Portfolio

Portfolio Instalment I

Explain what your approach would be, as a teacher, to observe and assess student learning.

The personal approach as a teacher in observing and assessing student learning would be interaction and observation. The approach would be made by observing the children in the class. The individual interaction between the student and the teacher would effectively evaluate student retention and progress. Since I am close to the student, I would spend my time with them in learning whom they are developing their different skills such as learning, speaking, and listening. The student can evaluate their progress and communicate personal or learning concerns to an educator. Performing a joint review of the student’s work influences an effective evaluation of the student’s progress (Liu et al., 2020). My suggestion as their teacher will also be incorporated into the portfolio to aids in meeting the student's needs. A teacher can provide meaningful and positive feedback to the student on such approaches, thereby encouraging morale and motivating the students to positive performance (Heikka, Halttunen, & Waniganayake, 2018). Positive feedback will also help change the student's perception of negative learning issues while still helping the student get better grades and achieve learning goals and personal development.

In this regards, the teacher's role that I feel would create an effective curriculum plan for young children include;

First, teaching knowledge; as a teacher, there is a general expectation of imparting knowledge to the students. An effective curriculum plan would entail the knowledge that would be dispensed to children and aid in learning and developing different skills (Heikka, Halttunen, & Waniganayake, 2018). Since the teacher teaches in various ways, some of the methods that would be applied include small group activities, hands-on learning activities, and lectures.

Second, the children always mimic their teacher's actions. As a teacher, I would create a warm and happy environment that would make the children happy. The curriculum plan, therefore, would integrate the children's environment plan improvement model. The environment set by the teacher usually impacts the children either positively or negatively (Heikka, Halttunen, & Waniganayake, 2018). In this case, the plan would be emphasized by creating a positive environment as it would foster better children's development. The teachers are responsible for the children's social behavior, and the children's behaviors always reflect the teacher's actions based on the environment set.

Third, the teacher is the children's role model since the teacher spends most of the time with children and can either positively or negatively influence the children's behavior (Dobber et al., 2017). They should teach the children and love and care for them. In this case, the teacher curriculum plan should include the program in which the children will be nurtured.

Fourth, the teacher act as the children's mentor. Mentoring is a way of encouraging the student to strive for the best they can. Encouraging students to enjoy learning can do it. A teacher should listen to children and build the children's confidence, which is critical to success.

Lastly, when children's behavior changes or physical abuse signs are noticed, teachers must look into the problem. Teachers must follow the curriculum procedures to influence effective development and performance (Retnawati et al., 2018). The program then should encompass all the procedures of dealing with children who show some signs of trouble.

As a teacher, there is a need for proper planning by going through the education curriculum and finding out what interests the children. In this manner, I will reveal some of the aspects that need to be taught to the children apart from the academic world. Some of the concepts that can be integrated into the plan include reading skills, speaking skills, learning skills, and other co-curriculum activities such as sports that interest the children (Wilder & Lillvist, 2018). In this manner, all the aspects should be examined to assess the level at which the student has captured them.

The physical environment refers to the surrounding of an individual. Amongst the thing that I will consider water, land formation, minerals present in the area, and vegetation. Buildings and infrastructure as some of the humanmade physical environmental structures. It would also be important to classify them on their two broad categories: naturals and humans made and reviews how they have aided in shaping man's life.

Amongst the things that I will consider in the social environment include the children's culture and traditions. I would spend enough time exploring their culture, customs, and traditions and investigating how they affect their development and how they interact.

Portfolio Instalment II

Connecting Theory & Research

An authentic assessment refers to measuring an individual's accomplishment that is worthwhile and significant compared to the multiple-choice test (Koh, 2017). A teacher devises it in collaboration with the student by engaging their voices when applying the authentic assessment to student learning and achievements (Ellis et al., 2020). A teacher usually applies criteria associated with knowledge construction, disciplined inquiry, and value achievement beyond the school. In most cases, the authentic assessment focuses on a contextualized task that enables children to demonstrate their competency in a more authentic setting.

Value of each type of observation

1. Class log; observation technique aids the recording and keep track of events in a classroom.
2. A checklist; is used in organizing and verifying important tasks. They also help in reducing errors and ensures consistency in tasks.
3. Sampling techniques; allows one to gather information in a large text. Sampling techniques helps to save time.
4. Rating scale; helps in categorization and usually elicits information that contains qualitative and quantitative attributes.
5. Anecdotal records; is a detailed narrative recorded after a specific interaction occurs. It informs a teacher as they plan-learning experiences. Anecdotal records provide information and give insights when identifying possible developmental delays.
6. Running records; helps the teacher measure student's progress, plan for future instructions, and provide a way for students to understand individual progress.
7. Portfolio; encourage children to be more responsible in the learning process.

A teacher can learn what the student's behavior is based on the observation made. The teacher can use observation techniques, making the students learn about the progress and who they physically or socially interact with while in a different environment.

The observation applies that the learning Foundation is associated with the sense that it is considered essential to optimal learning and healthy development.

Instalment III

Collecting student data

Formative assessment involves a wide range of strategies that teachers can use to carry out an in-process evaluation of learners learning requirements, course or unit progress, comprehension abilities, and overall academic advancements (Babinčáková et al., 2020). For instance, drawing a concept map for the class to indicate the understanding levels, providing research proposals, and accurately describing the critical points after a lecture.

