ECE as an educative and multifaceted practice for growth : To assess and evaluate teaching and learning by documenting children’s actions and reactions

• The aim is to illustrate practical analysing tools that facilitate investigations and critical reflections of situated teaching and learning. Early Childhood Education needs to open up for pluralistic pedagogy and move away from transmissive pedagogy (Formosinho & Formosinho 2016). Early childhood research seldom concerns teaching and learning activities in practice (Ryan and Goffin, 2008) and we argue for the need to open up the “black box” showing what teacher do when they teach, and what children learn in the teaching process (Lave 1993). In this work we turn to John Dewey’spragmatism, his view on meaning making (Dewey 1938/2015; Dewey 1958/2009) and functional coordination of actions(Garrison 2001). Data were collected using video-recordings of an activity in preschool practice. The tools used in the qualitative analyses were Practical Epistemology Analysis (Wickman & Östman, 2002) and Epistemological Move Analysis(Lidar, Lundqvist & Östman 2006). The study follows the Swedish Research Council's (2017) ethical rules and guidelines for good research practice. Informed consent was given by parents. The children were asked verbally and also informed that they could say ‘no’, at any time. The results show teaching and meaning making processes as multifaceted and dynamic, including teaching toward practical and intellectual learning as well as socialization and individual development. This way of document and assess teaching and learning can be used when evaluating and developing preschool education. By using these analysing methods the teachers can reflect over their own teaching approaches as well as over children’s learning processes and learning content. 

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Keyword

documentation

evaluation

teaching

meaning making

functional coordination

Lärarutbildning och pedagogisk yrkesverksamhet

Teacher Education and Education Work

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)