Assessment and the Cycle of Inquiry

Assessment

Assessing and evaluating are the constant of a lived life. Questioning, collecting information, organizing, comparing and interpreting all help to determine new questions and clarify what to do next.

Typically in the field of education, assessment is culturally driven by the view that adults have something to transmit from their prior learning to children who are learning for the first time. Socio-constructivism in education examines the mechanics of this perspective, and develops processes so that the adult may be a facilitator, but both the adult and child are designated as learners. At Blue School, student assessments provide an illustration of a child’s learning process as well as perspective on the overall holistic learning of the child. Over time, these documents become an overall narrative of a child’s learning history.

Teachers collect information tracing the experiences and the cycles of learning that occur over the course of the day and the week.  This information forms the bulk of the assessments with which we work. On occasion, more specific and targeted assessments are designed to follow up on equally specific questions or inquiries. Children are also brought into this process and learn skills, research tools and different ways to collect data and information on what they know and how they learn. Through this they become aware of learning as a constant process, understand different ways to learn, and facilitate learning from others. 

Cycle of Inquiry

Teachers at Blue School utilize dynamic assessment as an on-going, everyday process. It begins with asking a question or exploring a thread of inquiry. Its purpose is to make visible and evaluate the holistic learning process that takes place every day in every classroom. Assessment illustrates how a child and teacher co-construct learning and knowledge and build an environment of shared wondering. Gathering evidence of these areas of learning informs our pedagogy and curricular content. The teachers engage in a recursive method of assessment as illustrated in the model below:

This process supports reflection, inquiry, and research as teachers and children learn together. The identification of each child’s educational needs in response to questions that have been raised requires careful planning by the teachers. This recursive model includes dynamic and authentic assessment techniques such as observations, field, anecdotal and monitoring notes, documentation, development of portfolios, and reflection upon children’s work to individualize and differentiate instruction. This drives curricular content, teaching strategies, assessment, and differentiation of instruction. The children actively engage in this process and are co-constructors of the assessment process.