Uppföljning och utvärdering för förändring - pedagogisk dokumentation som grund för kontinuerlig verksamhetsutveckling och systematiskt kvalitetsarbete i förskolan.

The purpose of this study is to examine the type of knowledge generated when pedagogical documentation is used as a tool to develop pedagogical practice in a Swedish daycare centre (förskola).

The study concludes that pedagogical documentation can be used for regular follow-up and development of the pedagogical and didactic practices, but that documentation is also a comprehensive and demanding project. Pedagogical documentation requires a profound understanding of philosophical and theoretical perspectives as a basis for reflection and analysis, and it requires practical skills in using different methods of documentation. Finally, it requires an organisation structure which allows time for discussion, reflection and analysis among early childhood educators.

In the daycare centre studied, work on pedagogical documentation contributes to a sharper focus on the children's curiosity, experiences, participation and learning and it contributes to continuous evaluation of pedagogical practices.

The knowledge generated in the early childhood educators' discussions and conversations about pedagogical documentation includes the following: assessment of the meaningfulness of different activities in relation to the purpose and to the children's questions, assessment in relation to the content and the values of the daycare centre as well as assessment and evaluation of content in relation to the curriculum. All these topics relate to the role of the daycare centre in connection with documentation, assessment and evaluation of the educational context and practice. In their discussions, the early childhood educators did not pay much attention to monitoring the individual child's learning and development in relation to the curriculum.

The empiricism of the study was collected through field work over one year in a Swedish Reggio Emilia daycare centre. The researcher observed participants, took part in the early childhood educators' planning meetings and collected pedagogical documentation produced by the early childhood educators and the children in connection with a natural-science project. The pedagogical documentation includes photos, children's drawings and project work, transcriptions from the early childhood educators' planning meetings as well as weekly letters for parents describing the activities of the children in the past week.

Elfström, I. (2013). Uppföljning och utvärdering för förändring - pedagogisk dokumentation som grund för kontinuerlig verksamhetsutveckling och systematiskt kvalitetsarbete i förskolan. Ph.d.-afhandling. Stockholm University, Stockholm.