Are Learning Stories Working

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Are Learning Stories Working?

• Early Childhood Council Annual Conference
• Wellington, 2-4 May, 2008
• Ken Blaiklock, School of Education
• Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland
  kblaiklock_at_unitec.ac.nz

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Overview of Learning Stories

• The most commonly used technique to assess young
  childrens learning in NZ.
• Teachers observe children and write narrative
  stories about their learning.
• Developed by Margaret Carr (1998a, 1998b, 2001,
  2004).
• Predominant assessment technique in Kei Tua o te
  Pae (Early Childhood Exemplars) (Ministry of
  Education, 2004, 2007).

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• Learning Stories focus on particular learning
  dispositions.
• Dispositions are participation repertoires from
  which a learner recognises, selects, edits,
  responds to, resists, searches for and constructs
  learning opportunities (Carr, 2001, p. 21).
• Dispositions are linked with curriculum strands
  in Te Whaariki (see Carr, 1998b).

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Links between Learning Stories and Te Whaariki
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Learning Stories are said to be

• - for all ages
• - for any experience
• - for individuals and for groups

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• Carr (2001, p. 149).

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• Ministry of Education (2004, Book 4, p.19).

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• Ministry of Education (2004, Book 8, p. 7).

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Advantages of Learning Stories

• Value for fostering centre-home links, and for
  facilitating understandings of literacy
  (Hatherly, 2006).
• Value for promoting communication between
  teachers, children, and families (Ramsey et al.,
  2007)
• These advantages could also be catered for by
  other ways of documenting e.g., Illustrated
  Anecdotes, Portfolios

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Are Learning Stories Working?

• Although Learning Stories has been promoted for
  over 10 years in New Zealand there has been no
  large scale evaluation of their worth.
• Learning Stories may not be an effective and
  practical means of assessing the diversity and
  richness of childrens learning over time.
• The costs of Learning Stories (especially in
  staff time) may be greater than any potential
  benefits.

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Concerns about Learning Stories(see Blaiklock,
in press).

• Difficulties with establishing the validity or
  accountability of Learning Stories.- It may be
  a story but is it an assessment?
• Problems with the inclusion of subjective
  interpretations at the time of observation. -
  Little value on attempts to be objective.
• Potential to make judgements on the basis of
  small amounts of evidence.- often recorded after
  the event.

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• Lack of guidance on where, when, and how often to
  make Learning Stories.
• Questions about the frequency and value of
  collegial discussions about Learning Stories, and
  the difficulty of establishing local validity.
• Situational specificity of Learning Stories may
  limit their value for planning. Is a learning
  story about a small event in one context useful
  for planning learning experiences for future
  events in very different contexts?

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• Problems with defining and selecting
  dispositions.- In earlier work, Carr (1998b)
  included knowledge and skills within
  dispositions. More recently, Carr and Claxton
  (2002) prefer to separate out capabilities from
  dispositions.
• Tenuous link between dispositions and strands of
  Te Whaariki.
• Lack of clear rationale for selection of certain
  behaviours as indicative of particular
  dispositions, and problems defining these
  behaviours.

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• Problems in making observations fit the
  suggested sequence of behaviours in a Learning
  Story.
• Taking an interest
• Becoming involved
• Persisting with difficulty
• Expressing a point of view or feeling
• Taking responsibility (Carr, 1998b)

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• Concern that a focus on dispositions could lead
  to a neglect of the development of knowledge and
  skills. process vs. content debate
• Problems in using Learning Stories to show
  changes over time. Carr (1998b) suggests
  progress shown as stories become longer, wider,
  and more complex or deeper. But what does this
  mean in practical terms? Where are the
  clear examples of Learning Stories showing
  development in particular areas of a childs
  learning over time?

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New Kei Tua o te Pae Booklets

• Booklets 10 15 (2007)
• Introductory booklet and one on each strand of Te
  Whaariki
• Belonging Mana Whenua
• Well-being Mana Atua
• Exploration Mana Aotuurua
• Communication Mana Reo
• Contribution Mana Tangata

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Booklet 10 An Introduction

• Definition of learning dispositions is still
  unclear. For example, Booklet 11 defines
  learning dispositions as holistic outcomes that
  integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes and
  also thinking and feeling (p.4).
• Are thinking and feeling not part of
  knowledge, skills and attitudes?

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Booklet 10 (contd.)

• Learning dispositions are more complex than
  abilities. Inclination and sensitivity to
  occasion are added to skills and knowledge to
  become learning dispositions with three aspects
  inclination, sensitivity to occasion, and
  ability.
• Being ready (Inclination)
• Being willing (Sensitivity to occasion)
• Being able (Skills and knowledge)
• All three aspects are necessary for turning
  ability into action (p. 5).

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Booklet 10 (contd.)

• Can inclination and sensitivity to occasion
  be defined and assessed? How will they vary in
  different contexts?
• Being able (Skills and Knowledge) receives
  insufficient attention in the exemplars.

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Booklet 10 (contd.)

