Reflections on the Relationship Between …

1 INNOVATIONSINEARLYEDUCATION 5 Q:In her essay, Carlina Rinaldi stresses the differencebetween documentation that is collected during anexperience but interpreted only at the end (a tradition-al way of using documentation for assessment), anddocumentation as part of the process of fosteringlearning, interpreted and reinterpreted in order todevelop with the children, theories that give meaningto events and objects in their world (the process devel-oped in the Reggio Emilia educational system). Whatare your observations about the traditional approachto documentation, which is more commonly used inthe United States?

2 What do you believe are the posi-tive aspects of this approach?BRENDA:I think a growing number of teachers,who have studied the Reggio approach in-depth, areinterpreting documentation as part of their daily work,rather than only at the end of a unit, project orextended period of time. However, I agree withCarlina s observation that the traditional pattern is stillto interpret at the end, rather than as an integral partof the ongoing process of Making Learning Visible(2001), Steven Seidel, thecurrent Director of Harvard s Project Zero, commentedthat in the , the practice of assessment is mostoften thought of as synonymous with evaluation and,in an American context, evaluation is a process ofjudgment, measuring and placing one work in relationto the others works (p.)

3 304-305). I think Steve sobservation could explain why many educators,who collect documentation, wait to interpret and useit (as if it were evaluation data) to judge or describethe final learning outcome at the end of a series ofexperiences, rather than as part of the everyday teach-ing/learning process. Evaluation focuses on the summative rather than the formative character ofassessment. Assessment, when viewed as evaluation, isseen as a tool for grading and comparing students, for rating them on a scale to determine a level of compe-tence or development, for classifying them for specialservices, or for deciding whether to retain them orpass them on from one grade to the answering the second question about positiveeffects, I would like to review a definition of documen-tation given by Carlina in Making Learning Visible(2001).

4 She explains: Documentation is seen as visi-ble listening, as the construction of traces (throughnotes, slides, videos and so on) that not only testify tothe children s learning paths and processes, but alsomake them possible because they are visible. For us, Reflections on the Relationship BetweenDocumentation and Assessment in theAmerican Context: ANINTERVIEW WITHBRENDAFYFEBy Lella Gandini and Judith Allen KaminskyBrenda Fyfe is the Dean of the School of Education at Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Brenda is a memberof the St.

5 Louis-Reggio Collaborative along with her colleagues at The College School, The St. Michael School andClayton Schools Family Center. Educators from these four schools have had a collaborative Relationship with ReggioChildren since 1994. The following questions are based on Carlina Rinaldi s essay, Documentation andAssessment: What is the Relationship ? in the book, Making Learning Visible: Children as Individual andGroup Learners. Carlina was a Visiting Professor at Webster University in the fall of 2001, and co-taught a gradu-ate course with Brenda Fyfe, using the book, Making Learning Visible.

6 Gunilla Dahlberg, Professor of Education atthe University of Stockholm in Sweden, will share her Reflections on this topic in an upcoming issue of Innovations. INNOVATIONSINEARLYEDUCATION 6 this means making visible and, thus possible, the rela-tionships that are the building blocks of knowledge (p. 83). I think there are several important points toexamine in Carlina s quote. First, I think it is interestingthat she uses the word traces. This word implies thatobservations are limited pieces of data. It reminds usthat observations are always selective and partial, nomatter how systematic and objective we try to s definition explains that traces are visible evidence that focus on how children learn as well aswhat children learn.

7 Finally, she emphasizes that whendocumentation makes learning visible, it makes reflection the positive side, if educators use Carlina Rinaldi sdefinition of documentation, then even when docu-mentation is analyzed only at the end of a unit, projector period of time, there is value. Anytime learning ismade visible through real examples of children s workor words or actions, there is opportunity to gaininsight into the thinking and potential of is opportunity to offer parents an inside view ofthe mind of a child, an opportunity to think togetherwith teachers about learning.

8 Although much is lostthat could have come from the use of documentationin the formative sense (with children, parents andteachers) during the set of experiences, documenta-tion of the sort Rinaldi describes can provide a richbase for interpretation and study at any moment :Have you observed teachers transition betweenthe traditional way of using documentation and theone developed by Reggio Emilia educators? What are the challenges faced by teachers during this transition?BRENDA:In my travels around the , I have seena transition of this sort among many educators whohave studied the Reggio approach in-depth.

9 I haveI am concerned that some of ourdocuments on best practice in still have the tendency to narrow and limit our image of thechild, boxing them into predeter-mined expectations about heavy emphasis on goal driveninstruction and assessment is notbalanced with an openness to goinginto uncharted territory with Fyfe INNOVATIONSINEARLYEDUCATION 7 had the opportunity to more closely observe and studythis transition over the past 12 years through my workwith educators in the St. Louis area who form what isnow known as the St.

10 Louis-Reggio Collaborative. Ihave observed that there are several changes in mind-set and practice as they move in this direction (Fyfe,1998; Fyfe, Geismar-Ryan and Strange, 2000; andForman and Fyfe, 1998). One of these is a shift towardthinking about teaching and learning as a process ofcollaborative inquiry, a process of ongoing collabora-tive action research. Collaborative action researchinvolves an understanding of the interdependencebetween organization and collaboration, one of thefundamentals of the Reggio approach (Gandini, 1993).