INTRODUCTION
Assessment is the process of
gathering information using various methods to systematically gauge the
effectiveness of the institution and academic programs to document student
learning, knowledge, behaviors, and skills as a result of their collegiate experiences
(Assessment, n.d.).
Assessment and evaluation is core of
teaching and learning to check the success of individual learning as well as
group learning. Assessment of children’s learning and development will be part
of the information needed to evaluate the programme. Teaching learning will be
effective, if there is authentic, appropriate, quality assessment and
evaluation in the Early Childhood Care
and Division centres.
Evaluation process will identify
whether the environment and programme are providing for the needs of all the
children in the early childhood setting. It is essential that assessment and
evaluation are based on the goals of each strand of the curriculum and that the
principles of the curriculum are always applied.
Moreover
it must ensure that practitioners are observing children and responding
appropriately to help them make progress from birth towards the early learning
goals. Assessments should be based on practitioners’ observation of what
children are doing in their day-to-day activities. As judgments are based on
observational evidence gathered from a wide range of learning and teaching
contexts, it is expected that all adults who interact with the child should
contribute to the process, and that account will be taken of information
provided by parents.
So, this piece of review would emphasize on
the importance of Assessment and Evaluation in Early Childhood Care and
Development centre, the difference in implication of assessment strategies and
tools and also the methodologies approach initiated in building the tools.
LITERATURE
REVIEW
According to Tom (2007, p. 77) , “Assessment
is the process of gathering, analyzing, interpreting and using information
about students' progress and achievement to improve teaching and learning.” There are two different types of assessment
and they are formal and informal assessment. Formal methods include
standardized tests and research instrument whereas informal methods include
ongoing classroom observation.
The
purpose of assessment in the Bhutan, New Zealand, Australia and U.K were same
as it is to give useful information to the teachers, parents and families about
children’s learning and development. Assessment of children’s learning involves
observation of the children by the teachers for the purpose of improving the
programme in order to help children to achieve developmental milestones. It
occurs minute by minute as teachers listen, watch and interacts with an
individual child or group of children.
West (1993) in his article on Assessment in Early Childhood points
that there are many reasons why children
undergo assessments; among those are the desire to know how well children are
learning, if they are making progress and meeting proficiency benchmarks, and
if they are being taught effectively. These
continuous observations provide the basis for more in-depth assessment and
evaluation that is integral to making decisions on how to best meet children’s
needs. This practice of assessment and evaluation in ECCD fall from has become
a vital factor in determining a high-quality early childhood program.
The general
understanding of assessment and evaluation are of two perspectives. They are
developmental perspective and socio-cultural perspective. Developmental
perspective based assessment initiates and takes over in observing the child’s
development of various domains. They emphasize in assessing just one particular
child. This type of assessment was practiced in the earlier years and later
with the run in times and criticisms, the new assessment practice came into
existence as socio-cultural perspectives. One of the criticisms on the
developmental perspective assessment stated, “The complexity of children’s
learning is increased where there are opportunities to participate in learning
experiences that are authentic in the wider community.” This clearly resolved
in stating that just assessing one child on its developmental aspect was not
enough.
Assessments
are a tool for social thinking and action. Social culture perspectives
assessment suggest that in an early childhood or school setting this social
thinking and action is of a particular kind and has a particular purpose:
mutual feedback and dialogue about learning. It
take the view that learning and development, rather than being primarily
out individual achievement, is distributed over, stretched across, people,
places and things (Perkins, 1993; Salomon, 1993). This is a situated or
socio-cultural viewpoint about learning and development, one in which the early
childhood centre or the classroom is seen as a 'community of learners' and in which teaching will target the
learner-plus the - surround. In James Wretch’s words, teaching and learning is
about individual(s)-acting-with-mediational-means (Wertsch, 1991a: 12) rather
than individuals on their own, and so there is an emphasis on development as
the transformation of participation in a range of contexts (Rogoff, 1997;
Bronfenbrenner, 1979). To be consistent with this view of learning and
development assessment needs to be distributed across people, places and
things.
