Assessment
Aromatawai
Possible pathways for learning
Teachers’ reflections on how learning dispositions and working theories can be strengthened are exemplified in the What next? sections of the learning stories and narratives described throughout books 11–15. Teachers are developing local examples of dimensions of strength, and these provide opportunities for discussion and debate. On page 6 of Book 7, Assessment and Learning: Continuity/ Te Aromatawai me te Ako: Motukore, competence that progresses over time is described as becoming “more secure, more widely applicable, and more complex”.
In a 2004 article, Guy Claxton and Margaret Carr described these same features of strengthening learning dispositions as: “robustness, breadth and richness”.18 The principles of Te Whāriki could also provide a guide for identifying dimensions of strength. Learning dispositions become more frequent (secure, integrated into the everyday life of the centre); frequency can be aligned with Holistic Development. They can become more distributed (complex, related to, and stretched across a widening range of reciprocal relationships with people, things, and other enabling resources); distributed learning can be aligned with reciprocal Relationships. They can become more connected (appearing in other places and social communities); connectedness can be aligned with Family and Community as an integral part of the curriculum. They can become more mindful as children begin to take responsibility and make up their own minds.19 Urie Bronfenbrenner has described this as allowing the child “sufficient balance of power to introduce innovations of her own”.20 Mindfulness can be aligned with the principle of Empowerment.
Sociocultural links are more likely to be maintained when teachers notice and recognise features in the educational setting that enable or disable the development of learning dispositions and the narratives around them.
Dispositions to learn develop when children are immersed in an environment that is characterised by well-being and trust, belonging and purposeful activity, contributing and collaborating, communicating and representing, and exploring and guided participation.
Te Whāriki, page 45
There is a dynamic two-way link: the learning dispositions and narratives will also influence the features of the educational setting. The four dimensions of strength (outlined above) are mirrored in the enabling or disabling features of the educational setting. The cultural norms and regular events in the setting make it easier or more difficult for dispositions to become more frequent, robust, and practised. The accessibility of people, materials, and diverse ways to represent meaning make it easier or more difficult for dispositions to become more richly distributed. The connections developed with families and a diversity of social communities make it easier or more difficult for dispositions to achieve more breadth and become more widely connected, and the flexibility of the power balance between adults and children makes it easier or more difficult to reshape and consider new possibilities – to become more mindful.
Assessment plays a key role in this two-way process as teachers notice, recognise, respond to, record, and revisit learning stories and learning dispositions.