“Following The Child’s Lead” and “Formative Assessments”

You all must have heard this term " Follow The Child's Lead" quite frequently in case you have been associated with the field of Early Childhood Education directly or indirectly. In Canada we encourage play based Emergent curriculum. And relevantly Free play is an integral part of our kids learning process as this is the time when educators are truly able to observe which area of learning in particular a child is inclined towards. Is it the social emotional area where the child needs help or is it the cognitive, literacy or physical skills (Gross motor,  Fine Motor) that need to be promoted. The challenge here is that how to assess a child’s learning? Which of the three categories of assessment could be applied here to get the best results? Although, the assessment for learning, as learning and for learning all have their significance, however, when it comes to documenting observations for achieving the ultimate goal of enhancing a child’s learning, the Formative Assessment seems to be the best strategy.

Firstly, in my opinion it’s during the process of learning that the learning actually happens and hence it is of major importance in Early Childhood Education. A child while engaged in the learning process has more opportunities to quench his thirst by asking questions fearlessly. It is that miraculous moment where the educator could assess where the child needs help and how to scaffold his or her learning. During this process of learning comes the golden time for the educator to reflect whether the approach towards teaching needs to be changed or is there any teaching strategy that ought to be amended to benefit the child. These Reflections lead towards greater understanding of how to develop future teaching strategies. This way the young children, by expressing themselves, actually lead us to design and apply effective teaching strategies next time. Every child is unique and has the potential to grow provided he finds favourable and nourishing environment. Once this aim has been achieved the child becomes confident to meet the overall expectations as well.

Next, every child develops at his or her own pace. For that reason, when it comes to teaching young children, I always avoid making comparisons among children. We have to bring ourselves at their age levels. From my experience in the kindergarten, I have observed that some of my excellent students were extremely shy in the beginning of the school year. While observing them performing various learning tasks, I constantly kept on encouraging them to express their ideas. At the same time I was providing them feedback. Through that environment of reciprocity and open communication the children were able to produce greater results. To sum up, assessments are meant to promote a child’s learning and Formative Assessments go in harmony with our goal to enhance a child’s learning.