BOOST CHILDREN'S LEARNING

I will like to share with the class something I found that interests me while I was reading this week.

My interest, like i shared last week is a search, to know what are best tools to engage when assessing children. I found something on research about the effect of qualitative assessment in young children.

The article is: Baroudi,Z.M (2007) Formative Assessment: Definition, Elements and Role in Instructional Practice. Post Script, (1444-383x), 8 (1), 37-48. Retrieved from Walden University Library

Baroudi,2007 wrote about a research carried out by Butler (1987) who compared the responses of
four groups of Year 6 and 7 students. Three out of the four groups had been given praise, and the fourth group was given no praise at all. Those who had received comments showed the greatest motivation to carry out further tasks in the second lesson even when the later task was tougher.

Based on this effect of Praise feedback on learners, it was discovered and established that feedback can stimulate better performance in lessons. Thus Dweck 2000 carried out a study to check for the quality of feedback in its language that conveyed the feedback. He wanted to see how far a child can go when you offers descriptive information about the work, or performance relative to the intended learning goals. It avoids marks or comments that judge the level of achievement or imply that the learning journey is over” (Chappuis & Chappuis, 2008). 

Further studies revealed that the descriptive language of feedback goes a long way to determine learners’ response behavior. Baroudi (2007) cited Dweck’s (2000) work in a study carried out to check this response in a group of kindergarten children. Two different groups of children after completing a task successfully were given some forms of complements. Some received praise on their personality traits, such as: you are a good boy, I am so proud of you, etc.  Others received praise on their efforts or the process followed that sounded like: you tried hard, could you think of better ways to do it or you found a good way to do it, could you think of other ways that could also work?   Subsequently, these children were faced with a more challenging task, which they found difficult to complete, and the study revealed that those children who were given personality trait praise feedback were more critical of their work, and lacked motivation to carry on in the task. They even rated their intelligence as lower than the other group that received descriptive praise on their work (Baroudi, 2007). 

  CONCLUSION:

In summary, I would like to say that I have learned a great deal about early assessment in these three weeks. My affinity to formative assessment is to employ age appropriate, individually responsive practice as we 

assess young children In a most suitable way. I believe that assessment should do more than judge learners, it should help both teacher and learner improve on learning. It a tasking model to work with and teachers will need to go through mind renewal for teachers who are willing to work. It does not replace summative assessment but can be used to improve the outcome of summative assessment.

My ReSEarcH JouRnEY

"What should children be taught in the years from birth through age 8? How would we know if they are developing well and learning what we want them to learn? And how could we decide whether programs for children from infancy through the primary grades are doing a good job?" NAEYC, 2009

HOW SHOULD WE ASSESS THEIR LEARNING?
My interest for study has been channeled to seeking to know what the best practices are when we assess young children. I have seen young children being taught then, tested periodically and then graded and I have since wanted something more but I've been unskilled and unlearned, so I saw this opportunity and I seized it with lots of zest to be schooled in the principles of sound and appropriate assessment practices.

I work with young children and the field of early childhood like I shared in the last course is yet to have the recognition of the Governments and policy makers as it deserves to enable it thrive and become a full fleshed body having affiliates and investors as it is in some advanced countries. This is the dream that I have for the field of Early Childhood in Nigeria, and lately, there is a faint sound of hope that I hope will grow. Thus, there are no guides, no uniformity, no structure and no regulation as it were. Thriving early childhood programs seek best practices and this is why I want to know about the principles of effective quality assessment in early childhood.

It has been really tedious learning about assessment because its like starting from ABC, as I had no prior  knowledge about anything. So to pick my sub topics got me reading wide to see what kind of assessments are there for me to make a choice of the one I think I would want  to learn more about. My reading led me to make a choice of formative assessment and I have learned a few vital things about how this is a very good practice to employ when working with young children.

The three articles I chose to do my research simulation on had a lot to say about what studies already exists concerning formative assessments. They all shared similar features of what one should look out for in a formative assessment. Their writing styles and focus were all different as I believe that their objectives too were different.
Formative assessment is a systematic process to continuously gather evidence about learning. The data are
used to identify a student’s current level of learning and to adapt lessons to help the student reach the desired
learning goal.  I think this practice is child centered and therefore a good choice when assessing young children as children are able to get involved in their own learning.

Building research competence via the structured chart is a good guide by my opinion because it helps to keep one guided in the midst of the so wide issue of research in which there s a lot to learn.

My reading this week brought me to something I think we should pay closer attention to. One of the authors did say that the field of early childhood needs to pay closer attention to the issue of assessment. She did share that assessment has traditionally not been a focus of preservice and inservice courses. Teachers learn how to teach without learning much about how to assess. Even  their administrators lack training in assessment and therefore do not have the skills to support the development of assessment competencies (Heritage, 2007).

Here are the links to some of the resources I worked with this week.

Chappius, J., & Chappius, S. (2008). The best value in formative assessment. Educational Leadership, 65(4), 14–19.

Heritage, M. (2007). Formative assessment: What do teachers need to know and do? Phi Delta Kappan, 89(2), 140–145.

NAEYC/NAECS/SDE (2009) Where we stand on curriculum assessment and program evaluation .http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/StandCurrAss.pdf