The second half of the 20th century, when there was a great appeal to the generalization of pre-school education as a way to guarantee equal opportunities for all children at the following educational level mainly through the compensation of social disadvantages, has made possible the construction of knowledge about early childhood education namely through longitudinal studies. These studies, allow us to understand that pre-school education can influence the future life of those whoattend it and that thereare certain characteristics of the programs that present a higher correlation with positive effects (Schweinhart & Weikart, 1997). On the other hand, the studies in the domain of the neurological sciences, allow us to realize the importance of Early Childhood Education, by considering childhood as a critical period for the development of the brain and the role of stimulation in this process (Bennett, 2000). But, in this process, quality is the key!
Quality work in early childhood education presupposes that the early childhood teacher is able to respond to the diversity of childhood experiences, which can be found in the different educational contexts. This diversity has increased in the past years due to the cultural change that has to be taken in account by early childhood teachers. Nevertheless, it also presupposes that the early childhood teacher has a deep knowledge of the content areas he/she approaches and that he/she uses documentation and assessment strategies that can fundament the curriculum development and the teaching-learning processes.
Bennett (2004) states that many examples of theories and inappropriate teaching practices can be observed in contexts of early education: insufficient or inappropriate interaction with children, little appreciation of horizontal learning among children, difficulties in the management of groups, failure to provision and renew stimulating learning environments, insufficient team work and reflected practices, too much focus on academic goals or the opposite, excessive reluctance or refusal to meet the learning objectives that are indeed valued by families, schools and society.
Meanwhile, if many teaching practices have incorporated what the research and
observation tells us about children: their enormous capacity to learn in different dimensons (social, emotional, cognitive, language, motor, etc…), and the
assumption that learning is based on the social, emotional and
experiential domains, emphasizing the importance of interactions (involving families, children and teachers).
It seems crucial that each teacher observe his/her pre-school context and tries to
understand the extent to which the educational principles embraced are really being put into practice in its organization and dynamics.
In this poster we will present a study that is being developed by the authors in the scope of the research project Evaluation in Early Childhood Education - Children Follow-up Instrument (Funded project by FCT - PTDC/CED/67633/2006). The aim of this research is to construct a continuous registration and monitoring instrument for pre-school practices, inspired by POMS – A process-oriented child monitoring system for young children (Laevers et al, 1997) and intends to improve pedagogical practice, facilitating the relationship between documentation, assessment and curricular edification.
