* Does he count one to one?
* Does she name colours?
* Can he cut out a square?
* Does she recognise her name?
* Can he dress himself?
* Does she play co-operatively?
The list is endless!
However, meaningful documentation searches beyond the obvious to what is at the heart of early years education - how children are learning. Central to documentation is the respect that we give to the children and their interests - that is, their agenda, as opposed to ours.
The limitations of 'tasks'
Setting a task for children with a view to observing their response is not necessarily the best context for learning. Restricting documentation to such occasions not only risks activities being intimidating, but may mean that more significant moments go unnoticed. Children often know more than they can express through specific media in specific assessment situations.
Therefore, we need to find ways to gain a real understanding of a child's ideas and thinking.
Honest, open-minded observation and documentation enable us to see real learning in situations that are meaningful to children. However, the tendency is to approach an observation with a specific skill in mind. As a consequence, we look only for that skill, see only that skill and assess only that goal.
Processes
Our focus needs to be on the processes of learning. Important 'processes'
are involved in children's everyday activities, such as building together in the block area, playing in the role-play area or making a den. There is a 'process' in many ordinary events during the average day, such as mealtimes. And it is within these 'processes' that much of children's search for meaning - their learning - happens.
Documentation enables us to 'spy' on these processes. If we are receptive to 'quality' play experiences and interactions, however brief, and record them in some way, we make these experiences and interactions permanent, and we can interpret, reflect and act upon them later.
Talking at the Sightlines Symposium in Kendal in 2002, Carla Rinaldi noted, 'If we embrace reflective practice, we must welcome the unknown and uncertainty as part of our lives; doubt, error, marvel, curiosity and awe are daily values.'
Competence
This uncertainty about what to document sounds risky in terms of our practice. But if we only see and hear what we expect, we will never improve our practice and the quality of care and education that we are trying to deliver in our settings.
Knowing what to document depends on the competence of the adult, the educator. Competence here is not defined in terms of knowledge, but more an understanding and sensitivity to children and to learning. It becomes a kind of sixth sense. There is no secret! The only answer is to continually examine our understandings and our intuitions and to share, compare and interpret them with colleagues.
Cathy Brown notes in Threads of Thinking, 'Children need well-educated educators with knowledge at their fingertips, adults working with them who see what is happening, understand what they see and act on what they understand.'
