Assessing Young Children

When assessing young children holistically, where the whole child should be assessed not just their cognitive ability, teachers should assess children looking at all domains of development including cognitive, physical, social and emotional growth and development.  We have an Observation Check List that looks at developmental milestones three times a year, in October, January and then again in April.  We have progress reports that go home two times a year and two parent-teacher conferences, one in the fall and then again in the spring.  We keep anecdotal records on each child every month.  As you can see, we are continually assessing our children.  The observation check list looks at all areas of development including fine motor, gross motor, cognitive, social and emotional and  self help skills.  I think we do a very good job of assessing the whole child.  It is our goal that by the end of the school year the children have acquired most of these skills.  I think that all of these areas of development should be measured and assessed.  If we do not evaluate children, we cannot know whether a child is developing typically in a given area versus demonstrating performance that may indicate risk for a potential delay.  Doing assessment also helps us as teachers to evaluate and reflect on what experiences we are giving our children.  We may need to reevaluate or teaching environment to meet the developmental needs of our children. 

Elementary schools in Finland have an interesting approach to teaching and assessment.  The teaching style in their elementary schools is one of teaching the “whole child”.  The core curriculum is just made up of a small number of skills and core concepts for each school year.  Teachers are given more autonomy in what they teach.  Teachers work together to develop curriculum and assessments that allow students to be active learners.  They believe the main goal of assessment is to guide and encourage students’ own reflection and self-assessment.  Teacher feedback is very important.  The children are given numerical scores based on performance.  Teachers evaluate students on more than just exams.  Teachers ask children open-ended questions and teach their children to problem solve.  Children are often engaged in independent or group work.  They may even have the opportunity to select the tasks in which they choose to engage.  Children develop analytical thinking and problem solving skills.  Students will only be given an exam prior to attending a university.  I think Finland is on the right track, elementary schools in this country and around the world should use Finland as a model.  Schools is Finland are going against the tide of the “global education reform movement” which is based on core subjects, competition, standardization, test-based accountability and control (Anderson, J. 2011).

Anecdotal record keeping and developmental check lists that look at the whole child are important to be able to see development and tailor your program to meet the needs of all the children in your care.  I keep a portfolio for every child.  The portfolio includes our observation check list, photographs and samples of the child’s “work”.  When I meet with the parents at the end of the school year, I have the documentation to show them were their child started and how far their child has come. 

Refrences:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/education/from-finland-an-intriguing-school-reform-model.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&ref=general&src=me

http://standardizedtests.procon.org/sourcefiles/assessment-for-learning-around-the-world-what-would-it-mean-to-be-internationally-competitive.pdf