Avondale College NURS20028: Community Involvement Reflection Report

This report details a student's 40-hour community involvement experience at Tilli Tadpole early learning center in Brisbane, Australia. The student worked with preschool children aged 3-5, assisting with activities such as singing, dancing, and feeding. The report includes a critical reflection using Gibb's model, focusing on the experience of creating and teaching new songs to the children. The student analyzes the impact of the experience, highlighting the importance of patience, creativity, and understanding in working with children. The report also discusses the application of this experience to future professional practice as a Registered Nurse (RN), emphasizing the development of culturally competent care and enhanced decision-making skills. The student concludes with an action plan for future community involvement and the use of experiential learning in their nursing career, referencing relevant literature on early childhood development and reflective practice.

Involvement in the Community
Name
Institution

Involvement in the Community
I did not know that I could have the power to bring positive and measurable change to
young children until I got the chance to be involved in a community at Tilli Tadpole early
learning (Brisbane airport), a chance which was accorded to me by my cousin who is the
supervisor at the facility. Tilli Tadpole early learning is a government and ACECQA accredited
child care center which inspires and nurtures individuality in every child. With their passionate
early childhood educators with vast experience, this child care center uses a unique research-
based approach to inspire a lifelong love of learning in children. My 40 hours placement at this
child care was an emotional experience which has so far helped me in lessening tension and
focusing on positivity. Tilli Tadpole early learning offers childcare services to children of all
ages until they reach the school going age, for instance, they have different categories including
0-12 months old, 1-2 years old and 3-5 years old. These categories have different care needs.
During my placement, I got to spend time with children in the age of 3-5., a unique category with
preschool children. I must admit that these children are wonderful. One thing I noticed is that
they are more creative and they love experimenting more with toys, games and ideas. Although
they are more interested in playing and making up games, they still need support and
encouragement (Richter et al., 2017). This gave them a sense that they have the ability to do and
accomplish what they needed and wanted, hence determination and confidence. I also engaged
these children in singing and dancing which highly contributed in teaching behavior and basic
social skills. I also helped with feeding the children as most of them played with food or with
toys rather than eating. According to Britto et al. (2017), nutrition in early childhood is very vital
for the development of a child’s physical and mental health and growth. To ensure that these
children’s growth and development is healthy and free from diseases, I actively engaged in

feeding them. Also, most of these children are still young and may not be able to properly feed
themselves (Aboud, & Yousafzai, 2015).
Critical Reflection
One moment that greatly impacted me and the children is when I constructed songs and
taught the children. For this reflection, I will use Gibb’s model to critical reflect on this issue.
Gibb’s model is a framework which encourages people to systematically think about the specific
experiences they have had in a specific situation (Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 2013). This model is
structured in phases which make people think about an experience in details and use the positive
and negative impacts to learn from it.
Description
During my 40 hours community involvement with the children aged 3-5 at Tilli Tadpole
early learning (Brisbane airport), we played, sang and danced together. However, I realized that
the songs they sang were old and have been recycled for so long. These children had mastered
the songs and they did not enjoy them anymore. Most of them kept wandering during the singing
sessions and even engaged in non-singing activities like running around and playing with their
fellows. Since children at this age are very curious and always wants to learn new things, I
decided to come up with new songs so that they may all enjoy the singing session. These songs
were mostly based on simple preschool rhymes and numbers.
Feelings
I felt that the children were so used to those routine songs and they needed something
new and more challenging. When I was teaching these children the new songs, I felt genuine

happiness and satisfaction. The cooperation and joy in the faces of these children gave me a
sense of accomplishment. Looking back at the activity, I believe that it was a great chance of
helping the children hastens their vocabularies. During these activities, I believe the children felt
more confident and their creativity and thinking was inspired. Right now, I think the educators
and the children are happy about the new rhymes and songs because they got a wide range to
choose from.
Evaluation
During the activity, the concentration and participation of the children was higher. This
greatly contributed to the success of the activity. I believe this was because the songs and rhymes
exposed them to new colorful illustrations which they have never encountered before. The
quality of games in early childhood impacts their development (Black et al., 2015). It may also
be due to the fact that the repeated patterns brought rhythm and musicality thereby making the
recital an enjoyable experience. However, communicating with the children was hard as most of
them cannot fully comprehend language. Also, some of the children have learning difficulties
thereby slowing down the learning process. I managed to successfully compose and teach the
children rhymes and songs while the educators encouraged the children to instill confidence.
Analysis
From this activity, I learnt the essence of patience, creativity, understanding and passion
in anything I am doing. I also learnt that children love humor and one must be at the children’s
level so at to effectively communicate with them. Since children have different abilities, it is
critical to respect their differences to ensure successful activities. In future however, I intend to
be more flexible to handle all glitches as well as be willing to change my plans and ideas.

Conclusion
I was not prepared to meet be in a multicultural environment with different ethnicities,
cultures and traditions. This forced me to try adapting to these differences; however, the time
was limited. I have therefore learnt that children have unique personalities which must be fully
embraced when interacting with them.
Action plan
If the same situation arose again, I would try creating a relationship with all of the
children by understanding some of their cultural perspectives. I believe this will enable me have
a better interpersonal dialogue as well as communicate more with them on a personal level.
Moon (2013) argues that action plan has the capacity to enhance self-esteem and self-confidence.
How to Incorporate This Service Learning Experience
Experiential learning helps in engaging emotions and enhancing skills and knowledge
(Kolb, 2014). In a professional capacity as a RN, I intend to use this learning experience to
understand different people cultures and to offer a culturally competent care to patients. I will
ensure this by gaining knowledge, attitude and skills so as to ensure free and honest
communication with patients. I also intend to collaborate with other multidisciplinary
practitioners to enhance patient care. Moreover, patience, creativity, understanding enhances
decision-making during practice (Schön, 2017).
Conclusion
My experience with the 3-5 year old children at Tilli Tadpole early learning was amazing
as I got the opportunity to learn basic skills that are essential for a RN. The challenges gave me

new experiences and a platform for personal growth. I therefore intend to use this experience to
enhance patient safety and avoid minor medical errors.

References
Aboud, F. E., & Yousafzai, A. K. (2015). Global health and development in early
childhood. Annual review of psychology, 66, 433-457.
Black, M. M., Walker, S. P., Fernald, L. C., Andersen, C. T., DiGirolamo, A. M., Lu, C., ... &
Devercelli, A. E. (2017). Early childhood development coming of age: science through
the life course. The Lancet, 389(10064), 77-90.
Britto, P. R., Lye, S. J., Proulx, K., Yousafzai, A. K., Matthews, S. G., Vaivada, T., ... &
MacMillan, H. (2017). Nurturing care: promoting early childhood development. The
Lancet, 389(10064), 91-102.
Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (2013). Reflection: Turning experience into learning.
Routledge. Retrieved from https://content.taylorfrancis.com/books/download?
dac=C2004-0-02691-9&isbn=9781315059051&format=googlePreviewPdf
Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and
development. FT press. https://books.google.co.ke/books?
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&q&f=false
Moon, J. A. (2013). Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and practice.
Routledge.

Richter, L. M., Daelmans, B., Lombardi, J., Heymann, J., Boo, F. L., Behrman, J. R., ... &
Bhutta, Z. A. (2017). Investing in the foundation of sustainable development: pathways to
scale up for early childhood development. The lancet, 389(10064), 103-118.
Schön, D. A. (2017). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Routledge.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315237473