University of Twente Student Theses
Opvattingen over toetsing van jonge kinderen
Wubs, Wendy (2013) Opvattingen over toetsing van jonge kinderen.
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| Abstract: | VVE has been getting a lot more attention since the introduction of the Development Opportunities through Quality and Education Act (Wet Ontwikkelingskansen door Kwaliteit en Educatie [OKE]) in 2010. Employees of playgroups and child care centers have to be able to timely identify the risks on learning disadvantages of children and to respond to these disadvantages (Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap, 2010). One way to do this is by having young children take assessments (Snow & Van Hemel, 2008). Since the mid-nineties of the last century Cito has been developing assessments to monitor the development of language- and math skills of infants and toddlers (ages 3 to 6). In response of these assessments Cito received a lot of comments and feedback from teachers (and parents). It was noted at Cito that there’s a lot of resistance concerning the assessment of young children. However, no research exists on where this resistance originates, what the nature of the resistance is and how this resistance could possibly be taken away. The latter is important, since negative opinions of teachers, students and parents on the assessment of young children can have a negative influence on the teaching and its quality (Brown & Harris, 2009). The main question in this research was: What are the opinions of kindergarten teachers, playgroup leaders, parents and young children on the assessment of young children? The research was of a qualitative and descriptive nature, with an emphasis on investigating the opinions of kindergarten teachers and playgroup leaders on the assessment of young children. First, young children in both child care centers and kindergartens were observed while making the assessments, followed up by short interviews with the children. The purpose of the observations and interviews was to get a clear view on how the assessments were conducted and the way children experienced these assessments. After this partially structured interviews were conducted with ten kindergarten teachers and playgroup leaders. It should be noted that not every respondent had actually used the assessments for young children. Open interviews were conducted with parents, resulting in a very low response rate. These interviews were not included in the analysis because of this low response rate. Instead, the summarized interviews are included as an appendix in this thesis. The collected data was analysed using a labelling system, with fragments as the unit of analysis (Baarda, De Goede & Teunissen, 2009). This was done for each group of respondents. In addition to this, the results of the different groups were compared. Most children experienced the assessments as either positive or neutral. The collected data from the kindergarten teachers and playgroup leaders can be divided into three main themes: ‘experiences with assessments’, ‘resistance’ and ‘value of the assessment scores’. The interviewed kindergarten teachers and playgroup leaders had both positive and negative opinions on the assessment of young children, with the kindergarten teachers seeming to voice a much stronger negative opinion. Results should be carefully used. Finally, a number of recommendations are made on how to possibly soften and take away resistance against the assessment of young children. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 81 education, teaching |
| Programme: | Educational Science and Technology MSc (60023) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/64334 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
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