Okul Öncesi Öğretmen Adaylarinin Pedagojik Dokümantasyon Deneyimleri İle Değerlendirme Konusunda Kendilerine Olan Güvenin Ve Yeterliklerinin Desteklenmesi

Abstract

This study investigated how pre-service early childhood education teachers' confidence in assessing children has changed after learning pedagogical documentation process and identify a roadmap on how to support their professional development in terms of assessment. The design of the study was qualitative case study in nature. Based on that, qualitative case study design was utilized for the current study. For the selection of the participants, a purposive sampling strategy was utilized. The data of the study were drawn from preservice teachers who were enrolled in an elective course called Pedagogical Documentation in Early Childhood Education in an early childhood teacher education program at a state university. The data were collected through pre-and post-focus group interviews, and documentation panel displays and reflection journals about their documentation experiences. Thematic analysis method was utilized and three main theme was determined after all data analysis process was conducted. These were; (1) exploiting assessment tools in learning process, (2) supporting pre-service teachers' self-efficacy beliefs on assessment, and (3) interpreting assessment results for planning learning process. Findings revealed that implementing pedagogical documentation supports the pre-services teachers' confidence and competencies on implementing assessment strategies in terms of understanding how to interpret assessment evidences and decide about children's learning outcomes. Considering the findings of this inquiry, it can be recommended that pre-service early childhood teacher training programs should be designed to provide necessary experiences to implement assessment strategies such as pedagogical documentation.