Assessment and observations 1 Assessment and observations Remember, you are now a university student, and as such, we expect that you will enhance the learning and skills you already have from your previous study and your experience. Therefore, it is not enough, when undertaking, for example, observations for an assignment in your university unit, to rely ONLY on the learning you gained from your previous studies. You need to demonstrate you have extended your learning and your skills. To this end, I am providing you with information on assessment and observations. Your Marion text has a chapter on assessment (Chapter 6) which covers some of the material in this Topic. You may find it particularly useful to access the following paper which has embedded video links as follows: Forman, G & Hall, E (2005) Wondering with children: the importance of observation in early childhood education. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 7 (2), no page numbers. Available online athttp://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v7n2/forman.html You also might find it useful to look at one of the older ECA booklets: Veale, B & Piscitelli, B (1988) Observation and Record keeping in early childhood programs. Early Childhood Australia Resource Booklet no 1, March. Canberra, ACT: Early Childhood Australia 2 Purpose of assessment When you read the literature you will find that assessment is a term used for a variety of purposes. Commonly assessment is used to: screen For example to determine if a person meets the criteria for entry into a support agency. Has the person sufficient visual disability to be considered eligible for membership of one of the various agencies for people with visual impairment; has the person sufficient physical disability to be eligible for membership of Paraquad, and so on? Screening assessments are also used to determine if people are eligible for government benefits. In the past screening assessments used to be performed to determine if a child was eligible to attend school. Children who failed the screening test in some countries were either sent to a special school, or if they failed the screening test for the special school they were not eligible for government funded education at all. Screening assessments usually consist of standardised psychological tests and are usually performed by people trained in their use. It is most unlikely you would be in a position to assess for the purpose of screening. evaluate programmes Much of the quantitative research involving evaluation of programmes requires children to be assessed at the beginning of a programme and then at various points throughout the duration of the programme. Improvements in children s levels of functioning is then attributed to the effects of the programme. In most cases the assessments used for this purpose are also standardised tests. It is unlikely that you would be involved in this level of testing unless you are working as a consultant, Researcher or in senior management positions. programme planning Assessment for programme planning involves determining the current levels of functioning of children and planning new learning experiences for them. If you think back to your Ecology units, this is about establishing the starting point of Vygotsky s Zone of Proximal Development, and determining how large the Zone is for each child in each situation. The following discussion refers to this form of assessment as it is this you need to do to begin the inclusion process. 3 Guidelines for assessment When we assess children it is important that we are aware of the ethics of our profession. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in America discuss guidelines for assessment. These guidelines apply to assessment for all children but it is relevant to review them here to ensure your familiarity with them. How to assess Observations Assessment is commonly done by observing children, never by testing them. Observation is systematic; you are not just looking at children passively, you are looking for a purpose, and recording what you see. Your knowledge of child development will guide your observations. Most of you will have studied observation techniques extensively your earlier studies. Consultations Your assessment focuses on children s ability to participate in your environment. It is essential to remember that children participate in many other microsystems in addition to yours and that their functioning in these different microsystems may be quite different than you have observed in yours. Where possible encourage people operating in these other microsystems to assess children as well. Where this is not possible you have a responsibility to talk with these other people to gather information on a child s functioning across the range of microsystems. This means, for example, that you must talk with parents about their child s functioning in the home environment. As we all know, what children do with us at a centre can be quite different from what they do at home with their parents. With parental permission, you can contact other people who can help you understand children s behaviour in other contexts. For example, you can talk with children s school teachers to understand their behaviour in the school context, with their grandparents to find out what they are like when they stay with them etc. 4 Portfolio of assessment information The information identified above is all collected together in an Assessment Portfolio. Assessment for planning purposes is never just a completed developmental checklist. Assessment provides you with information that you need to know to determine how each child fits into your environment. Assessment tells you how children follow your routines, what activities they choose to play and who they like to play with, it tells you what children are interested in, what skills children demonstrate when they participate in the activities and routines of the centre and it tells you what support is needed to enable children to succeed. Assessment portfolios may include samples of children s drawings, lists of things children like and dislike, observation records of children s dramatic play, anecdotal records of their behaviour in specific circumstances, notes of how children handle joy, stress, anger and so on, and records and photos of their accomplishments. One of the