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Construction of an Assessment Tool for Early Childhood Development in the World of DiscoveryTM Curriculum

Divya PalaniappanCurriculum Manager, Amelio Child Care

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Importance of Early Childhood Education

A child's potential is determined in the early years [1]

Courtesy: permanentfund.org

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Assessment of Early Childhood Curriculum

Quality of Curriculum

Early Childhood Program

An Effective Assessment

Tool

Need for an effective Assessment Tool

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Drawbacks of Existing Assessment Tools

1. Measures only few areas

2. Informal Techniques

3. Observer’s Bias

Quality of Curriculum

Early Childhood Program

An Effective Assessment

Tool

Construct a quantitative Assessment Tool that evaluates the effectiveness of curriculum and the progress of each child’s development

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“Play” as an Essential Early Childhood Framework

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning – Fred Rogers

Play enhances a child’s social competence, creativity, language development and thinking capacity [2]

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Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory

What is known?

What is not known?

Zone of proximal development

Skills too difficult for a child to master on his/her own that can be done through guidance and encouragement from a knowledgeable person

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World of DiscoveryTM Curriculum Multiple Intelligence

Every child is unique….so is their intelligence profile – Howard Gardner

Courtesy: connectionsacademy.com

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Rhyme Musical

Counting or Puzzles Mathematical

Craft Kinesthetic

A new theme is introduced to the children every week

Every activity in the World of DiscoveryTM curriculum is designed to cater to every child irrespective of their dominant intelligence

World of DiscoveryTM Curriculum How do we focus on Multiple Intelligence

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Cognitive Development – Counting Corner

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Benefits of World of DiscoveryTM

Cognitive Language

Social and Emotional Physical

Activities are designed to strengthen the following developments

Circle time, Rhyme, Story

Rhyme, Story, Pretend Play

Scarf dance, Outdoor, Rhymes, Craft

Circle time, Group games, Activity corners

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Development parameters measured using the Assessment Tool

Physical development

Fine-Motor skills

Gross-Motor skills

Hand-eye coordination

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Construction of an Assessment Tool for the World of DiscoveryTM Curriculum

5 point rating scale (1-need to catch up, 2 – Just there, 3- normal, 4-remarkable and 5- extraordinary)

Data were collected for a period of 3 months across 10 centres in Chennai, India

Average scores of 100 children aged between 2.5 to 3.5 years was collected

Norms were arrived at using Mean and S.D. of the data (µ value, µ+1 σ and µ -1 σ )

The tool renders a convenient framework to evaluate each child during the activity.

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Name of the child Class Days Present

Week Starting Week Ending Age

Parameters Activity Remarks

Circle Time

Rhyme Time

Story Time

Play Corner 1

Play Corner 2

Play Corner 3

Art and

Craft

Scarf Dance

Group Games Average

Cognitive DevelopmentMemory

Attention Span Sorting

Symbolic Play

Puzzles - Perceptual Reasoning

Understands Simple Instructions

Counting Comparison

Colors Shapes

A snapshot of the Assessment Tool

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Results – Cognitive Vs. Physical Development

2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.50

1

2

3

4

5

6

Cognitive vs. Physical Linear (Cognitive vs. Physical)

Physical development

Cogn

itive

dev

elop

men

t

A child’s physical development has positive effects on a child’s cognitive development and intellectual capability [3]

r=0.90

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Results – Comparison of Average Scores

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 120

1

2

3

4

5

6

Shapes - Student Y Shapes - Amelio Avg. Shapes - Student X

Based on these evaluation reports, a teacher can customize activities to a child’s ability

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Conclusion

• The Assessment Tool enables Early Childhood Educators to evaluate a child’s development and also to assess the quality of the program

• Results indicated high correlation between Physical and Cognitive development

• This result corroborated that ‘Play’ renders the basis for dynamic intellectual activity thereby establishing face validity of the tool

• The average scores across centres indicated the subjective difficulty level of each activity

• The individual difficulty level for each child can be increased or decreased by observing the performance of the child over time

• The activities designed as part of the curriculum can be revisited based on the scores obtained in order to devise an efficient system that caters to the needs of the child.

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THANK YOU !

For Further information, please contact:

Divya PalaniappanCurriculum Manager, Amelio Child CareMobile: +91-9500029797 (India)Mailto: curriculum@ameliochildcare.com

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References

[1] Simmons, T., & Sheehan, R. (1997). Brain research manifests importance of first years. The News & Observer

[2] Fromberg, D. P., & Gullo, D. F. (1992). Perspectives on Children. Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Education, eds, 191-194.

[3] Sibley, B. A., & Etnier, J. L. (2003). The relationship between physical activity and cognition in children: a meta-analysis. Pediatric Exercise Science, 15(3), 243-256.