On other hand,
socio-cultural perspective covers the assessment of child’s development based
on building a sociable learner. They focused on interconnecting a social and
cultural world of children. Smith (1999) explains:
Socio-cultural perspectives emphasize that children’s higher
mental processes are formed through the scaffolding of children’s developing
understanding through social interactions with skilled partners. If children
are to acquire knowledge about their world it is crucial that they engage in
shared experiences with relevant scripts, events, and objects with adults.
(Pg.10)
So with the
development and changing nature of the world, new version of assessment called
socio cultural perspectives emerges. This evolvement of assessment and
evaluation gave a better chance for all the ECCD practitioners and centre all
over the world. This approach grounded in a sound understanding of appropriate
methodology which in turn provided to the policy makers foundationally in
implementing a successful programme for the child who experience it.
The social cultural perspectives types of assessment has
became popular because, First, they act as a
conscription device for participants, establishing social communities of early
childhood teachers who want to talk about learning an assessment. Second, they
must be seen to be permeable: providing social spaces for: new ideas about
assessment and its relationship with learning so that teacher - develop their
identities as learners and assessors. Third, they must invite teachers think
about their own learning pathways around assessment: to set up dialogue·
opportunities within their own settings as they adapt formats and try out new
ideas, in order to develop local assessments that afford community, competent
and continuity.
With
the realization of importance of Early Childhood Care and Development, many countries
have started initiating various organizations of early education centers. There
are many Early Childhood Care and
Development centers around the countries. Each individual country has different
assessment and evaluation strategy according to their policies. In the book of Early Childhood Education, Anning et al. (2006) states that the type
of assessment used in United Kingdom was known as Standard Assessment Tasks
(SATS), which was for seven years old focused on reading, writing and
arithmetic. For evaluation, they used two approaches to define and
measure the quality in ECCD setting: descriptive and relative: evaluative and
quasi-objective. In the reception class,
the year before the entry in the school, a standardized testing is administered
for the child on literacy and numeracy. It is known as Performance Indicators
in Primary Schools (PIPS). The reading,
phonics and math are areas of subject being tested. The ECD centre in UK had a
centralized system ordered by the ministry and it acted as a pressure on the
practitioners. A simple example was a test idea implemented on the learners
where it gave a difficult time for practitioners to conduct test. Alongside those centralised
systems, observations were often shared regularly with parents and carers,
based on their daily observations of and interactions with children and their
grounding in developmental psychology. This practise gave a good way to
creating a community of learners as they involved parents, families and
students together in assessing and evaluation.
Similarly,
before 2009 Australia’s assessment and evaluation was focused on literacy and
numeracy achievement. They used formative assessment such as documentation and
profiling as a tool. After 2009, the country established the Australian
Curriculum Assessment and reporting Authority(ACARA )where they conducted the
National Assessment Programme Literacy and Numeracy test annually for three,
five, seven and nine years old. They tested the areas of reading, writing,
language convention (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. That brought in a concern on outcome based
education.
In
the New Zealand Context, the methods of assessment they followed running
records, anecdotes, learning stories, jotting, diary or journal. At the age of
five, students were administered a school entry assessment kit which tested
children on the concepts about print, story retelling skills, and numeracy
skills and concepts. New Zealand came up with a new assessment tool termed
‘Learning Stories.’ According to Arthur et al., 2012 defines learning story as:
“Learning
stories is an assessment tool used to describe a child’s learning process and
is also a way of documenting that learning. In this, it is a record of everyday
experience, highlighting the significant points rather than recording minute
details, and making feeling and interpretations visible.”(Pg.307)
This practice of
learning story in New Zealand is a very familiar and very popular assessment
tool used in an ECCD classroom. The daily learning stories contributed by the
teacher and as well as by the parents give a strong basis on understanding the
child’s status in learning. Based on the learning stories, teacher and parent
share about their learning and they adjourn on supporting the child’s learning
after that.
