmental Profile (CSBS-DP) in 12-month-old infants

Background: Parent report instruments are frequently used for the identification of both ‘at-risk’ children and to support the diagnosis of communication delay. Whilst the evidence is strong for the accuracy of parent report of vocabulary between 2 and 3 years, there are fewer studies that have considered the ability of parents to report on early communication behaviours in 12-month-old infants. Aims: To investigate the validity of the underlying structure of the Communication and Symbolic Behaviour Scales—Developmental Profile (CSBS-DP) for each of the direct observation and parent reports of communication behaviour in infants at 12 months of age. Methods & Procedures: Participants were 1725 infants, already participating in a longitudinal study of language development, whose parents completed the Infant–Toddler Checklist from the CSBS-DP. Seven hundred and twenty-eight (728) of these infants also completed the Behaviour Sample from the CSBS-DP. The structure of the CSBS-DP was examined using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) of the Behaviour Sample and the Infant–Toddler Checklist. Correlations between the Infant–Toddler Checklist and the Behaviour Sample on the total, composite, and subscale scores were also calculated. Outcomes & Results: Confirmatory factor analysis of the CSBS-DP Behaviour Sample replicated previous work conducted during the development of the instrument, but on a larger and younger cohort of Australian infants. The data provided support for at least three factors, broadly representing Social, Speech, and Symbolic communication skills, with some evidence that the speech factor could be further split into sub-factors representing Sounds and Words. There was support for a three-factor structure for the Infant–Toddler Checklist. Moderate correlations were found between results from the Behaviour Sample and the Infant–Toddler Checklist. Conclusions & Implications: As measures of early communication skill for young infants, the CSBS-DP Behaviour Sample and the Infant–Toddler Checklist are valid clinical tools for measuring constructs broadly representing Social, Speech, and Symbolic communication skills. The Speech composite in particular emerged as a strong factor under the Behaviour Sample.14 page(s