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.

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Book 15: The strands of Te Whāriki: Contribution – Ngā taumata whakahirahira ki Te Whāriki: Mana Tangata

Introduction - He kupu whakataki

How does one maintain standards of accountability – to students, teachers, and parents, to school officials who are responsible for the students’ progress … while at the same time keeping the social contract with students, who are encouraged to view themselves as co-equal participants in a community of sharing? This is a difficult tightrope to walk, and our approach has been to be honest with the children and to allow them to participate in the assessment process as much as possible.1

This book collects together early childhood exemplars that illustrate the assessment of learning that is valued within the curriculum strand of Contribution/Mana Tangata, keeping in mind that:

"Exemplars are examples of assessments that make visible learning that is valued so that the learning community (children, families, whānau, teachers, and beyond) can foster ongoing and diverse learning pathways." 2

Although these exemplars are viewed through a Contribution/Mana Tangata lens, in many cases the lens of another strand could have been used. The principle of Holistic Development or Kotahitanga set out in Te Whāriki is a reminder that the curriculum “strands” are a construction, and in any episode of a child’s learning, these areas are inextricably intertwined and interconnected.

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