Pedagogical documentation in literacy education: a journey in early years assessment

• Main Author: Carey, Hilary
• Other Authors: Serebrin, Wayne (Curriculum, Teaching and Learning)
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: literacy; pedagogy
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/22180

In early years classrooms in Canada, children are often assessed for specific discrete skills in reading and writing, using tools such as running records and word lists. Through research with children, other tools are emerging to more fully help a teacher understand a child’s literacy practices, but the use of these tools requires a shift in ideology regarding literacy and learning. This thesis documents this shift from a more modernist theory of education and autonomous philosophy of literacy to a postmodernist view of education and an ideological view of literacy. Alternative tools for assessment and teaching of children in the form of a pedagogy of listening and pedagogical documentation are presented. Also, pedagogical documentation is used as a methodology for this study. This research suggests a shift in the way educators view children and their literacy practices, and in how they engage in research in the classroom.