components of an assessment portfolio (and it is only one) may be a developmental checklist. Thus, assessment consists of: observations consultations collection of examples all collected together in an Assessment Portfolio When to assess Your first assessment of children needs to be carried out in the days and first weeks of their placement with you. As it is usual for any child to experience difficulty adapting to a new environment and in forging attachments with new people, hopefully your centre will have transition procedures in place for all children. It is useful to encourage parents to attend the centre with their child for a short time. It is tremendously helpful for children to see their parents modelling warm relationships with caregivers (remember the value of social referencing in facilitating secure attachments). This helps children establish secondary attachments to those caregivers and lessens the discomfort children experience when their parents leave them with caregivers. It is very comforting for parents to see warm and loving interactions between their child and the caregiver they will feel much more comfortable leaving the child in his/her care, and this will smooth the transition for the child. It is helpful to see friendly interactions between the child and peer group parents will feel comfortable that their child is making friends and this will make the transition go more smoothly. It is during this transition period that your first observations need to be undertaken and your first assessment portfolio begun. By the time children are settled and their parents are able to leave them in your care you will have completed your first assessment and provided an assessment summary. Summarising all this assessment information On the basis of all the assessment material you collect, you will provide an assessment summary. An assessment summary consists of a Strengths/Interests Profile and a Statement of Rights. This process is discussed in the next module. At this point it is relevant to review the various forms of observation to make sure you are able to build on and extend the learning you bring into this course. Observation In order for any effort at resolving a behaviour problem to be effective, it must be well matched to the child s ability and frame of mind as well as to the circumstances surrounding the behaviour. Does the child appear to be feeling angry, and destructive, or just bored and silly? Is the behaviour habitual or a regular event? Is the child capable of benefiting from verbal reminders or is a direct physical redirection required? What actually is the problem ?when, where, and why does it occur? These are all questions that should be answered through careful observation (Miller, 1990). 5 Case Studies Case study 1 John is twelve years old. He lives with both his parents in Perth near the river. On Saturday the 24th January his father left the house early in the morning and went down to the marina to work on his boat. At lunch time John s mother who is a veterinary surgeon, discovered that her husband had forgotten to take his lunch with him. She asked John to hop on his bike and take some sandwiches down to the Marina. John did not want to go because the cricket was just about to start on the television. Even so he agreed and put the sandwiches in his back pack. When John reached the garage where his bike was kept he realised that his tyres were flat. He was very annoyed as he would certainly miss the cricket if he stopped and pumped up his tyres. At that moment he spotted his mother s old beach buggy parked in the drive with its keys in it. Without thinking twice John hopped into the buggy and drove down to the Marina. Parking the buggy out of sight he took his father s lunch down to the boat. John s father thanked him and after a short chat John left to get back to the cricket. On his way home John decided to drive through Kings Park where he spotted some rabbits. He pulled over and reached for his mother s veterinary rifle and shot two of the rabbits. He gathered the rabbits up took them home to his mother to cook for tea. How do you think his mother reacted to being given the rabbits to cook for tea? How do you think his father would have reacted if he had known that he had driven down to the Marina? Do you think John s behaviour was appropriate or inappropriate? What are the factors that guide your judgement? To what extent do culture, social context and social structure influence your judgement? Case study 2 John is a twelve year old boy who lives with both his parents on a 2000 hectare property at Meekathara. On the 24th January his father left the house early to repair some fence posts in one of the paddocks about four miles from the house. At lunch time John s mother who runs the local post office, discovered that her husband had forgotten to take his lunch with him. She asked John to hop on his bike and take some sandwiches down to the paddock where his father was working. John did not want to go because the cricket was just about to start on the television. Even so he agreed and put the sandwiches in his back pack. When John reached the garage where his bike was kept he realised that his tyres were flat. He was very annoyed as he would certainly miss the cricket if he stopped and pumped up his tyres. At that moment he spotted his mother s old beach buggy parked in the drive with its keys in it. Without thinking twice John hopped into the buggy and drove across the paddocks until he spotted his father. John s father thanked him and after a short chat John left to get back to the cricket. On his way home John decided to drive past the dam where he spotted some rabbits. He pulled over and reached for his mother s shot gun and shot two of the rabbits. He gathered the rabbits up took them home to his mother to cook for tea. How do you think his mother reacted to being given the rabbits to cook for tea? Why do you think John s father was not surprised to see him driving the buggy? Do you think John s behaviour was appropriate or inappropriate? What are the factors that guide your judgement? To what extent do culture, social context and social structure influence your judgement? Case study 3 John is twelve years old. He lives with both his parents on an Aboriginal mission in the north west. On Saturday the 24th January his father left the house early in the