Learning Stories as an Assessment: A Case Study Exploring Its Local Application in China
- PDF / 2,390,262 Bytes
- 18 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 38 Downloads / 183 Views
Learning Stories as an Assessment: A Case Study Exploring Its Local Application in China Shiyao Wang1 · Yi Hou2
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Learning stories have been adopted as a form of assessment in early childhood education worldwide to assess children’s learning processes, learning dispositions, and well-being. However, a paucity of research has been done which examines the applicability of learning stories in China. This case study investigated how learning stories are used by in-service teachers who have had years of teaching experience in classrooms in a local Chinese context. Through analysing 43 learning stories in a kindergarten in Xiamen city, Fujian province, China, this study found that while Chinese teachers try to imitate the concept and form of learning stories from New Zealand, teacher-centered, negative, and non-targeted evaluations frequently appear in the teachers’ writing. This is opposite from the advocated practices of learning stories. Chinese teachers tend to pay more attention to the general development of the whole class, rather than individual students, as a consequence of a high teacher-to-children ratio in a traditional Chinese classroom and the educational policy in China. In addition, most learning stories produced by teachers seem to lack accessibility to both parents and children. Recommendations are provided which require a more localised, as well as contextualised, application of learning stories in Chinese context, and an improvement in the quality of learning stories noted down by kindergarten teachers. Keywords Assessment · Learning stories · Learning dispositions · Case study · In-service teachers · China
Introduction Learning stories, first proposed by Margaret Carr in the 1990s, which emphasise a learner’s understanding and the collaborative work by both teachers and the learner, are used as a primary approach to assessment in early childhood curriculum in New Zealand (Knauf 2018). Learning stories are believed in the early childhood practice to suit children at all ages and can be made during any time of a day when the children are involved in any type of learning activities (Blaiklock 2008). Therefore, the use of learning stories is believed to shape children’s learning identities and construct a repertoire of their cultural practices (Carr and Lee 2012). In terms of the documentation of learning stories, a teacher needs to document a child’s learning stories over a * Shiyao Wang [email protected] 1
Monash University, Early Years, Faculty of Education, Melbourne, Australia
Monash University, Tesol, Faculty of Education, Melbourne, Australia
2
period of time. This includes photographs while doing activities, and photocopies of the child’s work and comments, which altogether will be kept in a folder or a portfolio of the child (Carr 2001). These documents are then analysed by the teacher to narrate one or more of the following five typical domains of learning positions of the child: “taking an interest”, “being involved”, “persisting with diffic
Data Loading...
