Learning Stories in Playcentres; Documentation of children's learning in parent-led early childhood services

This presentation discusses the documentation of children’s learning in parent-led licensed early childhood services in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. Parents and coordinators from a range of Playcentres attended forum meetings and... [ view full abstract ]

This presentation discusses the documentation of children’s learning in parent-led licensed early childhood services in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. Parents and coordinators from a range of Playcentres attended forum meetings and they shared children’s portfolios and examples of learning stories. In Playcentres parents are at the heart of the assessment process rather than an occasional contributor to it. Aims of the research were to find out how Playcentre parents write narrative assessments to document children’s learning and how this documentation affects children’s learning. All licensed early childhood services in Aotearoa/ New Zealand are required to have documentation of children’s learning.In this research project, writing narrative assessments was less about accountability to government agencies and more about adults seeing the value of observations and documentation as enriching relationships and increasing their understanding about children. Other key findings are the diversity and authenticity in the documentation. Learning stories will be presented to illustrate the diversity in styles and format of the learning stories. Parents learning alongside others in a Playcentre setting is a powerful form of adult/parent education. Strategies of how new parents were supported to write learning stories and some of the challenges that Playcentres face will also be discussed.