Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference1 Assessment in early childhood education – children follow-up instrument an action research-project October October 2010 Gabriela Portugal Departamento de Ciências da Educação Universidade de Aveiro (UA) Portugal Co-authors: Ofélia Libório, Paula Santos, Aida Figueiredo, Natália Abrantes

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference2 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) In Portugal, the Curricular Orientations (CO) for pre-school education are defined as a reference framework that is common to every early childhood teacher (ECT) allowing for different curricula and options. CO is a very open document that gives the ECT some guidelines in what concerns the framing areas of knowledge and of development of children, making possible the conception and development of different curricula and evaluation practices

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference3 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) To work in a qualitative superior way in ECE presupposes that the ECT: Is able to respond to the diversity of childhood experiences, which is patent in the different educational contexts; Has a deep knowledge of the content areas he/she approaches; Uses documentation and evaluation strategies that can fundament the curriculum development and the teaching learning processes.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference4 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) In Portugal, in the context of a national debate about Education (how to improve education for the future generations?), a specific debate concerning knowledge and new competences for ECE took place (November, 2006). Some key issues arise: The low educational intentionality is the major limitation concerning content areas… ECT need ECE competences better clarified… Teaching and evaluating by competences presupposes knowledge and professional competences that many ECT do not have … ECT need guiding in what concerns evaluation practices that allow them to answer the demands of the next teaching level and organizational needs of the school… Some strategies pointed out: It’s important to develop action-research contextualized projects… It’s important to develop good practices of evaluation and planning… It’s important to value ECE acquisitions and to visualize the educational continuity to primary school.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference5 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) This project consists on a research on the evaluation and curriculum development in pre-school education, focusing on the construction of instruments to aid the pedagogical practice, facilitating the relation between the practices of documentation, evaluation and curricular edification.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference6 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) In what concerns the way children develop and learn, the CFI intends to promote practices that are guided by humanist and social- constructivist principles, emphasising developmentally appropriate practices. Education occurs in interaction and is a dialogue between people (children and adults) marked by the respect and “listening” of the other, stimulating and giving autonomy to the learner (permitting the acting at the zone of proximal development…) Children are competent and full citizens but need the support of adults. The construction of this instrument is structured around the principle that evaluation should be process based and should make possible the development of practices that are oriented not only by the future benefits and effects, but also by the actual participation of children and current quality of their life.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference7 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) Source of inspiration: POMS - Laevers, F. et al. (1997) “A process-oriented child monitoring system for young children”, Centre for Experiential Education, KU Leuven Children follow-up instrument (CFI), taking into account: The reality and the official Portuguese Curricular Orientations; Contextual (means), process (involvement and emotional well-being) and developmental (competence development) quality indicators; Effective participation of the child in the evaluation and curriculum development.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference8 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) The correct use of CFI will allow ECT having a clear view of: -The functioning of the group in general, considering levels of involvement and well-being; -The aspects which require specific interventions, considering the educational offer, the group climate, room for initiative, school organisation and adult style; -The identification of children who need differentiated attention; -The drawing of a trajectory of initiatives that can lead to the solving of problems and to the maximization of the educational quality, both towards the group and the individual child; -The evaluation of results (competence development); -The operationalisation of the pre-school curriculum.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference9 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) The development of the project will help to understand the ECE practices in kindergartens located at Aveiro district (in the centre of Portugal) and to collect data that can allow the identification of: Hindrances to innovation in ECE that can act as orientation for the training of early childhood teachers in our training school (UA); Common problems that can orient the description of possibilities to solve them and that can be part of a practical guide for schools, institutions and ECT.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference10 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) The context of initial training of early childhood teachers at the UA has characteristics that we see as facilitators of the development of a research project capable of generating knowledge on the documentation and evaluation in ECE, namely: Research is a fundamental axis of the professional profile of the ECT we train… We have a set of ECT who cooperate with us and who are open to and interested in participating in research projects on evaluation and curriculum development.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference11 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) The concretization of the project demands: a work of the research team in the development and adjustment of the CFI (having POMS as basis). training moments with our students and the ECT who cooperate with us; the application of the CFI in preschools settings, and consequent adjustment; the preparation of a ultimate version of the instrument and, in the future, its divulgation.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference12 Assessment in early childhood education (ECE) – children follow-up instrument (CFI) Repercussions We hope to contribute to the understanding of ECT on what concerns competence development in ECE, acting contrary to the tendency to “import” the evaluation culture of other teaching levels, in order to clarify the specificity of ECE in what regards evaluation practices; We wish to contribute to the dissemination of educational practices which contribute to the promotion of equal opportunities, defend “what ‘s best for the child” considering scientific research and the democratic and humanist principles, bearing in mind that quality in ECE has to do with the meaning that children give to their experiences; We want to understand what to do in order to contribute through training for change and innovation in ECE; We expect to build contextualised knowledge on themes we’ve been working, such as: educational quality in ECE, inclusive practices, evaluation and curriculum in ECE, research with children or children as participants, training of reflexive ECT.

Prague, Czech Republic 29th Aug-1st Sept 07 17th EECERA Annual Conference13 Thank you for your attention. Gabriela Portugal Departamento de Ciências da Educação Universidade de Aveiro (UA) Portugal Co-authors: Ofélia Libório, Paula Santos, Aida Figueiredo, Natália Abrantes