Learning and teaching stories: Action research on evaluation in early childhood in Aotearoa-New Zealand

Abstract

SUMMARY During the past decade a number of countries have developed national curriculum statements and frameworks for schools and/or early childhood services. New Zealand is one of these. Margaret Carr and Helen May co-ordinated the early development of Te Whaariki, the New Zealand early childhood curriculum. The development of Te Whaariki posed particular challenges towards ensuring that the processes for assessment and evaluation are in the interests of children and their families and fit alongside the Principles of Te Whaariki itself. This paper provides a brief, summary overview of the Principles and framework of Te Whaariki, and of subsequent assessment and evaluation research. Our framework of “Learning and Teaching Stories,” a “user-friendly” approach to assessment and self evaluation, was trialled in an action research project located in six early childhood centres in three different regions of New Zealand. The paper discusses action research as a process for self-evaluation, and the implications of the findings of this phase of the project for early childhood self-evaluation practices.