In terms of environmental assessments, a teacher can use checklists to understand different students' abilities in a class. The tools offer practical ways of gathering students’ skills and knowledge, especially during class engagements (Babinčáková et al., 2020). A checklist involves a yes or no questionnaire for the students. Checklists can be used in a group or individually. The tool is valuable since it uses simple strategies to understand and effectively communicate with the teacher. Checklists are also valuable in promoting well-being, expression, and engagement as the learning foundations (Pianta, 2016). For instance, a teacher can use a checklist to evaluate students' progress in a mathematics class by asking simple questions with short responses.

Assessing the curriculum is an essential way of weighing students according to a particular criterion. A rubric offers the teacher an opportunity to gauge whether a student satisfies the expected outcomes. A rubric's value to a teacher is that the tool emphasizes performance and quality rather than quantity (Yune et al., 2018). As a teacher, the next step is to point out areas of weaknesses to influence additional learning for the child. A teacher can grade a child through a rubric, to understand student’s progress and overall growth. For instance, rubrics, as a tool report, promotes reliability and consistency of a score.

Rating scales can allow teachers to assess the interaction level of students. The foundational principles of personal assignments also apply in the case of group work. Rating scales provide a teacher with a way of indicating the behaviors, strategies, and skills of a particular group of students (Babinčáková et al., 2020). The value of rating scales involves the fact that a teacher can use it to record observations while students can use the tool as a self-management instrument. The scales as a learning foundation promote performance improvement and allow the students and the teacher to set achievable goals per student in terms of class interactions. For instance, a good rating indicates that the student is productive in the class.

Portfolio Instalment IV

Collaboration

Professionals and families should collaborate in early childhood to enhance the development of a child. The collaboration allows for creating a positive support system, especially in the transitional stages of the child (Vlasov & Hujala, 2017). There are various ways teachers can use to establish a positive relationship with families. For instance, regular communication, listening to the parents and seeking opinions from parents. In most cases, seeking parents' opinions about the learning schedules for the child increases the chances of a positive association. Communication creates a bond between the two parties, thus allowing for the relationship's growth (Vlasov & Hujala, 2017). Communication shows that the individual is willing to collaborate, especially in child development. Parents have diverse opinions from teaching professionals. However, listening indicates consideration, thus promoting a positive relationship.

Interprofessional collaboration encourages productive engagements between the professional and families in early childhood (Page & Eadie, 2019). Some of the ways of building and collaborating with the parties include creating a social platform, for instance, organizing charities and other events to influence collaboration. Recognizing individual efforts according to professionalism, influences a positive ground of association. During an event, there is a need to recognize the contribution of both the parent, peers and the community in general (Page & Eadie, 2019). Team building is also a productive way of encouraging interprofessional collaboration in early childhood development.

Conclusion

The portfolio enhances personal and professional knowledge of teachers' importance in both an educational setting and the community in general. Through the prompt, one can identify professional strengths and weaknesses with regards to child development. The prompt is also important in pointing out critical areas and tools a teacher can use to promote individual knowledge and skill about collaboration, especially with parents to promote effective child development. Collaboration with parents and other professions in childcare encourages the effective transition of the child as a growth process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Babinčáková, M., Ganajová, M., Sotáková, I., & Bernard, P. (2020). Influence of formative assessment classroom techniques (Facts) on student’s outcomes in chemistry at secondary school. Journal of Baltic Science Education, 19(1).

Dobber, M., Zwart, R., Tanis, M., & van Oers, B. (2017). Literature review: The role of the teacher in inquiry-based education. Educational Research Review, 22, 194-214.

Ellis, C., van Haeringen, K., Harper, R., Bretag, T., Zucker, I., McBride, S., ... & Saddiqui, S. (2020). Does authentic assessment assure academic integrity? Evidence from contract cheating data. Higher Education Research & Development, 39(3), 454-469.

Heikka, J., Halttunen, L., & Waniganayake, M. (2018). Perceptions of early childhood education professionals on teacher leadership in Finland. Early Child Development and Care, 188(2), 143-156.

Koh, K. H. (2017). Authentic assessment. In Oxford research encyclopedia of education.

Liu, H., Zhu, Y., Zang, T., Yu, J., & Cai, H. (2020, October). Jointly Modeling Individual Student Behaviors and Social Influence for Prediction Tasks. In Proceedings of the 29th ACM International Conference on Information & Knowledge Management (pp. 865-874).

Page, J., & Eadie, P. (2019). Coaching for continuous improvement in collaborative, interdisciplinary early childhood teams. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 44(3), 270-284.

Pianta, R. C. (2016). Teacher–student interactions: Measurement, impacts, improvement, and policy. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(1), 98-105.

Retnawati, H., Djidu, H., Kartianom, A., & Anazifa, R. D. (2018). Teachers’ knowledge about higher-order thinking skills and its learning strategy. Problems of Education in the 21st Century, 76(2), 215.

Vlasov, J., & Hujala, E. (2017). Parent-teacher cooperation in early childhood education–directors’ views to changes in the USA, Russia, and Finland. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 25(5), 732-746.

Wilder, J., & Lillvist, A. (2018). Learning journey: A conceptual framework for analyzing children’s learning in educational transitions. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 26(5), 688-700.

Yune, S. J., Lee, S. Y., Im, S. J., Kam, B. S., & Baek, S. Y. (2018). Holistic rubric vs. analytic rubric for measuring clinical performance levels in medical students. BMC medical education, 18(1), 124.