In Bhutan, the
similar importance is being projected to assessment and evaluation in the ECCD
centre. Though the importance is being realized, the practice lacks skills and
strategies in Bhutan. The practice of assessment and evaluation in Bhutan
ranges more on a teacher centered idea. There is an involvement of a teacher
and student only during the times of assessing and evaluating. The involvement
of parent is limited in child’s learning and that cause to failure in
developing a learning community. Though Bhutan tries to adopt the
socio-cultural approach of assessment with a motive to build a community of
learner, with the lack of professionalism in practitioners, it has failed to
put the appropriate meaning of socio-cultural perspective assessment. A simple
situation in Bhutanese classroom can be when a teacher call upon parents only
on the day of result where they are informed just about the outcome or the
performance of a child. These happen to be a weakness of an assessment in the
practice. A best assessment and evaluation would result only when all the
stakeholders work together in learning.
The various stakeholders participate along with the centre in deriving a
better learning in the centre. Early Childhood Care and Development programmer
do not bear a standardized testing. The actual meaning makes sense when the
daily observations are documented, recorded and then evaluated. The
observations and the records maintained provide a network in guiding the
structure of a curriculum. Bhutan uses diagnostic, formative and summative
assessment. The strategies that our country follows are observation, checklist,
question and answer, portfolio, conference, peer assessment and self-assessment.
According to the
curriculum guide of ECCD centre of Bhutan, it states that the following tools
and techniques must be used in Bhutanese ECCD center. Methods of assessment
include informal observation notes, running records, conversations with
children, discussions with parents/family, photographs, video or audio
recording, collection of children’s work and Portfolio.
PORTFOLIO
A
folder or portfolio should be kept for each child in attendance at the early
childhood care and education programme.
Over
the course of the child’s time at the centre samples of the child’s work and
other relevant observations and information will be added to the folder to show
the child’s progress over time.
DOCUMENTATION
Teachers
who can document children’s learning in a variety of ways are able to respond to
demands for accountability. They are more effective when they document, as
documentation skills will allow information to be available for more productive
planning decisions, including how to set up the centre, what to do next, what
questions to ask and resources to provide. Children perceive learning to be
important and worthwhile when teachers document their learning.
Evaluation
The
purpose of evaluation is to enable teachers to make informed decisions about
the success of their plans and programmes being provided and enable them to
adapt and change as required to meet the needs of all the children.
REPORT ON THE FIELD TRIP TO Dungkar ECCD Centre
Early
Childhood Care and Development is a new paradigm in the education setup of
Bhutan. With Bhutan’s developmental philosophy and long term developmental
objectives, Ministry of Education provided a framework for development with the
ECCD centre set across the nation (1999, p.44).
Education had a wider scope in shaping the nation as a whole. The new
shift gave parents a manageable time with their children during the times of
their office. More over the children will be able to develop intellectually and
socializing skills, which children will be brought up equally.
Its function was directed towards
providing quality early childhood care and development services to children
from birth to age of eight years. It was meant to be an integral initiative to
the strategy of human resource development, to nurture a future community of
Bhutanese to become responsible and productive members of society.”
Dungkar
ECCD Centre is one of many Early Learning centers established in the nation. It
is located at Lhuentse with two facilitators and ninety learners. With many staffs
settled in the particular gewog and also since it has more number of population
in and around premises, Dungkar ECCD Centre serve their service at the best in
taking care of Childs learning, physical growth and psychological developments.
(These are being guided by the curriculum set by the Royal Government of
Bhutan). And of the aspects that initiate a structured learning inside the
curriculum is ‘Assessment and Evaluation.’ That is being studied in detail in
this Centre by me to do this assessment
The
current report is designed to note the effectiveness of types of assessment and
evaluation practice initiated in Centre. The main questions of the report
includes on exploring the composition and structure of assessment practices and
ideas that the facilitator regulate in the learning centre. This report presents
the interview questions that I had with the facilitator of the centre on September
7, 2013.
