Assessing Young Children at Home and Abroad

A Developmental Approach to Assessment of Young Children

There is so much pressure on students and teachers alike to make sure children are able to pass the standardized tests. However, all children do not learn the same way. Many children (and adults) do not test well.  They may very well know the material, but when it comes time to sit down and answer the questions with a pencil and paper they draw a blank, or the questions are asked in a manner the child may not understand. The student may develop test anxiety and not do well. Besides, there are different areas in which children develop and gain knowledge areas that cannot be tested with pencil and paper.

Purpose of Assessment:

·         to determine progress on significant developmental achievements

·         to make placement or  promotion decisions

·         to diagnose learning and teaching problems

·         to help in instruction and curriculum decisions

·         to serve as a basis for reporting to parents

·         to assist a child with assessing his or her own progress (Katz, 1997)

The assessment of young children is very different from the assessment of older children and adults in several ways. The greatest difference is in the way young children learn. They construct knowledge in experiential, interactive, concrete, and hands-on ways rather than through abstract reasoning and paper and pencil activities alone. To learn, young children must touch and manipulate objects, build and create in many media, listen and act out stories and everyday roles, talk and sing, and move and play in various ways (Guddemi & Case, 2004).

Stakeholders should keep in mind that 1) plans, strategies, and assessment instruments are differentially suited for each of the potential purposes of assessment; 2) an overall assessment should include the four categories of educational goals: knowledge, skills, dispositions, and feelings; and 3) assessments made during children’s informal work and play are most likely to minimize the many potential errors of various assessment strategies (Katz, 1997).

Assessment is also challenging during early childhood because a child’s development is rapid, uneven, episodic, and highly influenced by the environment. A developing child exhibits periods of both rapid growth and frequent rest. Children develop in four domains––physical, cognitive, social, and emotional––and not at the same pace through each. No two children are the same; each child has a unique rate of development. In addition, no two children have the same family, cultural, and experiential backgrounds. Clearly, these variables mean that a “one-size-fits-all” assessment will not meet the needs of most young children. Another assessment challenge for young children is that it takes time to administer assessments properly. Assessments primarily should be administered in a one-on-one setting to each child by his or her teacher. In addition, a child’s attention span is often very short and the assessment should therefore be administered in short segments over a period of a few days or even weeks. While early childhood educators demand developmentally appropriate assessments for children, they often complain about the time it takes to administer them and the resulting loss of instructional time in the classroom. However, when quality tests mirror quality instruction, assessment and teaching become almost seamless, complementing and informing one another (Guddemi & Case, 2004).

There is a risk of assigning false labels to children. The longer children live with a label (true or false label), the more difficult it may become to discard it (Katz, 1997). The expression of what young children know and can do would best be served in ways other than traditional paper and pencil assessments.

References:

Guddemi, M & Case, B. J. (2004). Assessing Young Children. Pearson Education. Assessment

Report. Pearson Inc., San Antonio, TX. Retrieved on December 8, 2012 from:

http://www.pearsonassessments.com/NR/rdonlyres/FD21F054-A5AD-42AE-9A00-

43878827FD76/0/AssessingYoungChildren.pdf

Katz, Lilian G. (1997). A Developmental Approach to Assessment of Young Children. ERIC Digest.

April 1997. Retrieved on December 8, 2012 from:  

http://ecap.crc.illinois.edu/eecearchive/digests/1997/katz97.pdf

Assessing Young Children in Australia

The assessment tasks are not learning and teaching units, but they do suggest, in broad terms, what learning needs to have taken place before students undertake the provided assessment tasks. Teachers make professional decisions about whether or not a particular task is suitable for their students.

For each assessment task, the following details are provided:

·         its relevance to state or territory curriculum statements

·         necessary prior learning

·         a series of scaffolding activities for establishing the context within which the task can be undertaken

·         resources for students and teachers to assist in the completion of the task

·         assessment rubrics for both teachers and students

·         annotated work samples

·         suggested follow-up teaching and learning activities.

Strategic questioning

This Professional Learning module focuses on strategic questioning, which is one way the teacher can seek evidence to establish where students are in their learning, and is therefore the result of careful planning.

    Specifically, strategic questioning provides teachers with the opportunity to identify and correct misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge, as well as identify the need for extension work for those students whose knowledge and skills base demand it.

    This kind of questioning provides information about student knowledge, understanding and skills that informs the teacher's planning and selection of teaching strategies to move students from where they are to where they need to go.

Assessment for Learning is the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there. Assessment for Learning is also known as formative assessment.

Activities associated with summative assessment (Assessment of Learning) result in an evaluation of student achievement - for example, allocation to a level or standard or allocation of a letter or numerical grade, which might later appear in a report.

Activities associated with formative assessment (Assessment for Learning) do not result in an evaluation. Information about what a student knows, understands and is able to do is used by both the teacher and the learner to determine where learners are in their learning and how to achieve learning goals.

Research has identified a number of classroom strategies that are particularly effective in promoting formative assessment practice.

Assessment for Learning strategies are:

·         The strategic use of questioning:

    Questioning is used not only as a pedagogical tool but also as a deliberate way for the teacher to find out what students know, understand and are able to do.

·         Effective teacher feedback

    Effective teacher feedback focuses on established success criteria and tells the students what they have achieved and where they need to improve. Importantly, the feedback provides specific suggestions about how that improvement might be achieved.

·         Peer feedback

    Peer feedback occurs when a student uses established success criteria to tell another student what they have achieved and where improvement is necessary. Again, the feedback provides specific suggestions to help achieve improvement.

·         Student self-assessment

    Student self-assessment encourages students to take responsibility for their own learning. It incorporates self-monitoring, self-assessment and self-evaluation.

·         The formative use of summative assessment

    Summative assessment is a necessary aspect of education. Formative use can be made of summative assessment, both before and after the assessment event.

Reference:

Education Services of Australia. Assessment for Learning. [online].  Retrieved on December 8, 2012 from:

http://www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au/professional_learning/professional_learning_landing

.htm