The focus of this study is to explore foundation stage assessment by examining the relationship between formal policy (NCS) and actual assessment practice in a school in Durban. Assessment at the foundation stage requires clearly defined criteria and a range of appropriate strategies that enable teachers to provide constructive feedback to students.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ASSESSMENT: 11 INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
AN OVERVIEW OF ASSESSMENT AND CHANGE IN 12 ASSESSMENT
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ASSESSMENT POLICY 15
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ASSESSMENT POLICY IN 16 SOUTH AFRICA
ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE 20
FRAMES OF REFERENCES 29
ASSESSMENT TASKS IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE 31
RECORDING AND REPORTING OF LEARNER 33 PERFORMANCE IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE
POPULATION/ SAMPLING/ SELECTION CRITERIA 46
CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS RELATED TO 48 FIELD WORK
EDUCATORS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE EDUCATION 69 POLICY
IMPACT OF ASSESSMENT ON THE LEARNING 71 PROCESS
MANAGEMENT OF THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS 71
BACKGROUND: ASSESSMENT IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE
ASSESSMENT POLICIES IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE
Many of the Foundation Phase educators were unsure about choosing appropriate assessment strategies and activities and unsure about recording assessment. According to the Report of the Review Committee on Curriculum 2005, as cited in Chisholm (2000), the Assessment Policy for General Education and Training Band Grades R to 9 and ABET (1998), assimilated an educational practice that emphasized assessment and administration.
THE CHANGING ASSESSMENT SCENE IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE
Foundation stage educators found themselves interpreting and implementing assessment policy as they saw fit. There have been major changes in the way foundation stage educators assess student progress.
FOCUS AND PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
Many Foundation Phase educators have found themselves on the receiving end of relentless pressure to implement the Foundation Phase assessment policy. Therefore, the focus and purpose of my research study is to explore the Foundation Phase educators' understanding of assessment in a specific school.
RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
METHODOLOGY
The participants of this research study were five primary stage educators who had been teaching for more than fifteen years. As this is a small-scale study, these experienced foundation stage educators would certainly provide sufficient data and optimally shed light on foundation stage assessment.
KEY RESEARCH QUESTIONS
PREVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS TO FOLLOW
INTRODUCTION
ASSESSMENT IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE
In my opinion, the views of the following writers are relevant for evaluation at the establishment stage. It is therefore clear that assessment should be an integral part of the teaching and learning process in the Foundation Stage classroom.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ASSESSMENT: INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Policy makers in the UK have only recently become interested in the aspect of student achievement. One of the problems accompanying the expansion of education in Scotland, as shown in Gray's (1983) study, was that the examination system was extended to cover a wider range of abilities.
AN OVERVIEW OF ASSESSMENT AND CHANGE IN ASSESSMENT
He then explains that real change involves personal experience and willingness to participate in a new initiative and identifies three critical aspects of change. Dalton (1988) states in his study that one of the burdens that educators take on in the process of change is the "burden of incompetence."
ASSESSMENT AND MEASUREMENT
Hargreaves (1989) points out that there is no shortage of evidence that educational change is a difficult process. Hargreaves (1989) reminds us of the need to recognize that assessment serves other valuable and indispensable educational purposes.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ASSESSMENT POLICY
According to Levinson and Sutton (2000), even outright opposition to policy can be portrayed as a kind of appropriation. Hammond (1996) reminds us that one of the most difficult obstacles to overcome in educational change is the fundamental ways in which policies are conceived, developed and put into practice.
THE DEVELOPMEMENT OF THE ASSESSMENT POLICY IN SOUTH AFRICA
However, the ongoing and recent review of the assessment policy shows that it was carried out in haste. My study aims to contribute to the discourse on assessment in the Foundation Stage classroom within the context of the transformative education system and to explore Foundation Stage educators' understanding of assessment.
ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE
- INFORMAL ASSESSMENT
- FORMAL ASSESSMENT
- SELF ASSESSMENT
- CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
- LEARNERS' PORTFOLIOS
- SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
- FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
- AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT
It is therefore to the Foundation Phase educators' advantage to fully understand assessment and the implementation process, especially in the multicultural and multilingual classroom. Seiborger and Macintosh (1998) also explain that each learner's portfolios differ in the Foundation Phase classes. Summative assessment takes place when a piece of work in the Foundation Phase class is completed.
FRAMES OF REFERENCES
NORM REFERENCED ASSESSMENT
According to Lambert and Lines (2000), the standard referred to is a terni used to describe an appraisal system that rates the performance of an individual within a group against the performance of the entire group. Malan (1997) believes that norm-referenced assessment does not refer to the way in which tests or assessment tasks are constructed, but to the purposes on which the results of the assessment are based. The results according to Conner (1991) have few implications for education and the norm-based assessments are generally time-consuming.
ASSESSMENT TASKS IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE
- TESTS
- PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENTS
- INTERVIEWS AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS
- WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS
- GROUP PROJECTS
Furthermore, it can demonstrate students' thinking, writing and communication skills and how they structure facts. Students can be assessed on what they know, how they acquired the knowledge and how well they can apply it. They can also be assessed on how well they worked as a member of a team and how well they followed instructions.
RECORDING AND REPORTING OF LEARNER PERFORMANCE IN THE FOUNDATION PHASE
RECORDING
Recording as suggested in the Government Gazette (Department of Education, 2006) is a process in which the educator documents the level of performance of a student and in South African schools. According to the Department of Education Assessment Policy in the general education and training group, grades R-9 & ABET (Department of Education, 1998a), cumulative evidence of student achievement must be recorded and these records must accompany all students throughout their entire learning experience. According to the South African Government Gazette (Department of Education, 2007), an educator's portfolio means a collection of all assessment planning, including assessment tasks and assessment tools for both formal and informal assessment.
REPORTING
In short, messy data can lead to the teacher simply not caring and having no idea about the importance of assessment. Because it is a formal document, and one that can be produced in evidence, it is obvious that attention should be paid to the comments the teacher makes. Keating (1969) makes it clear that the results of the assessments on the report should be based on a range of different types of evidence, including tests, work in notebooks, files or flip files, individual or group projects and records of spoken documents. presentations. 1992) points out that the London Local Education Authorities work and reveals that the report is necessary to reveal to parents what the student has learned and what the student is good at or may need help with.
CONCLUSION
This chapter describes and presents the research method and approach used to investigate foundation stage teachers' understanding of assessment in a Durban school.
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
My study is a basic interpretive study focusing on the experience and interpretation of foundation stage assessment policy. This interpretive research was used to examine the everyday experience of implementing the foundation phase assessment policy in the classroom. In this case study, I intend to provide detailed information on the fundamental stage understanding of the assessment policy.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
- SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
- FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
- AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT
- CONTINIOUS ASSESSMENT
According to the Revised National Curriculum Statement (Department of Education, 2003), continuous assessment enables the growth and development of learners, provides constant feedback and gathers evidence of learning outcomes in terms of learning outcomes and assessment standards. The Revised National Curriculum Statement (Ministry of Education, 2003) also states that it is difficult to assess all students at the same time, especially in large classes.
DATA GENERATION
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
Therefore the interviews had to be carefully planned and piloted so that I could collect sufficient data for my study. I drew up an interview schedule showing when Foundation Stage educators would be interviewed, but this changed so often due to different school activities. The interviews were to be held where the participants were comfortable and everyone agreed that it would be held in my classroom.
OBSERVATIONS
I found that after conducting the semi-structured interviews, participants found themselves rethinking what they said. My observation schedule was carefully planned under the guidance of my supervisor and I observed students and teachers involved in the assessment activity. My observation schedule was well structured and I knew in advance what I was looking for.
DOCUMENT ANALYSIS
The documents were readily available from the participants and the documents analyzed in my research study were the registration documents of the Foundation Phase teachers in terms of assessment. Participants believed that this would allow them to observe student development and progression over time. Participants also believed that performance was more likely to improve when students received written feedback rather than just grades.