DESCRIPTION
OF THE ACTIVITIES
The field work
ran for 2 hours on September 7th, 2015 in ECCD centre of Dungkar.
During this field trip I visited the various areas of learning centre,
interacted with the little learners, and looked into their classroom and other
environment. Aside from these, I covered our main purpose of interviewing the ECCDI
or facilitator on ‘Assessment and Evaluation’ practice they practice in their
learning centre. Following is a description of the activities in the field.
I
began my interview by acknowledging them for the kind permission granted for us
to come into the learning centre and interview them. I introduced the topic
that I have chosen and based on and it was ‘Assessment and Evaluation.’ Then I
requested to generally give us a brief introduction to the kind of
administration setup for the Childs learning in the centre. Then gradually we
transited into the interview questions that we had setup for the principle and
the facilitators.
Based
on the literature review on ‘Assessment and Evaluation’, the visit to centre
gave me a better idea on understanding the practice of assessment and
evaluation on children’s learning in the classroom. In the very beginning, the
admission of the children in the centre was regulated through observation for a
month. During that period of time, the facilitators took a daily record based
on the description in the physical and cognitive areas. These were referred to
discuss and evaluate to whether accept the child or not in the centre. .
The
centre also had an examination conducted twice in a year. The areas assessed on
were EPL (Exercise of practical Life) sensory, Language and Mathematics. It was
similar to the examination conducted in the schools to evaluate the annual
learning of a child. Aside from the annual assessment and evaluation, facilitators
also maintained a daily portfolio of the child and these were being send
through the child every day to the parents to let the parents reflect on their
children’s work and to appreciate their learning.
One
of the best practices that the centre had was a documenting of Childs profile.
The documented profile was handed over the Childs parents annually. This was
done to make the things convenient for the parents in the next term unlike
government schools where parents had to come and sign if they take their
children to another centre. The regularity system was made convenient to the
learners. And in that profile, the facilitator had their reflection documented
about the particular children’s learning and development.
There
were few challenges that the government came over. Though the challenge did not
have anything to do with the children’s assessment part in their learning, they
had the trouble in acquiring a professional facilitators who has the major
ideas on regulating the children’s learning and assessing them
professionally. This impact was observed
causative to the classroom learning in an ECCD centers but the centre had no
option other than to employ the fresh graduates with limited days of training
as a facilitator. I saw that the government had very limited support in
training the facilitators for the ECCD centre. It was just once in a year, a
training opportunity was provided to one of the facilitators from one centre.
Beside
the hard time of this situation, centre had a different perspective in terms of
regulating the learning areas. They did not follow the curriculum for ECCD
prescribed by the Government of Bhutan. The principle shared that Governments
curriculum emphasizes just on six domains but their mode of curriculum that
they emphasized had more than these six domains. These derived creative
facilitators in the centre having different assessing formats based on their
creativity. The facilitators were directed to explore based on their own idea
not just on rubrics, checklist and other standard tools that the curriculum of
government stated. The assessment and evaluation tools that the curriculum of
ECCD mentioned by the Ministry of Education were found just duplicated by not
looking at the nature of children’s learning in a contextual way as well as
intellectual way. Facilitator felt that it bounded the learner in a foreign
context and it did not provoke the creativeness of Bhutanese ECCD facilitators.
However they are quite welcoming in receiving the assessments and evaluation
tools and technique which is used in other countries like Australia and New
Zealand.
