The ECD Practitioner Quality Reflection Tool is a collaborative product which came out of the BRIDGE ECD Community of Practice, which set itself the goal of identifying and exploring what constitutes ‘quality’ in ECD. This is of vital interest to those concerned with improving provision and professional competence in this critical sector.

From input at both national and provincial CoP levels, four dimensions of quality were identified: teaching and learning, the ECD environment, the policy framework, and leadership and management. Because of the impact of context on understandings of quality, the CoP also wished to gather insights from practitioners in different contexts. At the same time, practitioners need to be supported in growing their own professional understanding of quality issues. These views led to the crafting of a set of self-reflection questions linked to each quality dimension. This culminated in the ECD Practitioner Quality Reflection Tool, which serves as a professional development tool and/or a training resource for ECD practitioners. The Quality Reflection Tool is supported by a Mediator Guide, which offers guidelines, activities and resources for trainers and others who wish to facilitate the use of the QRT – access here.

The Tool can be downloaded and freely used and adapted as an open education resource, with acknowledgment to BRIDGE. It is intended to be printed and used in a ring binder file so that practitioners can add in their own pages of writing as required. For those interested in the findings from the Quality Pilot relating to the views of practitioners, see the ECD Quality Toolkit Pilot Report or the ECD Quality Tool Brochure on this website.