How do you define cognitive development in your program? What experiences have helped you develop as a learner? Take a few minutes to read and respond to these questions. Then, think about how you can use what you know about your own learning to help staff members, children, and families. Talk with other program leaders about ways your program can improve its approach to supporting cognitive development.

1. How would you describe staff members’ knowledge of cognitive development in your program?

    

2. Finish this sentence: Staff members should say cognitive development is…..

    

3. What has worked well to help you learn in the past? What has not worked well in the past that you want to change or avoid for future learning? How has this knowledge helped you support staff?

    

4. What have you noticed about how the staff members in your program seem to learn? What events or experiences stand out in your memory? What were the roles of adults, children, the environment, materials, and activities on the learning in this memory?

    

5. Which of the following strategies have you used to help you learn? How might these strategies apply or not apply to how staff in your program learn to support cognitive development?
   Wrote your own study questions?

   Asked yourself questions about something you read or heard?

   Closed your notes and thought about what you remembered?

   Tried to fit what you’ve read into the bigger picture of what you know?

   Tested out an idea or tried to recreate something you saw?

   Watched an expert perform a skill?

   Asked for feedback from someone else?