EARLY YEARS TEACHER'S CONCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES TO ASSESS AND DOCUMENT CHILDREN'S CONCEPTIONS
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This text examines early childhood education in Portugal, which is divided into two categories: Day Care for children aged 0-3 years and Preschool Education in Kindergartens for children aged 3-6 years. The study focuses on Preschool Education, which is part of the Portuguese educational system and emphasizes educational preparation for children. The Framework Law for Preschool Education sets goals for socio-emotional and intellectual development, education for citizenship, correcting social asymmetries, and equalizing opportunities. The study aims to understand kindergarten teacher knowledge beliefs and practices regarding children's assessment and pedagogical documentation. Data were collected using an online questionnaire, distributed through social networks, and made available on the website of the APEI. The data were processed and analyzed with the aid of the Pandas tool, revealing that most kindergarten teachers engage in weekly reflections with children regarding the collected learning evidence and believe that a digital application could facilitate the documentation process. The most common use of digital applications is to share photos and/or videos and exchange messages with families. Kindergarten teachers use various methods to collect data on children's activities, such as direct observation and conversation with children, photographic records, and analysis of children's work. Overall, the study sheds light on how kindergarten teachers perceive pedagogical documentation, its importance, and the challenges associated with assessing children. It also highlights how digital applications can facilitate the documentation process, making it easier to share learning evidence with parents and track children's development.
This work has been supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UIDB/05777/2020
This study was developed within the scope of the Early Year Digital Portfolio Project, a KA2 Erasmus+
project with the Number: 2022-1-PT01-KA220-SCH-000086979, funded by the European Union. Views
and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of
the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the
European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
