Processes and Possibilities in Documenting Children's Learning

“Documentation is an ongoing form of authentic assessment of both educators and young learners. Educators assess their teaching, including the various roles they assume within a learning experience, the design of the environment, their verbal contributions and their body language, the size and composition of the learning group, and so on,” wrote Alison Maher in an article that forms the basis of one of the new Exchange Reflections.

She goes on to explain: “At the same time, they also assess the learning of the students, and make adjustments to the teaching based on what has been observed. In this way, assessment and self-assessment are integrated, occur regularly, and are used to immediately improve quality. We regularly make arrangements with educators and administrators in the school in order to be able to document our work. We support each other in this way because we know how much can be learned from making time to closely observe and document.”

The Exchange Reflections, “Documenting Learning: Processes and Possibilities,” invites educators to explore deeper possibilities in documenting children’s work. Maher writes: “We recognize that human learning is complicated and multi-faceted. Thus, all educators have the right to the time, support and resources necessary to engage in a process of documentation related to numerous aspects of our profession.”

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