Assessment for Learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage

Jonathan Glazzard, Denise Chadwick, Anne Webster, Julie Percival

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781446241417
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Are you struggling with the complexities of assessment? Demystifying the process of assessment for learning in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), this book explains in straightforward language how to put principles into practice.

Looking at models of assessment, the book draws heavily on examples of real assessments from practice, and the relevant theory is explained in context. Lessons from research are applied to best practice, and issues covered include:

-self-assessment and peer assessment

-collecting evidence as a basis for making judgements

-how to track the child?s development in the six areas of learning

-using assessment to inform future planning

-summative assessment in the EYFS

-involving parents and carers in the assessment process

-using assessment to support children with additional needs

-moderation

Throughout the book there are plenty of practical examples from a range of early years settings, with case studies for the Birth to Five age range.

Students, teachers, teaching assistants and those working towards Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) will find this an invaluable guide.

1

Assessment for learning:
theoretical perspectives and
leading pedagogy

Jonathan Glazzard and Julie Percival

Chapter Objectives

This chapter focuses on:

• The ideas of key theorists and the implications of this body of knowledge for your own practice.
• Leading pedagogical approaches and the use of these approaches in your own practice.

Why is it important to include a chapter on theorists, theories and leading pedagogy? As a practitioner, you might question the relevance of theory to your own practice. All you really want are ‘tips’ that will help you to do your job better. However, there is a significant difference between being a practitioner and being a reflective practitioner. It is vital that you have knowledge of the underpinning theories upon which your practice is based. This helps to articulate your practice more effectively, and, more importantly, knowledge of the underpinning theories helps you to know why you are doing what you are doing. Clearly, within one chapter it is not possible to cover all the theories and this chapter does not seek to do this. Instead, this chapter focuses on a small selection of ideas that have the potential to have a major impact on your practice.

Leading approaches and theories

This section does not attempt to focus on all the approaches and theorists who have relevance to early years education. Instead this section provides a brief synopsis of well-known approaches to early years practice and key learning theories which underpin effective practice. The relevance of these approaches and theories to assessment will be highlighted.

The Montessori approach

Montessori was born in 1870. Montessori emphasised the importance of children learning through their senses through practical tasks, which children worked through individually. She introduced a range of self-correcting teaching apparatus, which enabled children to correct their mistakes. You may have seen plastic trays for sorting shapes into specific compartments. This is an example of the Montessori approach. The role of the adult within this approach is to observe children and guide them through their misconceptions. Careful assessment is therefore central to the Montessori approach.

The Steiner approach

Rudolph Steiner set up his first school in Stuttgart in 1919 for the children of the cigarette factory workers. Steiner emphasised the importance of nature in early education. He believed that children should be encouraged to play in the mud and sand and that they should explore the properties of water. He emphasised the importance of children learning through their senses and the importance of rhythm, song and rhyme. Steiner believed that the formal process of learning to read should begin after the age of 7. He stressed the importance of learning through play, especially imaginative play, and the importance of cookery in the curriculum. Steiner emphasised the importance of play that is unstructured by adults.

The role of the adult within this model is to act as a guide and mentor to young children. Therefore adults may play alongside children and children will learn through imitation. Thus, in an art activity a practitioner might work alongside children creating their own painting. In this example, the adult models key skills discretely and the children absorb these, thus moving their learning forward. The adult acts as a mentor within the Steiner model and this has implications for assessment.

It is not difficult to see elements of this approach interwoven in the statutory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. Therefore, as a student it is important that you plan frequent opportunities for children to learn in the outdoors and that you value the learning which takes place through play. The role of the adult within children’s play is also important within this model. Steiner believed that adults should not direct or control children’s play. He believed that children should set their own agendas for their play. However, within this model, practitioners should support the play and children will then learn through imitation. You may be familiar with the term child-initiated, adult-supported learning and this is an application of Steiner’s model.

Reflective Activity

Imagine that a group of children are engaged with fantasy play based around the Gingerbread Man. You observe their play closely and you notice that some children are not using expressive language and not taking turns in their communication. You ask the children if you can play with them and you decide to be one of the characters in the story. You start to model the use of expressive language. You speak in a similar way to the characters in the story and you model turn taking in communication.

• How important is the assessment process in this scenario?
• How did the practitioner support the children’s learning?

Reggio Emilia

Loris Malaguzzi (Malaguzzi 1996) was the founder of the Reggio Emilia approach. He believed that there are a hundred ways in which children learn and express themselves. Assessment should therefore seek to capture all the ‘languages’ of expression, and learning can be evidenced through a range of forms including play, language, art, drama and the written word. Within this approach it is the role of the practitioner to co-construct learning alongside the child. Assessment is used to identify where support is needed. There is no written curriculum. Instead, the child is seen as the starting point for the curriculum. Practitioners can therefore use assessment to identify children’s interests.

