Kei Tua o te Pae

Kei Tua o te Pae/Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars is a best-practice guide that will help teachers continue to improve the quality of their teaching.

The exemplars are a series of books that will help teachers to understand and strengthen children's learning. It also shows how children, parents and whānau can contribute to this assessment and ongoing learning.

We are making improvements to our download-to-print functionality. So if you want a printed copy there are PDF versions available at the bottom of the main cover page.

The quality of assessment in early childhood education – ERO(external link)

Relationships – Ngā hononga

"Assessment is influenced by the relationships between adults and children, just as children’s learning and development are influenced by the relationships they form with others. This influence should be taken into consideration during all assessment practice."

Te Whāriki, page 30

Sociocultural approaches to assessment:

  • are reciprocal and responsive: they can be shared, negotiated, revisited, and changed
  • are situated within the context of whanaungatanga
  • are about assessment for learning: they inform and form teaching responses.

Anne Smith (1999) explains:"Sociocultural perspectives emphasise that children’s higher mental processes are formed through the scaffolding of children’s developing understanding through social interactions with skilled partners. If children are to acquire knowledge about their world it is crucial that they engage in shared experiences with relevant scripts, events, and objects with adults (and peers)."

page 86

The “relevant scripts, events, and objects” Smith refers to include assessments.

Gipps (2002) argues for assessment opportunities and relationships that are based on power with, rather than power over, children. Rose Pere (1997) points out that assessment within a Māori context is closely linked to the teacher–child relationship. Teachers and learners working closely together are in the best position to jointly evaluate the ongoing process.