Week 12: Observation and Assessment Course: Teaching Methods in the Education for Young Children

Assessment Assessment is the process of observing, recording, and documenting what children do and how they do it as a basis for a variety of educational decisions that affect the child. The purposes of assessment are: 1. to plan instruction for individuals and groups 2. to communicate with families 3. to identify children who may be in need of specialized services or intervention 4. to inform program development

General principles of assessment Assessment should bring about benefits for children. Assessment should be tailored to a specific purpose and should be reliable, valid, and fair for that purpose. Assessment should be age appropriate in both content and the method of data collection.

The Effects of Assessment: Why do teachers need to observe children? Obtain necessary information about children and their achievement (what they know and can do) The information gathered helps teachers effectively support each individual child’s development and learning.

However, an assessment system that relies solely on observational data gained from children working in natural settings does not provide sufficient information about a child’s knowledge and skill development

Three Different Sources in Assessment Observation Teacher-directed management activities Teacher-designed curriculum activities The second and third sources are necessary because we can confirm the data collected through observation, such as children’s ability to use what they know and can do in response to an external request.

Formal and Informal Assessment Formal Assessment: standardized tests (possible to compare a child’s score with the scores of a group of children) Informal Assessment: Does not entail standard guidelines for administration and use. In this assessment, teachers need to make judgments about children’s learning behavior and characteristics or programs. Rubric can be used.

Rubric

Informal Methods of Assessment Observation: looking at children in a systematic way. Anecdotal record: gives a brief written description of student specific behavior at one time. Record only what is observed or heard. Recorded after the behavior occurs. Running record: Focuses on a sequence of events that occurs over time. Recorded while the behavior is occurring. Document what children are doing in the particular situation. Event sampling: focuses on a particular behavior during a particular event (e.g. fighting during lunch time). Can understand what happened before and after the event. Time sampling: record particular events or behaviors at specific time intervals (e.g. five minutes). Document the frequency of specific behaviors. Interview: engaging children in discussion through questions Portfolio: collection of children’s work samples

Anecdotal Record

Running Record

Event Sampling TIME Before Event Event After Event 10:00 am She wanders around the classroom. She watches other children play for about 15 minutes. When another child asked to play, she started playing. 10:10 am She finishes reading a book. She looks at Brian playing with blocks. She looks at Claire coming in the classroom. 10:30 am A teacher leaves a block play section. She stops playing with blocks and watches other children playing. When Brian asked her ‘Let’s play.,’ she goes to him.

Time Sampling 8 2 30 30 26.7% 6.7%