Newsletter editor:

Carolyn Lieberg 

Naturalistic Assessment in Early Childhood Education

Christine Mason, CEI Executive Director

Carolyn Lieberg, CEI Editor

Elijah Mercer, CEI Intern

Envision walking into a preschool classroom where the teacher has set up a situation to elicit student responses and assess children's learning and instructional needs. Perhaps building blocks are in one corner, a library is in another, and there is a table that includes some resources for water play and measurement. Could children's behavior during play with and without adult prompts and guidance, be used to assess learning? Could such a scenario be used to measure children's knowledge and skills? One fundamental strength of naturalistic assessments is that they are designed to measure performance on tasks that are common to the everyday worlds in which we live. At the preschool level, naturalistic assessments can guide instruction to assist students in reaching developmental milestones across cognitive, fine-motor, gross-motor, and social domains.

 

              

Such naturalistic assessments are common components for two widely used preschool observation assessment instructions. The Early Childhood Environment Rating (ECER) scale consists of 43 items in seven categories, such as Personal Care Routines, Language-Reasoning, and Activities. Parents and Staff are an important category, too. The tool is for formative assessment--observing and monitoring children in some of the activities and locations described above. The goals are to help all parties improve the opportunities and learning experiences for each child.

Another method for assessing early childhood experiences in Pre-K is the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). It is an observational instrument that assesses achievement and development. The system links teacher behaviors to student gains and claims to be the only system that links those two directly. The method involves 15-minute cycles of observation rated with a manual of behaviors.  

Evaluation systems provide both data and common terms for stakeholders to employ as they manage classrooms and make plans. These approaches are easy to adapt to measure student learning and skills in targeted areas.

What are Naturalistic Assessments?

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) published a policy brief that defines "authentic" or "naturalistic" assessments as "informal methods...that engage or evaluate children on personally meaningful [activities], take place in real life contexts, and are grounded in naturally occurring instructional activities" (Epstein, et al., 2004).

According to NIEER, "naturalistic assessments" have some major components:

1)      The assessment should be relevant and meaningful to the context of each child's life.

2)     The assessment should be based on classroom experiences and activities.

3)     The overall assessment should include a family component.

4)     The assessment itself is tailored to the child's interest and attention span (i.e. for preschoolers NIEER suggests no longer than 35 minutes for any one assessment)

Informal, Indirect, and Naturalistic Evaluations

One way to approach naturalistic measurement of skills is through what Linder (1993) has termed Transdisciplinary Play-based Assessment. With this approach, a team observes as a child plays with a familiar person. Linder recommends constructing the play so that the team can communicate with the "play facilitator" concerning unobserved skills. For instance, if the adult suggests stacking a specific number of blocks, it's useful for the team to know if that number was three or four.

Assessments are more valid when a child is in a relaxed setting and dealing with a familiar adult. However, researchers have found that a combination of informal play-based assessment with more directed and structured activities provides a greater opportunity for a high level of performance (Bagnato & Neisworth, 1994).

In real-life, naturalistic settings, teachers and parents can observe how children function within different environments or settings (e.g. classroom, home, community). Sometimes the most critical information is obtained over time as a teacher regularly observes children as they engage in classroom routines and activities (Hills, 1993). If a child, for example, plays with some toys and never independently approaches other toys or play stations, the teacher may be able to track shifts in behavior/interests over time or conditions. For example, a child may engage in some activities when other children are present, or pursue activities with some children but not with others.
                                
Systematic observation over time provides teachers and parents with important information about developmental progress, personality traits, and social interaction patterns. The key to meaningful assessment is that the observations occur over time rather than as a snapshot, or single-day event. Then the conclusions or interpretations are more reliable and provide a more complete view of "the whole child" (Bagnato, 2007). An example would be three children counting and sorting large beads. Are they describing shapes and colors? Are they counting? Are they discussing how to sort? Such activities involve small motor skills and cognitive, language, and social skills.

Using an instrument aids teachers in putting aside preconceptions or biases. A tool helps the observer filter out all but the behaviors that need to be identified and recorded. Being both systematic and objective will lead to accurate and helpful records. Obviously a teacher's training can give him or her insights about ways that a child may be struggling with learning.  

 An observation tool that is widely used is the Early Learning Observation Scale, which has three forms: whole class, teacher and individual student, and parent and individual student. The tool is designed to accommodate patterns of data collection.

