Meaningful And Ethical Assessment In Early Childhood

According to the statutory framework for the early year’s foundation stage, the seven areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected, the three areas ‘communication and language, physical development, and personal, social and emotional development’ are particularly crucial for igniting children’s curiosity. So when their individual needs are met they can build their capacity to learn, form relationships and thrive.

As a childcare practitioner it is important that I am able to recognise when a child in their early years may have a range of learning needs. To be able to understand the way I need to work with others to ensure that the learning plan that is in place for this child has a positive impact on their health, development and learning. To ensure I am offering an inclusive practice where the child is supported and feels valued and is helping them towards achieving the Five Outcomes of The Every Child Matters Framework.

This assignment is based upon my understanding of child development and children’s learning, considering the curriculum for the Early Years and the curriculum for the Early Years Foundation Stage/Key Stage One. I propose to outline a rationale for effectively continuing children’s learning, from the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage into Year One and include strategies to support transitions, effective curriculum delivery and links between the EYFS and the National Curriculum. Throughout the assignment I will refer not only in general but also to how my research has help me as a practitioner help my setting to effectively continue children’s learning.

Theories of development and frameworks to support development are incredibly important to us working with children and young people. They help us to understand children, how they react to things/situations, their behaviour and the ways they learn. Different theories and ways of working with children have come together to provide frameworks for children’s care, such as Early year’s foundation stage (EYFS) which is used within all child care settings. This encourages us to work together, help and check the development of babies, children and young people, to keep them healthy and safe. It promotes teaching and learning to

Early years frameworks in the U.K emphasise the importance of a personal and individual approach to learning and development:

prepare, set out and support activities and experiences that encourages learning and development in each area of the relevant early years framework

Effective practice can support children’s well-being and development when looking at a child’s health and physical development. Effective practice means ‘About ensuring that all children get optimum benefit from their experiences in the EYFS. This apparently simple outcome can only be achieved when adults work together to get to know the children s that they can support their play, development and learning.’ (Early years’ matters,2017.) Children’s well-being means the quality of the child and how their life is, and to ensure that they child is happy, comfortable and stable throughout their everyday life. Children all develop at different stages, whether this is through additional needs or family issues or they might have a gap in there learning.

The early years framework emphasises a personal and individual approach to learning and development because valuing a child’s individuality, ideas and feelings is an important part of developing an individual approach to the learning and development. A child has universal physical needs such as food, drink and shelter and psychological needs such as love, affection, security, friendship which are essential to maintaining their quality of life. In recognising and trying to meet an individual child’s needs each child’s age, physical maturity, intellectual abilities, emotional development, social skills and past experiences and relationships need to be considered.

Assessment frameworks are the way in which a child is assessed to see whether they have any particular needs, what they are and how we can help them be met. It is useful in deciding whether a child has reached expected milestones. Assessment frameworks may be summative or formative. Formative assessments are used to check progress and helps us to consider learning opportunities needed to progress. The ongoing observations we do of children are formative assessments. They inform the next steps of the childs learning. Summative assessment provides staff with information about the attainment of knowledge and is usually measured against a benchmark or standard. For example, the EYFS assessment which is done toward the end of the reception year. This “sums up” all the different information from

This comes early on in life and staying with them all throughout their years in school, and has consequences for them. With this happening, a goal for all teachers should reduce the gaps for early childhood educators. If children have not had the chance for a proper education early on, the programs may need to offer extensive learning experiences outside of the program. Other things such as parent engagement, health services, and mental health also help. All areas of the child's development and learning are affected such as the social factors affecting cognitive development and academic abilities.

Without assessment, there is no opportunity to keep track of benchmarks of improvement and no sense of progress. Assessment provides a time for reflection for the teacher as well as the child. The teacher may need to revisit his or her approach to teaching, based upon student's comprehension and input. Also, on a very crude level, assessment can encourage students to perform to a higher level: "Whether we like it or not, most students tend to focus their energies on the best or most expeditious way to pass their 'tests'" (Scanlan, n.d.). Q2. - What are some tools and approaches that are most appropriate in assessing children's learning and development?

The National Quality Standard includes standard 1.1 states that ‘An approved framework informs the development of a curriculum that enhances each child’s learning and development’. This is where the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) is introduced. This framework is included in the National Quality Standard to help ensure the consistency in the delivery of learning programs within Australia. Within the EYLF is the Early Childhood curriculum framework which guides early childhood educators to develop quality early childhood education programs. This framework describes the principles, practice and learning outcomes which support and enhance young children’s learning from birth to five years old, and then their transition to school.

In the planning cycle, the planning characteristic can be reflected into the ‘respond’ section of it. There are two different planning styles that can be use, the DOPS planning cycle (MoE, 1998) or the progressive filters which is notice, recognise, respond and possibilities (MoE, 2004a). In the planning the environment is viewed as the foundation of the child’s learning. Te Whāriki defines planning as “helping adults who work in early childhood education to understand what young children are learning, how the learning happens, and the role that both adults and other children play in such learning” (MoE, 1996, p.28). Observations have a very important role in planning for the child, as the observation shows a lot about a child and what their interests are, which can help to determine the ‘what next’ characteristic to extend children interests. Observations help teachers to plan in regards to what they have seen (MoE, 1996). It helps to create an environment that facilitates the children’s learning, so that they can get the optimal benefits in regards to what they are interested in. It also indicate

And He also highlights on the children’s environment and social environment indicating the importance of all adults playing an crucial role in supporting the child 's learning not just through

Teachers are aware of what they should do in the classroom when teaching young children. Teachers should provide opportunities to develop positive dispositions toward learning when working with young children to make sure they are using their knowledge and skills. Teaching young children, the skills that need to learn about is the big key of understanding what the information that you will need when you are assessing the young children. In this paper, the reader will read about observation and documentation as assessment and why is it important? The reader will also read about the difference between looking at and authentically or genuinely observing a child, the types of documentation, two types of documentation that relate how teachers use the documentation in the classroom and how documentations would be useful as assessments.