morning to set some traps to catch some dingoes that had been worrying the cattle. At lunch time John s mother who runs the mission store, discovered that her husband had forgotten to take his lunch with him. She asked John to hop on his bike and take some sandwiches down to where his father was working. John did not want to go because his friends were coming round and they were going to go fishing in the dam. Even so he agreed and put the sandwiches in his back pack. When John reached the shed where his bike was kept he realised that his tyres were flat. He was very annoyed as he would certainly miss his friends if he stopped and pumped up his tyres. At that moment he spotted the mission truck parked outside the store its keys in it. Without thinking twice John hopped into the truck and drove down to where he knew his father would be. John s father thanked him and after a short chat John left to get back to his friends. On his way home John decided to set a trap to catch a rabbit for tea. On his way back from fishing later that day he checked the trap and found two rabbits were caught in the trap. He gathered the rabbits up took them home to his mother to cook for tea. How do you think his mother reacted to being given the rabbits to cook for tea? Why do you think John s father was not surprised to see him driving the truck? Do you think John s behaviour was appropriate or inappropriate? What are the factors that guide your judgement? To what extent do culture, social context and social structure influence your judgement? It is noted that these examples are stereotyped. To what extent do you think that the stereotypical images we have of people and groups influence the way we interpret behaviour? What implications do you think this might have for guiding children s behaviour in a democratic society? 6 Introduction In this section we will focus on understanding the importance of observation in understanding the child s point of view. Children do not have the cognitive power or language sophistication to be able to express their view or explain their feelings. Adults very often presume to know what children are thinking and feeling and make rash judgements about what would be the best course of action to take. The best way to understand the young child is to observe him or her in the natural setting. Often when we take time out to stand back and really observe what is going on we find very different things to what we first believed. For example, it is quite easy for a caregiver to label a child aggressive because the child seems to be constantly hitting other children. However after careful observation the caregiver discovers that the child is constantly provoked by other children or that the aggressive responses are not as frequent as they seem. Activity Think back to the case studies above does the setting, situation or context best describe why the child s behaviour can be interpreted differently in each case? Imagine you are studying this unit on campus at Armidale, what aspects of your behaviour when studying would you have to change. Why would you have to change them? Write a short paragraph explaining the difference between interpretation and observation. 7 The professional observer One of the most fundamental skills necessary for the professional observer is to be able to determine the difference between objective and subjective observation. Read carefully the two observations made by students of the same child in the same place at the same time. Think about the two accounts of what was happening. What makes them so different? Student A Rochelle s mother and Jessica were having a cuddle on the lounge when Rochelle came in and demanded attention from her mother by putting on a red nose. When she didn t get the attention she wanted she took the red nose off and ran out of the room. Student B Rochelle s mother and Jessica (6 months) were sitting on the couch in the games room. Rochelle came in and picked up a red nose (from the SIDS campaign) and put it on. Rochelle jumped up and down. Jessica sat and watched Rochelle take the red nose off . Rochelle says to Jessica, ?Its all right Jess, it s just me Rochelle, I m a person see. Rochelle put the red nose back on and asked Jessica to come over and help her, the clown. Jessica remained on her mother s lap and smiled at Rochelle. Rochelle took the red nose off again and ran out of the room. Student A s observation is based on personal impressions and feelings about the child. Consequently, this student has recorded an observation that is influenced by bias and preconceptions. This is a very subjective observation and not very useful for the purposes of understanding the child s behaviour or for planning guidance strategies. On the other hand student B has recorded only the facts, leaving out evaluations, judgements, impressions and personal speculations. This is a very objective observation enabling the caregiver to make a professional judgement about the child s behaviour and development. Summary This section has discussed the important role that observation plays in working with children and has provided you with guidelines for observing. The guidelines include understanding the role of bias, personal and theoretical frameworks in the observation process, the selection of observation questions, the selection of methods of recording, understanding the influence of context and setting, understanding the professional and ethical requirements of observing and safeguarding against errors of, omission, commission and transmission. The following section will discuss methods of recording observations in much greater detail. Observation methods Researchers use carefully orchestrated strategies to collect objective data. Adults who care for young children rarely need such formal methodology. We just need a workable plan for finding out the ?What, when, where, and why of children s problem behaviours so that we can respond effectively and appropriately. (Miller, 1990). Introduction Here we will look at the various methods that can be used to observe children in their natural settings. Each method is designed to collect the information needed to solve a question about a child s development or behaviour. As we have discussed earlier, the selection of a method depends on the observational question which should be formulated by the caregiver before any