Reconceptualising the role of the child portfolio in assessment: How it serves for ‘assessment as learning’

Abstract

Although the concept of assessment as learning has important educational and practical implications, the utilisation and creation of contexts for assessment as learning in early childhood education are contemporary issues that need to be clarified. The overall goal of this work is to reconceptualise the role of the child portfolio as a tool for promoting assessment as learning in early childhood education. This theoretical framework provides some conceptual insights into children's agency in the learning and assessment process through the use of child portfolios. The main issue addressed is the progressive use of the child portfolio, which comprises observations of classroom experiences, documentation of these observations, revisiting learning experiences and a celebration of children's achievements. These aspects are discussed along with arguments that raise the question of how portfolios can act as catalysts for assessment as learning. This article further advocates that the multidimensional processes of creating a child portfolio may be considered a promising context for promoting autonomy, self-regulation, metacognition and reflection in early childhood education.

An Examination of Early Childhood Teachers’ Views and Experiences on Assessment as Learning

“…However, in the assessment as learning approach, self-assessment is achieved through children's reinforcement, reflection, and revision, thus providing an environment for children to gain meaningful experiences of their learning (Dann, 2012). Reviewing previous learning processes and examining past experiences with children contributes to their self-assessment and reflective skills (Yılmaz et al, 2023). Therefore, teachers need to provide learning environments where children can express their own learning experiences in different ways beyond comparing themselves with their peers.…”

“…When teachers focus on assessment as learning, they use classroom assessment as a tool to help children develop, apply, and become comfortable with reflecting and critical analysis of their learning (Earl, 2007). Yılmaz et al (2023) reconceptualized the role of child portfolios as a tool to promote AaL in early childhood education. They explained the AaL process with a multidimensional structure regarding child portfolios.…”

“…In more recent years, it has been seen in the literature that studies on assessment at all educational levels have been handled with the perspective of "assessment as learning", which centers on the role of the learner (Schellekens et al, 2021;Lee et al, 2019). However, there are very limited studies that address the assessment in early childhood education from this perspective (Yılmaz et al, 2023;DeLuca et al, 2020). From this point of view, the current study aims to examine the views and experiences of preschool teachers on assessment as learning.…”