CONTENTSWe were aware that the learning story approach to assessment was being used increasingly throughout other parts of the early childhood education sector. We wanted to find out more about it and decided to look at what assessment was already happening in each home base before we took on this new approach. We looked at our assessment goals, which included the following statement:
"Educators provide each child with opportunities for learning that are based on the individual strengths of the child."
We decided to explore how well we were doing this. Firstly, we planned for our coordinators to make this a priority on their visits to educators – both as a discussion point and to invite educators to explore their assessment practice. This would be supported by weekly discussions between coordinators. We also planned to hold an educators' workshop in 3 months' time to which everyone would bring their thoughts about current assessment practices, informed by their prior discussions.
During this time, we shared readings and circulated copies of Kei Tua o te Pae | Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars around the network. Coordinators collected examples of assessment records and shared ideas with educators and with one another. They recorded the differences between what was written in the assessments and what was actually happening as articulated by the educators.
One of the coordinators worked with an educator to record the following learning story, in handwritten form.
Learning story
Monday 27 June
You're back!
On Monday morning, Henry woke late and came into the lounge saying "Are my friends here yet?" Lucas beamed when he saw Henry come into the room. Henry went up to Lucas and said, "I have missed you." The boys had a big cuddle.
What's happening here?
Henry had just had a week off. He had missed his friends and was anxious to see them. Henry was able to articulate this as he came into the room and as he told Lucas he had missed him. (Communication)
Lucas beamed at Henry and was clearly pleased to be back. The secure relationship that has been built was evident in the pleasure and delight they showed when greeting each other. (Wellbeing, Belonging)
The discussion that took place at our workshop three months later showed us that many of the wonderful things that were happening for children simply weren't reflected in the written material. We recognised that educators could 'talk' the language of Te Whāriki but that this was not always evident in the assessment records.
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Conclusion
When we looked at the learning story that had been written, everyone was extremely positive, saying "I could do that!" and "This makes it real." Someone asked the question "How do you know that Lucas was delighted to see Henry?" as the photo didn't seem to demonstrate this. As a result, we started to get a lot more critical about the way we described learning and what we recognised as learning. The learning story became a prompt for our discussions about the learning that we recognised and valued.
Together we completed a SWOT analysis (see Appendix 2) to help us explore the pros and cons of learning stories. We ended up being a little more cautious about jumping in 'boots and all'.
The consensus from the group was that the current documentation was not working. Moreover, there was a new way of thinking about assessment that we wanted to know more about!
We concluded our workshop with a plan for moving forward. We decided that educators and coordinators would spend the next 3 months writing learning stories together and sharing digital cameras to record learning. We would then analyse these using the Child's questions framework (see Appendix 2).
Management sent out a newsletter to families to families explaining what we were trying, and we began another review to see if it would work. We also planned to access professional development so that we could learn more about this new way of working and how we could deepen our understanding and appreciation of assessment.
