Video transcript
Susanne Garvis
Professor of Early Childhood Education
Griffith University
The Queensland kindergarten learning guideline has five learning and development areas that really help shape the focus of learning and development for each child. So it's important that we are thinking about planning in these areas, but also the assessing of these areas as well as part of the learning cycle.
If we aren't assessing learning, we have no understanding of the child's capability. We have no understanding of the child's learning journey, or their progress and we have nothing to really communicate to families or to the community around the child's learning and development. All of these things are possible through assessment.
We have different types of assessing of children's learning. We have formative assessment for children's learning, which provides feedback on ongoing learning and planning, especially with the planning cycle. We have summative assessment, which is a snapshot in time that allows us to make judgments on the child's progress, especially against some of the learning priorities for children.
Assessing can happen at any time through the day it doesn't have to be during circle time or some type of formal assessment. It can happen even at routines and transitions and it's important that we're working as a team in assessing. It's not only on one individual.
Through collecting a variety of observations, work samples, photos, and other forms of evidence, teachers are able to critically reflect and plan appropriately for the next stage of learning for the child.
Assessing children's learning allows us to really support each unique child's journey across the five areas.
- Last updated:
- 25 February 2026
