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Susan Irvine
Professor of Early Childhood Education, Queensland University of Technology
Observing and analysing and documenting learning and development is a long-standing part of professional practice in kindergarten.
But it's interesting that the term assessment continues to draw a lot of debate. And I think that that's because we think about what's the purpose of assessment in a play-based kindergarten program and what does that look like?
Based on the Early Years Learning Framework 2.0, I think of assessment in terms of enabling teachers to observe and support learning in evidence-based ways, and the Queensland kindergarten learning guideline reiterates that.
Assessment can be likened to a form of research. We gather evidence drawing on multiple sources of information. We critically reflect on the information that we're gathering, and we make a professional judgment based on that.
As teachers, we make professional judgments about what children are learning. We're thinking about the content. We're thinking about the skills. We're thinking about depth and change in thinking and knowledge. We're also interested in how children are learning, what ways they're choosing to learn, and what works best for them. And it's really important to think of children as active agents in this area. They have a great deal to tell us and to help us to understand their thinking and their learning and their learning goals. And it's also really beneficial for them because engaging them in the assessment process is helping them to develop skills around self‑reflection and self-assessment.
- Last updated:
- 25 August 2025