Beside
the regular assessment in the children’s learning, they had a portfolio and
report book of a child. These recorded daily happenings of a Childs activity in
a day. These report books were sent to the parents every evening and that
provided the chance for the parents to assess onto how their child was
developing daily. The centre did not entertain any parents during the
assessment and evaluation. The inclusion of parents was seen in the first one
month and after that they had no involvement. It was observed that including
parents while learning was a distraction to Childs interest. When an area is
being assessed, a particular facilitator and an observer are involved. They
observe, later combine and compare the marks and the child is being assessed
and evaluated. But in case if parents desired to know about the assessment part
of their child, then the facilitators discussed about the Childs development
with the parents.
Finally,
I found that the government level evaluation and assessment was absent in the
centre. The Royal Government of Bhutan’s Ministry of Education did not have a
regular evaluation of the centers management and functioning though they had a
special evaluation when a centre made a proposal to set the early learning
centre.
ANALYSIS OF THE INFORMATION
From
the programme of field trip conducted in visiting the early learning centre in
checking its system of assessment and evaluation, we made an apprehensive understanding
of assessment and evaluations importance in Early Childhood Care and
Development centre. Dungkar ECCD Centre is a registered government ECCD centre
located in Lhuentse Dzongkhag, under Kurtoed Gewog.
From
the interview conducted based on Assessment and Evaluation with the principle
and facilitator of Dungkar ECCD Centre, I was informed on various information
and in accordance with it, we derived an analytical perspectives out of the
information shared.
The
practice of ‘Assessment and Evaluation’ in the centre did not have a standard
stand. Though the curriculum had an explicit explanation of the usage of
various assessment tools, the facilitators initiated in having a different
assessing techniques based on their own creativeness. This told us the story of
inconvenience that the learning centre faced because of the curriculum designed
by the Government of Bhutan. The government’s draft of curriculum for ECCD
proved weak when implicated in the field. But the initiative did exist in terms
of child’s admission when the child was kept under observation for a month.
This was a good practice that the centre had. This practice gave a good chance
in understanding the learner because the facilitators kept daily records of
child’s deed. Based on that, the child was being admitted or dismissed from
admission.
The
other assessing tools in the centre, anyhow, had examination as one of it. They
had a grading system where they had the level one, two and three derived. To
reach upon the level, it was the examination as assessment tool that helped the
facilitator to decide on whether to promote the learner to the next level or
not. And the idea of having checklist used as a tool just once annually was an
inappropriate usage of the tool. The checklist had the annual indicator in the
criteria assessed onto and this seemed to not to bother the daily development
that a child went through.
Upon
visiting and asking them about the assessment tools, they did not have anything
in concrete to show and that showed their incapability in maintaining daily
assessing tools which in fact was the most important thing in an ECCD centre
for assessing the young learners. I was verbally explained on how they assess
the child but we failed to get any documented assessment tool from the centre
and this showed the weakness that a centre was bearing as a learning centre.
It
was observed that the curriculum body of ECCD in Bhutan had a very minor view
of the learners. It looked on the basic six domains of the children but it had
left the importance of children’s holistic development and social development
in particular. This built in strength on the facilitators of Dungkar ECCD
Centre where they diverted their thinking capability in a better and a creative
way to help the young learners learn in a better way. This caught the attention
to prove that Bhutan can have own assessment tool without depending on the
foreign tools. It showed the importance of developing a contextual assessment
and evaluation tool where Bhutanese have the chance of being assessed and
evaluated through a Bhutanese assessing tool.
Through
their assessment, it gave a greater will of understanding the gradual
development of a child in many areas. The error in the Childs development was
detectable through those types of assessment. Additional to it, assessment
helped in evaluating the children’s s stand and then work on it.
GAPS IN
ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRACTISE
Through
the two hours of interview based on the ‘Assessment and Evaluation’ practice,
the analysis of our report detected few gaps in term of the practice that the Centre
I have observed put up to. So the principle said it was different from ECCD
centre and we felt they use their own assessment and evaluation technique, which
is very different from others centre. Basically they have their own centre
curriculum and assessment.
