Changes in Early Childhood Teachers’ Assessment Practices: Positioning Pedagogical Documentation

Abstract

Collecting traces of children’s learning story through pedagogical documentation (PD) has increasingly been acknowledged in early childhood education because it helps to make decisions about development of child-centered curriculum. However, there is still a lack of attention on creating child-centered assessment practices in different educational contexts. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate how PD implications were changed in Turkish early childhood teachers’ assessment practices after participating in a series of PD training. To this end, a case study research was conducted with two early childhood teachers, as a part of larger project. The data were collected through video-based observations, interviews, and in-class activity photographs, which lasted two semesters. The findings revealed that both teachers’ assessment practices changed after they implemented PD practices. More specifically, they started to employ different forms of PD tools including panels, portfolios, and monthly bulletins. Correspondingly, they provided an environment where children shared and discussed their learning process with their peers through sharing times. The potential importance of implementing PD as an assessment tool in early childhood education was addressed in discussion as well as implications.