decisions about method are made. Specimen/ running records The intent of a running record is to learn more about the many aspects of a child s total development from the objective and precise recording of the child s actions and language. (Nicolson & Shipstead 1994, p. 93). This kind of narrative recording is referred to as a running record or a specimen by record. Try not to get confused by the terminology and remember that the characteristics of specimen and running record are very similar. One of the most famous observers of young children s be ?haviour is the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. Piaget used the specimen record, or the running record, as it is sometimes known, to record the behaviour of his own child. The follow ?ing is an excerpt from his observations, Laurent is lying on his back ?. He grasps in succession a cellu ?loid swan, a box etc., stretches out his arm and lets them fall. He distinctly varies the positions of the fall. Sometimes, he stretches out his arm vertically, sometimes he holds it obliquely, in front or behind his eyes, When the object falls into a new position he lets it fall two or three more times on the same place. (Ginsburg & Opper, 1979) Here Piaget has made a narrative record of the child s behaviour as it occurs. In a narrative recording of this type the observer does not interpret the behaviour or look for specific behaviours, rather the object is to simply collect as much raw data as possible. Of course, it is not humanly possible to record everything the child does and so it is important to keep in mind the observational question in order to provide a focus for the observation. Review your material from your previous training on taking running records. You will find this information in the TAFE Unit of Competency CHCPR509A Gather, Interpret and use information about children. Running records should provide you with some rich objective data from which you can make judgements regard ?ing the child s development or behaviour. It is important to note that an evaluation of a child s behaviour and/or development should not be based on just one or two observa ?tions. Observations should be made consistently and over a period of time before any evaluation is made. Observation of a period of a week provides a good baseline for further observations. 8 Anecdotal records Planned Anecdote writing sharpens the observer s mental set for the situation that is being observed. It also accustoms the ob ?server to looking at the behaviour of children more objectively in order to record what is seen. The anecdote itself contributes information about a particular child, or more than one child, which when added to a collection of records gathered over a period of time, yields insight into a child s functioning. (Veale & Piscetelli 1992). We use anecdotes in every day life, they are a large part of the way we communicate with our friends and family. They are like little stories we tell about our selves and other people that enable other people to understand experiences we have when they are not present. An example of an anecdote: A letter I wrote to a friend this morning.Last night I came out of the lecture at 8.30 PM tired at wanting to get home quickly. Imagine my horror when I looked in my bag for my car keys and realised that I had locked them in my office. At first I just didn t know what to do so I sat down on the grass to think. Then I realised that the night security man had a key so I ran over to the security phone and rang him. I told him I am locked out of my office and my car keys are in itI m really tired and I just want to go home . Fortunately he was sympathetic and came down straight away and opened the office for me and I was able to make my getaway quickly. This story is short and concise yet allows my friend to really picture the events of last night even though she was not present. If she was analysing my behaviour she might say that I was able to solve my own problem even when very tired, the strategy that I used in this case was to sit down and think about the problem before coming up with a solution. In many ways this story has many of the qualities of a good anecdote: it is short and concise; it records the event from beginning to end; it is written in the past tense from memory shortly after the event; it provides information about the context, situation and setting; it records my actions and the reactions of others to my actions; it quotes what is actually said by whom and it provides clues about my mood without subjective interpretations of my behaviour. A good anecdote always provides information about who, what, where, when and how and emphasises either typical or atypical behaviour, Activity Read the following anecdotes and assess whether they meet the criteria for a good anecdote. Give each anecdote a mark out of ten and provide a reason for your mark.a) At tea time today Jonathan grabbed Jessica s sandwich and waved it in front of her face taunting her about being fat. He kept on saying, ?Fatty, fatty Jessica shouldn t be eating peanut butter, over and over again. Jessica became very upset, crying and grabbing for the sandwich being waved in her face. Tony the play leader grabbed the sandwich from Jonathan and gave it back to Jessica saying to her, ?Don t let that bully upset you, he can t think of anything better to do. The play leader then turned to Jonathan and told him off saying, ?For good ?ness sake Jonathan can t you think of anything better to dothan bully the younger children, I feel really angry when I see you doing these things. Jonathan shrugged his shoulders and laughed saying. ?There is nothing better to do. With that he turned and went outside to play soccer with the other boys. b) Felicity seems to be out of sorts today. She wouldn t speak to anyone when she came in from school and refused to join in with any activities. I think she must have had a bad day at school, perhaps she has fallen out with one of her friends. After TV time she did start to talk to Stephen for a few minutes but then his dad turned up and Stephen went home. c) David ate a snack as soon as he arrived today and then went and sat in front of the television. Around the Twist was on but he didn t seem to very interested in it, he just sat still with his feet tucked up under him and within ten minutes he was fast asleep even though he