Measuring and assessing children, especially young children, is a highly controversial topic. School boards and governments are calling for accountability in education and often use standardized testing to achieve this. Most standardized tests are not a good assessment of skills that don't fall under the academic heading. Looking at a child holistically means that all areas of development be looked at. Howard Gardner has developed nine intelligences (Berger, 2012). Each child is stronger in some and weaker in others. Most children excel in one specific intelligence. Assessment should include all the intelligences so that a well rounded snapshot of the child can be developed.
In the UK, the public education system has implemented an assessment called the Early Years Foundation Stage profile. This profile is a checklist that focusses on three main areas of development; communication and language, physical development, and personal, social and emotional development. This system relies heavily on observation and recording the observations. It appears to give a broad range of information to teachers and parents about a child's development.
References
Berger, K.S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth
Publishers.
The Foundation Years. (2012) Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (EYFS) 2012.
Retrieved from http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/early-years-foundation-stage-2012/
In the UK, the public education system has implemented an assessment called the Early Years Foundation Stage profile. This profile is a checklist that focusses on three main areas of development; communication and language, physical development, and personal, social and emotional development. This system relies heavily on observation and recording the observations. It appears to give a broad range of information to teachers and parents about a child's development.
References
Berger, K.S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth
Publishers.
The Foundation Years. (2012) Statutory framework for the early years foundation stage (EYFS) 2012.
Retrieved from http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/early-years-foundation-stage-2012/
I researched Japan for assessment this week. In Japan, teachers assess children using ready made or teacher made tests. At the end of the primary (elementary) school years, the students are tested to see which secondary school they will attend. They attend preschool until age 6, and are not required to be able to read. Japanese at entry to school. (http://www.inca.org.uk/japan-system-mainstream.html) While Japanese families push academic achievement, the government controlled curriculum requires hands-on learning.
ReplyDeleteThe UK assessment tool sounds like the Work Sampling System that we use in my District. We measure and evaluate using five domains, Emotional/Social, Language/Literacy, Math, Science and Health. We put in anecdotes, create checklists and are able to see where the children are proficient and where they need help. It's a great system. If you would like to check it out, visit www.worksamplingonline.com
ReplyDeleteJennifer,
ReplyDeleteI find your research about the UK and their assessment interesting. I think that would be a great way to assess the child's development instead of those darn standardize testing! I have always said those standard tests don't assess the whole child and aren't accurate. There are so many factors that play into the results of those tests. For example, was the child sick the day she/he took the test? Maybe the child doesn't test well using a paper/pencil type assessment. There are so many different ways to assess a child than the standardize testing.
Making a portfolio by sampling the child's work would allow the parent to see the progress the child is making over time. I think parents would like that; I find the parents of my students enjoy their handwriting samples, and journal pages with drawing and writing. Assessing children with samples from their work would allow the teacher to choose their best work in a given time period, instead of having to accept what the child did on a certain day at a certain time on a test. Seems like a great idea to me.
ReplyDeleteHi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your post. I had a hard time recommending what would be the ideal was to assess children. It seems like UK is doing better than most other countries if they are really practicing the observation method to those three areas. Howard Gardner's nine areas could be a starting point to evaluate what tests a country needs to include to assess school performance that in turn assesses student performance.
Regards,
Divya