Mixing performance and competence pedagogic orientations to assessment of writing and text production in the early years

Abstract

Australian educators teaching in the early years of formal schooling find themselves grappling with the dilemmas of preparing learners to sit performance-based assessments in later years and their sense of pedagogic responsibility towards designing competency-based assessment. Studies have explored this tension in the primary and middle years where learners sit national standardised assessments, but there is limited research in the earliest years. Therefore, this article aims to share an educator's experience of using an inquiry-based approach named LAUNCH to act agentically within government assessment systems. Design-based research in an exploratory case study of an Australian Preparatory classroom investigates an educator's pedagogic orientations to the assessment of 14 five- and six-year-old learners’ writing and text production. Qualitative data generated from video and audio recordings and learner-generated artefacts captures these pedagogies over a four-week time frame. Sociologist Basil Bernstein's two pedagogic orientations to assessment – competence and performance – provide the theoretical framework for the study. The findings reveal that a mix of orientations allows learners to achieve the expected knowledge and skills that they need to do well in performance-based assessments, as well as unexpected knowledge and skills. For those committed to discussions about professional ethics and assessments, it is crucial that archetypes of pedagogic orientations to assessment are shared to illuminate a close study of practice.