Chapter 10 - Children are Collaborators in Assessment
This chapter explores how children’s learning is enabled by the cyclical process of gathering information about what is being learned and then reflecting on its meaning.
Some of the key ideas in this chapter include:
Observations have been the main form of assessment used by early childhood teachers to assess children’s learning and development. Formative assessments provide information about learning in progress while summative assessments document student learning at the end of a unit, lesson, or project. Both forms of assessment have been used to evaluate curriculum and instruction and ensure accountability. Assessment is best done in authentic learning contexts resembling real-world experiences. Authentic learning relates to Dewey’s idea of learning through experiences that instil learning, promoted growth, have continuity are interactive, and are facilitated by adults in child-centred environments. Vygotsky similarly suggested that expert teachers and peers should guide children’s learning in relation to experience.
Many school assessments are based on maturationist theory; they are designed to check whether or not children are ready for school, and have been found to have little connection to the child’s performance in grade one. When school readiness is a goal of early childhood programs, it positions diverse children as being at-risk. Moreover, there are differing views on what counts as readiness and teachers and parents seem to value and encourage different skills.
The focus on academic readiness can also lead to the “schoolification” of early childhood programs and the introduction of standardized tests such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation’s International Early Learning Study (“Baby Pisa”). When the competencies required for school readiness are narrowly defined, children’s experiences of childhood are changed. Nineteenth century assessments of learning were highly subjective and frequently involved memorizing key ideas and then oral reciting them (for example: the alphabet or multiplication tables). Standardized tests were seen to be more scientific and systematic as compared to teacher’s own assessments. Standardized assessments focus on summative assessment; the teacher’s own formative assessments of the process of learning are marginalized. Formative assessments can involve sharing learning intentions with students, finding out what they know, giving feedback to spark reflection, creating conditions for students to support one another in learning, and engaging students as activators of their own learning.
Standardized assessments should be used with caution. They must be culturally and linguistically appropriate, administered by those with cultural competence, used to improve teaching, and involve families. Formative assessments acknowledge that children live in relationship with others in home and community contexts. Some examples of formative assessments include pedagogical documentation, discussed in Chapter Nine, and dynamic assessment which focuses on the child’s potential which can be achieved with social support.