• Occur multiple times over a period of time (e.g., every day for a week)
• Collect information from multiple sources (e.g., teachers, parents), and
• Collect information from multiple contexts (e.g., classroom, playground, home) (Appl, 2000).

This breadth and depth of observation can benefit the development of a child. It is not uncommon for children to be picky eaters at home but experimental eaters in class. Similarly, they may be shy in class but comfortable conversationalists at home. Some of these different behaviors evolve naturally, but the teachers and parents may be more effective in their management of a child by having a solid understanding of the differing behaviors.

Teachers, armed with an array of observed data, can make better decisions about enhancing class environments and using teaching strategies. Scheduling, the use of music, lap time, outdoor breaks, and sufficient quiet time are just a few of the factors that can be modified to alter the routines and instructional practices in a Pre-K classroom. Furthermore, recognizing a child's interests can be another spark for curriculum shifts or skill-building.

Formal assessment by professionals will always be required for assessing delays or behaviors that indicate disabilities, but observations in natural settings provide valuable information that any teacher or parent will find useful.  

The Advantages

Naturalistic preschool assessments provide data that could be critical to guiding individual student learning. In early childhood settings, teachers can learn a lot about the developmental milestones that a particular child has reached, and also about those milestones that might make effective instructional targets. Such information informs the teacher as she/he designs the environment and,  particularly, the learning centers that support the play activities that can advance language, cognition, and gross and fine motor skills for specific children. Another advantage is that play and instruction are combined with assessment in an almost seamless flow of activities, so that instruction does not need to be interrupted to measure learning and record progress.

Challenges for Implementation 

While natural assessments have the ability to advance student learning and thinking, there are some projected implementing challenges.  

As Mueller (2005) notes, natural assessments are more time-consuming, require more work, and could require more funding if ever implemented on a national scale. At the preschool/early childhood level, these assessments will be most effective if they are aligned with developmental milestones. So teachers will need a good understanding of those milestones. Another challenge relates to the "recording" of observations. Teachers will need forms for making notes and organizing notes in a systematic way so that the picture of a child's learning can be readily interpreted. For these reasons, teachers may wish to use standard instruments to record growth in naturalistic settings.

Some teachers may wish to use their own instruments to record progress that is observed in a naturalistic assessment. If that is done, it will be important that there is a rationale for which tasks are chosen so that a balanced picture can be obtained.

If you or your preschool/early childhood teachers haven't used naturalistic assessments, CEI encourages you to delve into some of the resources and tools mentioned in this article. They should provide more information so that the naturalistic assessments you design and use are as practical and as valid as possible.

Click here for a pdf of a PP presentation, Early Childhood Authentic Assessment from the Peace Green Consortium.        

References

Bagnato, S.J. (2007). Authentic Assessment for Early Childhood Intervention: Best Practices. New York, NY: Guilford Press, Inc.

Bagnato, S.J., & Neisworth, J.T. (1994). A national study of the social and

treatment invalidity of intelligence testing for early intervention. School

Psychology Quarterly, 9, 81-102.

Epstein, A., Schweinhart, L., DeBruin-Parecki, A., and Robin, K. (2004). Preschool Policy Matters - Preschool Assessment: A guide to developing a balanced approach. National Institute for Early Education Research. Retrieved from: http://nieer.org/resources/policybriefs/7.pdf.  

Hills, T.W. (1993). Assessment in context: Teachers and children at work. Young Children, 48(5), 20-28.

Linder, T. (1993). Transdisciplinary play-based assessment: A functional

approach to working with young children (Rev. ed.) Baltimore: Paul H. Brooks.

Mueller, J. (2005). The Authentic Assessment Toolbox. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching. Retrieved from: http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/index.htm

Education, Naturally

Have you ever wondered what might happen if educators, school boards, legislators, and others simply stopped trying to dictate the next round of goals and objectives for schools and students? What would happen if students were given more options about how and what to learn? And if we were to implement perhaps a six-month hiatus, a pause during which time students were asked to help shape their own destinies? Now of course, this is a hypothetical. There are all sorts of reasons why this might not be a good thing to do.  

However--

What would be the natural outcome of asking students to  develop goals for their learning? What would happen if students not only selected their goals but then also decided how they wanted to be evaluated (tests, papers, presentations, projects)? Would schools be in a better or worse position than today? And how would teachers, students, parents, and administrators feel about this opportunity? Would we hear applause or criticism? Would the hiatus ultimately be a destructive or constructive force in the evolution of our educational system? What might we learn from our pause? What might be the logical, natural consequences?