The
literature reviews that we covered few days back had a description of a
learning centre with a setting where children are not judged through exam but
through the daily observations using various tools in assessing but the
practice that the centre had put to was an examination. They were covered on
the topics like Numeracy and Literacy which actually was not a strand to be
taught in the early learning centers. We have learned that children are
assessed based on EPL (Exercise practical learning) and sensory learning in
first term that is before midterm and after midterm. They are also assessed in
language and numeracy. In this, the facilitator used their own checklist and
observation tools to assess the children learning in the centre. In one of
answers to our query, the facilitator pointed that the assessment and
curriculum of ECCD test only six domains which meant the assessment and
evaluation mentioned in the curriculum guide was less important for them. Upon
asking the usage of tools in the Centre, the facilitator said they used
self-made checklist and they were quite skeptical to show the format and also
same with observation tools they were using in the centre.
RCOMMENDATION ON ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION PRACTISE
- Department of curriculum and research division in collaboration with Ministry of Education, Bhutan should frame the prescribed curriculum for all Early Childhood Care Development.so that they can have equal teaching and learning curriculum which is possible to have standardized assessment and evaluation
- Well trained ECCD facilities (MoE) with appropriate qualification in the field of ECCD. Which the facilitator will have enough knowledge to have assessment and evaluation technique in the centre.
- There should be standard and appropriate assessment and evaluation in the centre, where the entire centre across the county must use it by any means.
- The Education Monitor Official or education officials need to evaluate and assess the ECCD progress and development. The formal and informal assessment which is in the curriculum guide of Bhutan. They must put into the practice and it must be monitor for the quality teaching and learning in the centre.
- Parents must render full support to ECCD centre and facilitators in assessing as well as in doing the evaluation in the centre.
- The curriculum should be contextualize and realistic in Bhutanese context, and they can adopt other country curriculum and assessment, however they can revise and make some improvement in the Bhutanese context.
- Their need to have enough space for the children to play and engross in different types of games and sports. Where the facilitators can assess children gross and fine motor development when the classroom learning takes cares of intellectual development.
8. The
center would run effectively and efficiently if the facilitators are given
training and workshops on assessment tools
and evaluation
9. The
center has been using appropriate assessment tools and evaluation but it would
better if the center (facilitators) could use it in proper ways.
CONCLUSION
Assessment and
Evaluation is one of the most important pedagogy which act as a network in
child’s learning. The implementation of this strategy in terms of tools support
in assessing the child’s learning and its continuity and later with making
judgment though the data observed. The practice of assessment and evaluation is
followed in every country over the world in the learning of a child in normal
classroom as well as ECCD classrooms. Different countries based on their own
policies have different ways of going with the styles of assessment and
evaluation. The approaches of assessment are similar in kind. All the countries
have the approaches emphasized some on developmental approach of assessment and
some on socio-cultural based assessment.
The children will
have progressive growth and development in terms of both cognitive and
psychomotor. During the stage of rapid growth and development, if the children
were taken good care both at home and in the school, the future of those
children will be very bright. But childcare centers are generally an option for
working parents who need their children to be taken care during the day while
parents are at work (Kanter, 2010).
According to
Kanter, (2010) “preschool refers to an early –childhood educational class for 3
and 4 years old” early childcare program are beneficial to children in their
early years and can contribute to their development and assist in laying
foundation for ongoing learning experiences.
The quality of
the early childhood care and development (ECCD) will be better and effective if
the centers as a whole have good assessment and evaluation practice, good
learning environment and good relationship with the families and communities.
In our recent visit to one of the centers, Tshenden Montessori, we looked into
their effective practice of Assessment and Evaluation. With the tools of
questionnaires and interview, we got an idea of their implication of these
assessment tools and we also analyzed on their practice. After the analysis, we
recommended few applicable suggestions and strategies to improve the system in
the learning of children.
T5he core
objective of this assignment lead us the teachers to understand the context of
Assessment and Evaluation tools that were being implemented in the learning of
a child.\
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