Te Whariki

Te Whariki is the national curriculum for early childhood in New Zealand and it was developed by Margaret Carr and Helen May. Literally translated, ‘Te Whariki’ means a woven mat on which everyone can stand. The mat represents central principles, strands and goals into which each setting is able to weave its own curriculum to meet local needs. The curriculum is mandatory in all government-funded settings. The broad principles focus on empowering the child and a focus on the holistic learner. Positive relationships and strong partnerships with families and communities form part of the core principles. The five strands include developing a sense of well-being, developing a sense of belonging, and making contributions to learning, communication and exploration. Thus, play-based learning and active learning are central to the curriculum. This approach draws on sociocultural theory, which assumes that learning is socially constructed between children and adults and between children and their peers. The role of the adult is to scaffold the child’s learning. Therefore accurate assessment is necessary so that learning tasks can be pitched at the correct level within the child’s capabilities. ‘Minute by minute’ adults are asked to listen, watch and interact with a child or groups of children. In addition, ‘intelligent’ observational assessment gathered over time, plays a crucial role in enabling practitioners to identify missing links within a child’s learning journey. Appropriate intervention, scaffolding and support can then be provided to enable the child to progress. The curriculum is not fixed and through evaluation of provision and careful application of principles, the programme will be modified to better meet the needs of particular communities of children.

Vygotsky: a social constructivist perspective

Vygotsky proposed that children could reach higher levels of understanding if someone who is more able supports them through their zone of proximal development. This is the gap between what children can do unaided and what they can potentially do if they are supported. Essentially, an adult or peer co-constructs the learning with the learner until the learner is able to complete the task independently. Vygotsky believed that children’s development (cognitive, social and language development) is enhanced through social interaction. This contrasts with Piaget’s views of the child as a solitary learner. Jerome Bruner used the metaphor scaffolding as an analogy to explain how adults or more able peers can support children’s learning. The scaffolder supports the child by supporting, guiding, modelling and questioning until the child is able to complete the task independently. The role of the scaffolder is to co-construct the learning with the child until the child is able to function without the support. Learning in this way takes place in a social context and language exchanges facilitate learning. Vygotsky highlighted the role of language in learning and the importance of language as a tool for constructing thinking. He believed that social interaction is a vital part of the learning process.

What are the implications of this approach for assessment for learning? As a student on placement, it is essential that you plan tasks which are within the child’s zone of proximal development. You need to know where children are in their learning (actual developmental level). This knowledge is derived from your assessments of each individual child. You therefore need to track children’s progress against the EYFS framework. You need to plan challenging tasks that are pitched slightly above the child’s actual level of development in order to move children through their respective zones of proximal development. You can do this by identifying the child’s ‘next steps’, using the EYFS framework. Providing that adult or peer support is available you can then provide support to enable children to reach their proximal levels of development. The learning is essentially co-constructed between the adult and the child. This is a fundamentally different concept to the learning being ‘directed’ by a more knowledgeable other.

Reflective Activity

Your observations show that Matthew is able to select the correct numerals to represent 1 to 5. You now want to move him forward in his learning.

• Use the EYFS framework to identify Matthew’s actual development.
• Use this same framework to identify the next steps for Matthew.
• Think carefully about how you will support Matthew to reach his proximal level. How will you introduce the new concepts in a way that allows both you and Matthew to co-construct the learning rather than you directing the learning?
• How will you assess Matthew’s progress?

Key Points

• Use observation and other forms of assessment to identify children’s actual levels of development. Use the EYFS framework to plan their next steps. Plan activities to address children’s next steps. Activities should be pitched at a level higher than the child’s actual level of development to ensure sufficient challenge. However, some consolidation or reinforcement tasks will also be necessary.
• Observe children engaged in child-initiated and adult-led learning. Identify any misconceptions and provide appropriate support to enable children to progress through their respective zones of proximal development.

Case Study: Parents as partners: local
authority context

Read the following case study of a local authority project. A local authority practitioner has written the case study, As you read the case study think carefully about how social constructivist theory has been draw on to support work with the parents. (As you may know, Petwari is the local dialect of Punjabi.)

The practitioner devised workshops for small groups of parents where they listened to ‘sounds from home’ boxes. Everyday cardboard boxes were filled with a range of different materials that could be found in the home: for example, pasta, rice, wooden pegs, stones, spoons and coins. The parents were encouraged to shake the boxes, talk about the sounds they could hear and make phonic links with the words describing the materials. No graphemes were introduced, as the point was to encourage parents to ‘tune into sounds’.

The parents became very enthusiastic about exploring sounds and linking them to words and a second workshop was held for them to feed back what they had done at home with their children. Examples of the learning points raised by the parents themselves were:

• ‘B…b..b.. we’ve got bath and banana and books and bangles at home!’
• ‘In English, it’s r r r r rice but in Petwari it’s ch ch ch chowel. My son knows both.’
• ‘She put the stones and then marbles in a bucket and played with them in the garden.’

Above all there was a message for the parents about the importance of their involvement with their children at home. As one parent summarised:

‘Now I know that this learning can be fun. It doesn’t have to be boring and serious. Last night I sat on the bed with my son and we listened to the sound of the owl. We made the sound. Is that early phonics?’

Many questions are raised by this see...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Key to icons
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• About the authors
• Preface
• 1 Assessment for Learning: Theoretical Perspectives and Leading Pedagogy
• 2 Values and Principles of Assessment in the Early Years Foundation Stage
• 3 Enabling Environments
• 4 Personalised Learning: Looking at Children Holistically
• 5 Listening to Children and Each Other
• 6 Collecting Meaningful Evidence
• 7 Summarising Learning and Development at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage
• 8 Involving Parents and Carers as Partners in Assessment
• 9 What Impacts on Children’s Learning and Development?
• 10 The Early Years Foundation Stage and Beyond
• References
• Index