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Effective assessment in the EYFS (Dubiel) - Coggle Diagram
Effective assessment in the EYFS (Dubiel)
8 principles for effective early years assessment
Assessment needs to be accurate & authentic.
External pressures will sometimes influence assessment - but this will be negative for the child as they'll be held to inaccurate expectations.
Basing assessment on the practitioner's observations will increase its authenticity.
An authentic view of a child will also require multiple perspectives to be accurate & truly reflect the child - all adults who work with the child should contribute to assessment.
Assessment must ensure it takes into account all aspect of children's learning & development.
Content, the defined 'bodies of knowledge, skill & understanding, and learning behaviours.
Assessment needs to reflect knowledge & understanding of child development & the way children learn.
The decisions take by practitioners during the assessment process need to be informed & rooted in the evidence of what is important in the children's learning.
Rather than focusing on what is easy to see, practitioners need to familiarise themselves with information from studies & research which shape the aspects of learning & development.
They'll also need to draw upon their own knowledge of the children they work with, their families, experiences & communities.
Being aware of these 'signifiers' will allow practitioners to support effective outcomes & aspirations.
Practitioners need to continually acknowledge that children are individual learners.
Part of the role of assessment is to understand where a child's cognitive processes are heading.
Practitioners should flexible in their thoughts & perceptions.
Assessment needs to fully reflect the values of the practitioner.
Practitioners need to be aware of how their own beliefs affect their decision-making & assessment.
Need to be mindful that their values are personal & subjective.
However these values are also important for determining approaches to assessment - they'll impact directly on practitioner behaviour & and decisions in regard to how & what is assessed.
Assessment needs to be driven by the professional
.
Decisions about what is assessed need to be dependent on the practitioner, not external pressures.
It is the practitioner's knowledge of the child that will make assessments accurate.
Assessment must have a clear purpose to support provision & pedagogy.
The purpose of assessment is to inform & support future possibilities in children's learning & development
Assessment is not a stand-alone exercise & should be driven by ongoing pedagogy.
Need to extend the practitioner's knowledge of the child & inform their interactions.
Should relate directly to planning & the understanding of children as individuals & their future development.
Assessment must be manageable.
Processes & approaches adopted by practitioners need to be manageable with the aim of informing the 'knowing & understanding of the child'.
The purpose of recording & documenting is to enable the practitioner to access the knowledge they have about individual children.
Quality, accuracy & usefulness is not related the the amount of physical evidence the practitioner has.
Assessment must incorporate a means for accountability.
The analysis of the practitioner's use of assessment is able to provide accountability for the impact of their approaches to pedagogy & provision.
Reflective practitioners will have internal accountability as they evaluate their impact on children's development.
Practitioners should also be aware of external accountability - needs to be driven by the existing assessment that practitioners use.
Assessment must take account of ethical considerations.
It is the practitioner's responsibility to ensure their approaches to assessment exist within a clear ethical framework.
Synonymous with a respectful approach that takes into account 'moral considerations'.
E.g. practitioner will need to consider how children are described in documentation.
Practitioners & settings will need to share assessment information with parents in an honest & collaborative manner.
Ethical considerations must take into account the purpose of assessment & who the assessment benefits.
Assessment in practice
Establishing the conditions for effective assessment.
The accuracy & authenticity of assessment depend on the 'conditions' of the setting being suitable & appropriate in order to allow this to happen.
Means that key decisions made in the setting will influence the types of learning & development that will happen.
Settings must have an appropriate ethos where children realise their learning is strongly valued & supported .
Settings must follow & facilitate children's interests & fascinations.
High quality interactions allow practitioners to stimulate learning.
Resources that are available should be open-ended & transferable to different situations.
Children should be given the time & space to independently develop their knowledge & understanding.
Observational assessment.
Watching & understanding children as they engage in self-initiated activities enable practitioners to make value-driven judgments about children's learning & development.
Critics argue this method doesn't provide clear & objective information.
However the alternative is traditional testing - in the early years this is far less likely to provide accurate information as the children are less likely to be motivated in this scenario.
Children's learning is complex - can't be reduced to simple 'scores'.
Saljo, 1979 - when children are observed in their play, such play encapsulates all five categories of learning.
This where signifiers are present.
Different types of observation:
Instantaneous observation - when children say or show something that in the moment the practitioner recognises as significant.
Extended/detached observation - prolonged sessions where the practitioner observes the children.
Subjective activity in which decisions are made about what is significant - exists primarily through the practitioner's personal pedagogy.
Multiple perspectives.
Assessments have to take into account all the perspectives of a child's learning - single perspectives will have a limited view of the child.
Children will behave differently in different contexts - these different contexts provide more opportunities to observe the children.
Other adults in the setting - all adults who work with the children will have a perspective that should be taken into account.
Other agencies that may be involved with the child, e.g. social workers - processes need to be in place to ensure appropriate information is shared.
Parents/carers - children spend the majority of their time in their home environment, the parental perspective is vital in ensuring parental engagement is respectfully acknowledged.
Could have meetings with parents to discuss their child's development.
Could ask them to contribute to their child's learning journey.
Children contributing to their own assessment - make sense of their own learning, define their strengths & interests and any possible next steps.
Formative assessment.
The act of interpreting & understanding moments of a child's learning & development to identify the possibilities for building on & supporting this.
'Responsive' formative assessment - using observation & knowledge of the child to decide what about their behaviour is significant, thinking about the individual development of each child.
'Strategic' formative assessment - considering the impact of provision on the effectiveness of the learning & development that take place.
Summative assessment.
Principle of these assessments is to define a point of time during the child's learning and describe what is known about the child's learning & development during this time.
Include all aspects of significance that a practitioner considers to be necessary & draw together all knowledges & understandings.
The professional judgements of practitioners & a culmination of the many different kinds of information that relate to a specific child.
Other perspectives (e.g. parents/carers) will contribute to what is known.
Much of the knowledge won't be formally recorded - instead based of the practitioner's own knowledge of the child.
Can happen at any time & practitioners should use this as part of the process for planning, supporting & reviewing the impact of their practice.
Helps ensure there is a clear picture emerging of the child as a learner & flags any potential concerns.