Now that you are aware of the child's needs (DAP) and his/her right to feel safe (sensitivity) you also have to provide the child, his/her right to protection in order for your assessment practices to be truly child friendly. This we achieve by practicing the concept of confidentiality. It simply means that you treat all the information you have gathered about the child through observations, checklists, child portfolios and parent meetings as a secret. A secret kept from other school teachers and your friends/families. The only people who can have access to the child's information are the class teacher, other school assigned assessor/s, school administration and the child's parents. This practice helps protect the child from being labeled as a genius or a lazy and dull child by allowing others to form their own fresh impressions of the child and his abilities, providing all children an equal opportunity to progress without being treated with too much special attention or none at all.
If now after reading this article you feel that conducting professional assessments will not be as easy an undertaking as you had first thought, just remind yourself of the many times you too could have personally benefited in your own childhood, if someone was conducting a child friendly assessment on you in your school setting. An assessment that could have helped you not only understand your own individual abilities and skills, but also provide you with the means; a receptive teacher, a dynamic learning environment and an adaptive curriculum to help you develop holistically.
A Checklist for Teachers
Assessment of individual children's development and learning is essential for planning and implementing appropriate curriculum. In developmentally appropriate programmes, assessment and curriculum are integrated, with teachers continually engaging in observational assessment for the purpose of improving teaching and learning. To carry out assessments in a child friendly manner, teachers should keep certain guidelines in mind. These have been summarized below in the form of a checklist.
References
Brookhart, S.M. (1999). Wiggins, Grant. (1998). Educative Assessment: Designing Assessments to Inform and Improve Student Performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved August 14, 2007, from http://edrev.asu.edu/reviews/rev50.htm
Mahmud, Mahenaz (2003). Strong Foundations: A Guide for ECE Teachers. Karachi: Teachers’ Resource Centre.
http://www.naeyc.org/about/positions/dap4.asp
(For a more complete discussion of principles of appropriate assessment, see the position statement Guidelines for Appropriate Curriculum Content and Assessment for Children Ages 3 through 8 [NAEYC & NAECS/SDE 1992]; see also Shepard 1994.)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ghazanfar is part of the Training and Develpoment team at theTeachers’ Resource Centre (TRC). He holds a two year diploma in Early Childhood Education (ECE) from Sheridan College, Canada and a Montessori Teacher Training Certificate from AMI, Holland.