• There is a dynamic two-way link the learning
  dispositions and narratives will also influence
  the features of the educational setting. The
  four dimensions of strength becoming more
  frequent, more distributed, more connected, more
  mindful are mirrored in the enabling or
  disabling features of the educational setting.
  The cultural norms and regular events in the
  setting make it easier or more difficult for
  dispositions to become frequent, robust, and
  practised. The accessibility of people,
  materials, and diverse ways to represent meaning
  make it easier or more difficult for dispositions
  to become more richly distributed. The
  connections developed with families and a
  diversity of social communities make it easier or
  more difficult for dispositions to achieve
  breadth and become more widely connected, and the
  flexibility of the power balance between adults
  and children makes it easier or more difficult to
  reshape and consider new possibilities to
  become more mindful (p.5).
• i.e., there are links between childrens
  learning dispositions and the surrounding
  context

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Language Development- foundational for
childrens learning and social relationships

• What guidance does Kei Tua o te Pae provide on
  assessing this key area?
• Booklet 14 Communication Mana Reo
• 1) Non-verbal communication skills
• 2) Verbal communication skills
• 3) Stories and symbols
• 4) Different ways to be creative and expressive

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Verbal Communication Skills

• Assessments value the interactions between
  adults and children and with peers. They are
  specific about those aspects of communication
  that children are developing. The exemplar
  Starting with photos illustrates how powerful
  photographs are in initiating a network of other
  communication modes and in maintaining a
  connection with the home (Booklet 14, p.4).

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• Booklet 14, p 10

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• Booklet 14, p. 11

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They are specific about those aspects of
communication that children are developing
(Booklet 14, p.4).

• Where is the specific description and analysis of
  language development? (e.g., articulation skills,
  vocabulary, sentence structure.)
• Is the transcript a verbatim recording or has it
  been written after the event?

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• The example of analysis of the learning story is
  very general.
• He asks adults and other children for help. He
  is able to direct others to get an outcome. He
  can express his ideas and feelings verbally
  (p.11).
• Additional explanation (in Kei Tua o te Pae)
  about this story is also very general.
• Connor is orchestrating a complex network of
  resources and assistance for communication
  purposes. The photographs are accompanied by
  complex verbal explanations from Connor (p.12).

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Additional exemplars provide teachers who wish
to reflect on the analysis and assessment of
learning outcomes within the Communication/Mana
Reo strand with a comprehensive collection of
exemplars for discussion. (Booklet 14, p.6)

• But just about anything can be used for
  discussion.
• Why doesnt Kei Tua o te Pae provide teachers
  with guidance about valid and practical ways of
  assessing language development?

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Why doesnt Kei Tua o te Pae recognise that
childrens language typically shows age-related
developmental patterns?

• Can we not accept that all children are
  different, and are influenced by their
  sociocultural contexts, but still recognise some
  widely occurring developmental patterns?
• Have some in the NZ early childhood field gone
  too far in removing all references to age-related
  development and learning?
• Why does Kei Tua o te Pae not mention childrens
  ages?

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Are we short-changing some children?

• When taking a holistic view of a child, is age
  not an important factor to note?
• In general, do we really have the same
  developmental and learning expectations for a 4
  ½ year old as a 2 ½ year old?
• If we do not recognise age-related developmental
  patterns, we may not recognise significant
  developmental delays. This may reduce
  opportunities for effective intervention.

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Assessment Principles in Te Whaariki and Kei Tua
o te Pae

• Is the identity of the child as a competent and
  confident learner protected and enhanced by the
  assessments?
• Do the assessment practices take account of the
  whole child?
• Do the assessment practices invite the
  involvement of family and whanau?
• Are the assessments embedded in responsive and
  reciprocal relationships? (Booklet 10, p.6).

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Additional criteria used in Kei Tua o te Pae

• having clear goals, balancing the documented
  with the undocumented, siting assessment in
  everyday contexts, protecting and enhancing the
  motivation to learn, acknowledging uncertainty,
  listening to children, including collective
  assessments, and keeping a view of learning as
  complex (Booklet 10, p.6).
• What about credibility and validity?
• Timely for NZ to look at international
  developments in assessment of children

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A comparison with the National Education Goals of
the US

• Assessments should bring about benefits for
  children.
• Assessments should be tailored to a specific
  purpose and should be reliable, valid and fair
  for that purpose.
• Assessments should be age-appropriate in both
  content and the method of data collection.
• Parents should be a valued source of assessment
  information as well as an audience for assessment
  results (Shepherd, Kagan, Wurtz, 2001).

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National Association for the Education of Young
Children (NAEYC, 2003) Guidelines

• Make ethical, appropriate, valid, and reliable
  assessment a central part of all early childhood
  programs. To assess young childrens strengths,
  progress, and needs, use assessment methods that
  are developmentally appropriate, culturally and
  linguistically responsive, tied to childrens
  daily activities, supported by professional
  development, inclusive of families,

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NAEYC Guidelines (contd.)

• and connected to specific, beneficial purposes
  (1) making sound decisions about teaching and
  learning, (2) identifying significant concerns
  that may require focused intervention for
  individual children, and (3) helping programs
  improve their educational and developmental
  interventions.

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An example of a different approach to assessment

• California Department of Education (2005)
• Desired Results Developmental Profile-Revised
• Two main profiles 0-36 months, and 3-6 years.
• Teachers use daily notes, anecdotal records,
  observations, and samples of childrens work to
  assist them to complete the profile.
• Examples of Language Measures -gt

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Are Learning Stories Working?

• Some evidence that Learning Stories are a useful
  tool for fostering centre-home links, and
  understandings of literacy. But other means of
  documentation could also achieve this.

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Are Learning Stories Working?

• Concerns Learning Stories (as exemplified in
  Kei Tua o te Pae)
• Do not provide an effective and practical way of
  assessing the richness of childrens learning
  over time.
• Do not provide valid assessments of dispositions
  nor of crucial areas of childrens learning.
• Are of little value for planning effective
  learning experiences

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In conclusion . . .

• Need to remain open to looking at international
  developments in early childhood assessment.
• Need to examine why, what, and should we assess.
  
• Need to ensure assessments are valid and credible
  and that they have benefits for children.