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An inspiring step-by-step guide to documenting children's ideas, questions, and learning in a way that enhances teacher's thinking and understanding
Pedagogical documentation is a vital method of assessing and observing young children, and is a practice that enables practitioners, families and children to learn alongside each other. This book draws on the projects and experiences of senior researchers from nations including Australia, Canada, Sweden, Singapore, the UK and the USA to highlight multiple approaches to pedagogical documentation. Topics explored include: using video in pedagogical documentation making the most of outdoor learning environments developing pedagogical documentation within curriculum frameworks the relationship with Early Years transitions the potential of pedagogical documentation for leadership enactment. The book offers guidance, support and inspiration to practitioners and researchers on how to implement meaningful and sustainable child-focused observation in early years contexts.
This book identifies the gaps needing to be bridged to achieve a more inclusive and ‘just’ early childhood education, in relation to class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race, disabilities and age, and explores various ways of bridging these gaps.
Internationally, documentation has gained importance in institutional contexts of early childhood during the last 20 years. This edited volume illuminates different practices and aspects of documentation in early childhood and provides theoretically informed analytical perspectives on documentation in childhood institutions. Whilst drawing on different national and early service contexts, the edited volume explores the ways in which documentation may be consequential in childhood and in the practices of early childhood professionals. The different chapters examine assessment and normativity in documentation, children’s participation in it, and the impact of documentation on professionalism. The edited volume is targeted to students, researchers and professionals in the field of education and social sciences.
Margaret Carr′s seminal work on Learning Stories was first published by SAGE in 2001, and this widely acclaimed approach to assessment has since gained a huge international following. In this new full-colour book, the authors outline the philosophy behind Learning Stories and refer to the latest findings from the research projects they have led with teachers on learning dispositions and learning power, to argue that Learning Stories can construct learner identities in early childhood settings and schools. By making the connection between sociocultural approaches to pedagogy and assessment, and narrative inquiry, this book contextualizes Learning Stories as a philosophical approach to education, learning and pedagogy. Chapters explore how Learning Stories: - help make connections with families - support the inclusion of children and family voices - tell us stories about babies - allow children to dictate their own stories - can be used to revisit children′s learning journeys - can contribute to teaching and learning wisdom This ground-breaking book expands on the concept of Learning Stories and includes examples from practice in both New Zealand and the UK. It outlines the philosophy behind this pedagogical tool for documenting how learning identities are constructed and shows, through research evidence, why the early years is such a critical time in the formation of learning dispositions. Margaret Carr is a Professor of Education at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Wendy Lee is Director of the Educational Leadership Project, New Zealand.
What does it mean to inquire? Grownups would say it means to question, to search for information, or to finding out about a topic of interest. For children in an early childhood classroom, the definition is no different. From the time of their birth, children want to know how the world works and actively seek out information. How educators respond to their quest is what this book is all about. Inquiry-Based Early Learning Environment takes an in-depth look at children’s inquiry. What does inquiry look like in early childhood settings? How does the environment affect children’s inquiries and teachers’ thought processes? Inquiry-Based Early Learning Environment examines inquiry in all its facets, including environments that support relationships, that create a culture of risk-taking in our thinking, that support teachers as well as children, that include families, that use documentation as a way of thinking about our work, and of course, the physical environment and all the objects and spaces within it. Throughout, stories about environments and approaches to inquiry from around the world are included as examples.
Documentation and Inquiry in the Early Childhood Classroom explores teacher inquiry, reflection, and research and the documentation of these processes within a variety of school sites and models. Compiling underrepresented inquiry stories from practicing teachers and administrators in early childhood (0–5) classrooms in the San Francisco Bay Area, this book highlights the power of the community in supporting professional development for early childhood educators and the education of young children. Important elements addressed include teacher learning, children’s curricula, parent and community communication, and equity and social justice for teachers, children, and families.
Assessment and Evaluation for Transformation in Early Childhood establishes a new, democratic and participatory approach to assessment and evaluation in early childhood. By analysing the practice of assessment and evaluation within early childhood pedagogy, it provides a clear theoretical and methodological basis for this approach and a set of practical techniques for assessment and evaluation. Structured into three parts – context and principles, approaches and techniques and case studies, the authors show how documentation and portfolios can be an ethical mode of conducting assessment and evaluation. The third part of the text provides educational snapshots of countries that use a participatory approach to learning and teaching, and which include the pedagogical dimension of assessment and evaluation. Each of the seven illustrative case studies from three different countries bring to life the theories, principles and techniques presented throughout the book. Key points explored include: · The nature and purpose of assessment and evaluation within a participatory pedagogy. ·Participatory methods for assessment and evaluation. ·The search for a holistic approach to evaluation ·Pedagogic documentation: uncovering solidary learning. · Ethical principles for holistic pedagogic evaluation This book is a crucial read for anyone working in early childhood education who wishes to learn more about professional, practice and policy development and all those interested in the pedagogical dimensions of assessment and evaluation.
