Assessment in Early Childhood Settings - Softcover

Carr, Margaret

Softcover

ISBN 10: 076196794X ISBN 13: 9780761967941

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2001

Synopsis

This book shows that an early childhood setting can be described as a learning place in which children develop learning dispositions such as resilience in the face of uncertainty, confidence to express their ideas, and collaborative and thoughtful approaches to problem-solving. These dispositions provide the starting point for life-long learning.

The author asks: How can we assess and track children′s learning in the early years in a way that includes learning dispositions and avoids the pitfalls of over-formal methods, whilst being helpful for practitioners, interesting for families, and supportive for learners?

The book

· describes a way of assessment that stays close to the children′s

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About this title

About the Author:

Margaret Carr is a Professor of Education at the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research at the University of Waikato, in Hamilton, New Zealand. Before she joined the Faculty of Education at Waikato, she was a geographer at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, where there was a strong focus by the professors on social and cultural change.  This formed a background for her interest in the role of education in society, and in Hamilton she gained a qualification in early childhood education and worked as a kindergarten teacher before becoming a lecturer in education at the university. Her PhD thesis was entitled ‘Technological Practice in Early Childhood as a Dispositional Milieu’. New Zealand has provided a number of opportunities for professors to research with early childhood teachers on topics chosen by the teachers, and Margaret has frequently published with teachers. Learning Stories as an assessment practice was developed for the 1996 Te Whariki bicultural curriculum (later revised in 2017); the development of narrative assessment is told in the 2001 Sage book, Assessment in Early Childhood Settings: Learning Stories, and further developed in the 2012 Sage book Learning Stories: Constructing Learner Identities in Early Education. The latter book was co-authored with Wendy Lee, and this partnership has combined academic and professional wisdom in many publications and presentations over many years.

Review:

`I would recommend this book to practitioners interested in reflecting on their own practice and approach to assessment. The insights provided are thought-provoking and promote a practical and positive approach to early years assessment′ - Early Talk

`This is an inspiring book from bilingual, bicultural New Zealand about revolutionizing the assessment of young children′s learning and progress.... I hope this book inspires United Kingdom practitioners to set out on learning story journeys′ - Nursery World

`I found Margaret Carr′s book fascinating... the ideas and arguments put forward are well worth mulling over′ - Early Years Educator

`This book manages to blend recognized theory and recent research with practice. I found it easy, and sometimes enjoyable, to read; it provided plenty of "food for thought" as well as references on "how to". I would recommend it to all early childhood practitioners, not just those considering their current assessment procedures, as the chapters focusing on the child as a learner are of value on their own′ - Julia Browne, Goldsmiths Association for Early Childhood

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 076196794X
• ISBN 13: 9780761967941
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224