Practices and Challenges of Children’s Learning Assessment in Pre-school Centers

Bezashwork Melaku ,Jemaneh T Tadesse

doi:10.7176/jep/10-4-09

Abstract

The purpose this study was to investigate practices and challenges assessing children in pre-school centers. In the study, 66 teachers participated from government and non-government pre-school centers. To collect data, questionnaire, interview and observation guide were used. The quantitative data was analyzed through frequency, percentage, and mean and the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. Findings show that educators hold diverse views and have varying approaches to assessment, using different tools and methods. All participants agree that assessment is important for supporting children’s learning and development.The findings revealed that poor curriculum implementation and instruction, unfair assessment practices such as unhealthy comparison among children, labelling children as failures by emphasizing on norm, using paper-pencil tests, focusing on few domains of children’s development, using the assessment result for promotion, and a possible wrong interpretation of assessment results. Moreover, poor documentation of learning activities of the children, using few assessment tools throughout the semester and summative assessment approaches, poor parent communication and feedback provision were common problems in the majority of preschool centres. Lack of professional staff, lack of ECCE syllabus, large class size, and lack of knowledge and skill were the major challenges. Keywords : Assessment Practice; Challenges; Children assessment; Pre-school DOI : 10.7176/JEP/10-4-09

Highlights

Assessment of young children must be very different than that of older students
Observation checklist in ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ format was used in the study. It consists of 9 items focusing on availability of ECCE curriculum, recorded documents of each student, lesson plans, communication books, and etc
When we look at documented commentaries, 67% of the observed preschool centres had no communication book and 58% of them did not communicate the assessment result with parents

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Assessment of young children must be very different than that of older students. Young children are learning how to communicate and are able to show what they know by doing, rather than by taking a pencil-and-paper test. Childhood assessment needs to accurately portray the learning that is taking place in early childhood classrooms It needs to be developmentally appropriate utilizing a variety of methods such as checklists, anecdotal records, and work samples. According to the Ethiopian ECCE Guideline and preschool syllabus, assessment of children should be holistic, focusing on all the aspects of their development It should be continuous, using appropriate methods, and should not be used as a basis for promotion, retention or selection which means it must not be used to label the child. Observation checklist in ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ format was used in the study It consists of 9 items focusing on availability of ECCE curriculum, recorded documents of each student, lesson plans, communication books, and etc.

RESULTS

Use specific assessment practice

Maintain portfolios of all children

Assessment just to meet parents’

Annual review of programme