Different forms of assessment and documentation in Swedish preschools.

The purpose of this study is to describe and discuss the assessment and documentation practices of Swedish daycare facilities seen from a didactic perspective. This is done on the basis of the following question: Which types of documentation and assessment practices exist at daycare facilities?The purpose of this study is to describe and discuss the assessment and documentation practices of Swedish daycare facilities seen from a didactic perspective. This is done on the basis of the following question: Which types of documentation and assessment practices exist at daycare facilities?

The study shows that there are several types of documentation at daycare facilities. This means that the early childhood educators seem to change between the different ways of documenting and assessing. Summative as well as formative assessments are used, as well as other types of documentation. The researcher found examples of everything from pedagogical documentation and portfolios, to individual development plans, evidence-related and standardised documents such as TRAS (Early Registration of Language Development) and programmes for social and emotional development such as SET (Social and Emotional Training), START and Second Step. Electronic documentation was also found. In continuation of this, the study mentions a new concept for documentation and assessment practice, i.e. transformative assessment. The study describes transformative assessment as a new documentation and assessment practice containing elements from both summative and formative assessments. According to the study, transformative assessment is about transforming the different assessments and letting them interact. In this way, the mutually connected and complex documentation approaches can be gathered/merged in one type of assessment. In addition, the study finds that documentation at daycare facilities enables the early childhood educators to follow the children’s development over time, with focus on the development of the abilities and skills of the individual child. This also enables the children to follow their own development and makes them feel proud of their own progress. Documentation also has the advantage that it can be used to give the right support to children who require special support, or to identify children with special challenges.

The data collection primarily consists of results from previous and current studies in connection with systematic documentation and assessment in Swedish daycare facilities. This study is therefore a synthesis of these results. Moreover, data consists of interviews and these are included in the concluding section of the study. Document and text analyses were carried out.

Vallberg-Roth, A. (2012). Different forms of assessment and documentation in Swedish preschools. Nordisk Barnehageforskning 5(23), 1-8.