POPULATION/SAMPLING/SELECTION CRITERIA
If the assessment policy analysis had been omitted from my research, there would have been many unfilled gaps.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS RELATED TO FIELDWORK
During the observation, I tried to take field notes, but because of the large classes, of forty-five learners, it was difficult. I also found that data selection had to be selective and that was a challenge. I did not need to conduct all the Foundation Phase educators in that particular school, simply due to the constraints of time and data overload.
CONCLUSION
As stated in previous chapters, this exploratory study explores foundation stage educator's understanding of assessment. These approaches were used to collect data to explore foundation phase educator understanding of assessment. Observation of the teacher's classes where the assessment tasks were carried out and analysis of their assessment documents helped to confirm the assessment practices in this particular school and this also helped to compare and contrast the data collected.
SEMI- STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
- EDUCATORS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE ASSESSMENT POLICY
- IMPACT OF ASSESSMENT ON THE TEACHING PROCESS
- IMPACT OF ASSESSMENT ON THE LEARNING PROCESS
- MANAGEMENT OF THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
Taking into account the needs of all students also increases the workload of teachers in the foundation phase. The participants mentioned that the main factor hindering the implementation of the assessment policy is the large number of students in the classes. Socio-economic factors also emerged as a factor hindering the implementation of the assessment policy.
OBSERVATION
Students understood the assessment tasks because all participants clearly explained to the students what was expected of them to complete the tasks. All the students understood, so there was no need for the participants to instruct the students in another language. The participants' approach to assessment tasks was clearly influenced by their experience as foundation stage educators.
DOCUMENT ANALYSIS
All participants used the assessment file in which student performance is recorded. The assessment file contained a detailed record of the assessment completed and how students performed against the assessment standards. The student's portfolio contained a table of contents, description of the assignment and learning outcomes and assessment standards.
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
FINDINGS
- EDUCATORS' PERCEPTIONS OF THE ASSESSMENT POLICY
- IMPACT OF ASSESSMENT ON THE LEARNING PROCESS
It is also important to note that there was a need for specialists in the field of evaluation in the establishment phase. These specialists should be available to assist and guide Foundation Stage educators in the assessment process. It was found that assessment helped foundation educators to better recognize student progress, and assessment results provide clearer direction in lesson planning.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Electronic record keeping should be made available to all Foundation Phase educators to minimize the time spent updating records. When Foundation Stage educators plan assessment tasks, they need to consider the wide range of individual learners' needs, including those associated with the learners' vernacular and cultural background. As Foundation Phase educators observe how learners approach assessment tasks, they learn about their own teaching methods.
CONCLUSION
Assessment must only take place in the Foundation Phase class following a teaching sequence defined in advance by the Foundation Phase Educator. The National Protocol on Assessment for Schools in the General and Further Education and Training Band (grade R-12). The school curriculum since apartheid: intersection of politics and policy in the South African transition.
APPENDIX
INTERVIEW SCHEDULE
- EDUCATOR'S PERCEPTIONS OF THE ASSESSMENT POLICY
- IMPACT OF ASSESSMENT ON THE TEACHING PROCESS
- IMPACT OF ASSESSMENT ON THE LEARNING PROCESS
- MANAGEMENT OF THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS
Do you have a copy of the Department of Education's assessment policy for the Foundation Phase. In what ways have you received support in trying to implement the Department of Education's assessment policy. In what ways did your experience of assessment in the Foundation Phase help you to plan future assessment programmes.
OBSERVATION SCHEDULE (A)
NOT AT ALL
SOME OF THE TIME 3- ALL THE TIME
OBSERVATION SCHEDULE (B)
Made students clear outcome-based criteria by which the work would be assessed. Did the educators manage a large number of students in their class and practice direct supervision.
INFORMED CONSENT PERMISSION TO CONDUCT
RESEARCH AT SCHOOL
Singh
INFORMED CONSENT
PERMISSION TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH STUDY
SINGH
