Different forms of assessment and documentation in Swedish preschools

Abstract

The aim is to describe and discuss documentation and assessment practices in Swedish preschools from a didaktik perspective. What different forms of documentation and assessment are found in the preschools? Preschools in both urban and rural municipalities are included in the selection. Document and textual analysis are used. A varied multi-documentation emerge. The multi-documentation at each preschool expose that preschool teachers seem to switch between different forms of documentation and assessment, including summative, formative and other assessments. The concept of transformative assessment may capture the different assessments interwoven in the multi-documentation. Transformative assessment is a concept focusing on reshaping and interplaying assessments that are intertwined in the registration and complex documentation at different levels and directions.

Teachers’ actions and children’s interests. Quality becomings in preschool documentation

“…With the use of one local template for systematic quality development work, certain aspects of preschool quality were brought forward. While previous research has shown that documentation focuses on individual children when using individual development plans, portfolios, and sometimes pedagogical documentation (Vallberg Roth, 2012), in this study a different model produced other aspects of quality that did not focus on individual children but instead on teachers' work and children's interests or in(tra)ests. With this article I argue that it is important for anyone working with systematic quality development documentation in preschool to consider what quality can become, and how local templates, curriculum, photos, national guidelines, research, and doubtless other things as well play an active part in constructing preschool quality.…”

Playing a part in preschool documentation : A study of how participation is enacted in preschool documentation practices and how it is affected by material agents

“…Buldu (2010) and Bjervås (2011) have found pedagogical documentation to be a possible way to do formative assessment, which looks forward and supports further learning, in contrast to summative assessment, which looks back at what has been achieved (Bjervås, 2011). Summative assessment can be seen as an assessment of learning while formative assessment is an assessment for learning (Vallberg Roth, 2012). In Bjervås's (2011) study, teachers saw documentation as a way for children's voices to be heard and as a way to make children aware of their own learning and their competences, which is something completely different from testing, assessing or measuring.…”

“…In the Swedish preschool curriculum there are no goals to achieve; instead, the curriculum contains goals to strive for (Vallberg-Roth, 2012). Vallberg Roth (2012 proposes the concept of transformative assessment, which is understood as a more flexible concept.…”

“…Preschool documentation involves using tools for the production of documents, such as digital cameras, computers, printers, and pencils and paper, and the documentation practice produces, for example, photos, texts, video recordings and children's crafts and drawings. These things are not passive tools for registering information; they, and documentation in itself, also contribute to shaping preschool practice in different ways (Lenz Taguchi, 2013;Vallberg Roth, 2012). But what significance could they have?…”

“…However, documentation in preschool can serve different, highly contrasting purposes and function in many ways. Documentation can be used as a way of following up, evaluating and developing preschool quality (Swedish National Agency of Education, 2011) as well as individual children's development and learning (Vallberg Roth, 2012), and it can also be used to inform parents and politicians about everyday preschool practices (SOU 1997(SOU :157, 1997. It can also be used to reflect on and challenge prevalent views on children, teachers and pedagogical practice (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 1999).…”