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Video transcript
Susanne Garvis
Professor of Early Childhood Education, Griffith University
Intentionality is everything in early childhood. It's our decision making of why we are doing our specific actions and practices.
Evidence needs to have intentionality behind it.
So what is the purpose of collecting this evidence?
And what specific skill or knowledge are we wanting to actually reflect upon in the child's learning and development?
So this means that we don't need to collect a set amount of observations on children. We need to really think about what is it within the observation that we're wanting to observe, that will then allow us to reflect upon the child's learning and progress?
It's an ongoing process and it's important not to collect too much information to become overwhelmed with the assessing process but it is about making critical reflections around the child's knowledge, their learning dispositions, but also the growth that has happened in their learning and development as well. And this ongoing cycle is something that happens regularly and it's about setting up good processes within the early childhood team as well.
So, it’s always great within the team to not only focus on the cycle, but the processes that are in place within the early childhood team for assessment.
It's also around bigger reflections of: What am I doing in my centre or service around assessment?
- What are the specific strategies that we know work well?
- What other strategies for assessing might really help us to become even better at assessing children's learning?
- Last updated:
- 10 November 2025
