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

Book 12: The strands of Te Whāriki: Well-being – Ngā taumata whakahirahira ki Te Whāriki: Mana Atua

Introduction - He kupu whakataki

In 2001, Mason Durie set out a framework for considering Māori educational advancement. He set out three goals in this framework (discussed in Book 1). Goal 3 relates to well-being:

"A third goal for education is linked to well-being. Education should be able to make a major – if not the major – contribution to health and well-being and to a decent standard of living. Educational achievement correlates directly with employment, income levels, standards of health, and quality of life. Where there is educational underachievement, health risks are higher, length of life is reduced, and poor health is a more likely consequence … A successful education therefore is one that lays down the groundwork for a healthy lifestyle and a career with an income adequate enough to provide a high standard of living." 1

This book collects together exemplars from early childhood settings that illustrate the assessment of learning that is valued within the curriculum strand of Well-being/Mana Atua, keeping in mind that the following definition of exemplars was developed by advisers and co-ordinators during the exemplar project:

"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."

Although the exemplars have been annotated with a Well-being/Mana Atua 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 strands are inextricably intertwined and interconnected.

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