was still sitting up. I laid him down on the sofa and he slept for an hour. When he awoke he complained of a headache. I massaged his temples for him and this seemed to help as he got up and joined in with a group of children playing cards at the table. His mother picked him up about five thirty and he told her that he had been very tired all Because anecdotes are easy to use and provide rich information they are very useful for planning purposes. Caregivers often jot down important words at the time of the event, just to jog their memories later when they get time to write them up properly. For example, once when I was working in a child care centre I noticed that a child I had been working with for about two months suddenly took an interest in a book about gardening. Previously, she hadn t shown any particular interest in anything very much and was taking a long time to settle into the program. I wrote in my notebook ?Remember Jennifer Gardening. Later I wrote up the follow ?ing anecdote.Today I noticed Jennifer searching the bookcase for a particular book. She picked each book up in turn and looked carefully at the front cover. Each time she picked the book up off the shelf, examined the picture on the cover sheet and then returned the book to its original position. She worked her way systematically through all the books until she picked up a book called Anita s garden. Jennifer looked carefully at the front cover and smiled, she turned around and settled herself into a bean bag, and carefully turned the pages of the book after examining each page. When she reached the end of the book she turned to the front page again and started all over again. At sleep time she carefully placed the book under her mattress before lying down on her bed to sleep. She slept for about an hour, and on waking reached straight for the book I sat down and read the book with her and she told me that she used to grow flowers with her Granddad when they lived in Sydney. Jennifer continued to take the book everywhere she went for the rest of the day replacing it on the book shelf only when asked to by her mother who collected her about five thirty. This anecdote then formed the basis for my planning for Jennifer over the next week. I organised a visit to the local garden centre where we bought some seeds to plant. I teamed Jennifer up with another child, Ben, and together they were responsible for caring for the plants. Jennifer showed great delight in planting the seeds and remembered to water them without prompting each day. She was happy to share the task with Ben and started to seek him out to play with at other times of the day. Activity Practice writing anecdotes whilst you are watching TV. After your favourite program has finished write an anecdote about a significant event or incident that occurred in the program. How much can you remember? What did you do to jog your memory? 9 Time sampling The unique component of time sampling is the use of predeter ?mined units of time (time samples) to guide the observer s attention throughout the observational period. There are two major methods of specifying the time sampling units. In one, the time unit stipulates how long the observer observes and records before moving on to the next object of concentration (e.g. 30 seconds). In the other the time unit stipulates the observational period (e.g. 20 seconds), and a separate time unit stipulates the coding time (e.g. 10 seconds). (Nicolson & Shipstead 1994, p.237). From this description you can gather that time sampling enables the observer to gather information intermittently throughout a specified period of time. Time sampling is very useful as it allows important information to be recorded without tying the caregiver up completely. The observer observes the behaviour only at specified times for a specified period of time, thus, allowing the observer to get on with other things during the observation period. The reliability of the time sample depends not only on the objectivity of the observations but also on the representa ?tiveness of the time sampled. It is very important that you understand what this means and how to ensure that your time samples are representative so pay particular attention to this issue as you review your earlier course materials on this form of observation. Activity Recording charts are very important to the accuracy and representativeness of the time sample. Construct an observation sheet according to the following guidelines: define the behaviour to be observed carefully; decide on the method of observation to be used; decide on what period of time you will be observing for, a day, a week, a month; decide on the frequency of the recording; construct your chart with time span along the horizontal axis and behaviour to be observed on the vertical axis; decide on a coding system for each behaviour to be observed; make the chart as simple as possible. Event sampling Event sampling is used to study the conditions under which particular behaviours occur or their frequency of occurrence. It may be important to learn what triggers a particular kind of behaviour ?biting, for instance ?in order to find ways to control it. Or, the observer may want to find out how many times a certain behaviour occurs. Time sampling would be used if time intervals or time of day were the important factor. But if the behaviour occurs at odd times or infrequently, then the event sampling is more appropriate. (Beauty, 1994, p. 28) Event sampling is one of the most useful tools the caregiver can use to understand children s behaviour. There are basically two types of event sampling, namely, Tally event sampling and Narrative event sampling. Sometimes narrative event sampling is simply called ?Event Sampling and tally event sampling is discussed called ?Frequency Counts or Duration Records . Unfortunately many writers use different terms for the same recording techniques which can be a bit confusing. Frequency counts Frequency counts or tally event sampling is used to determine how often a particular behaviour occurs. This is very important for providing a base line from which to evaluate any program or strategy you introduce to change the behaviour. Very frequently, caregivers are astonished to fi
Use the order calculator below and get started! Contact our live support team for any assistance or inquiry.
[order_calculator]