Review article

Two Approaches to Documenting and Evaluating Preschool Quality

Mojca Kovač Šebart ; Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana
Andreja Hočevar ; Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana

Abstract

The article presents preschool quality evaluation which is established in the Reggio
Emilia pedagogical approach and which rejects evaluation on the basis of empirical
data gathered through methodologically adequately prepared instruments. Such
evaluation is supposed to be founded on universal norms formulated by experts,
with quality being understood as the harmony of the services and practices measured by the norms. Through interpretations which use abstractions, categorizations and schemes, such quality evaluation is thought predominantly to classify and normalize (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007). By contrast, preschool quality evaluation ought to
build on the analyses and subjective interpretations of the documents that preschool teachers gather through their everyday documentation of the educational process and children’s activities in preschools. It coherently follows the consideration which rejects a curriculum planned and structured in advance, as it is thought to follow goals,
not children, thereby preventing children from being in the centre of the educational process. In the article we show that the evaluation of preschool quality which is based only on the presented subjective interpretation opens up a space for selective and partial considerations; quality evaluation – at least as far as the widespread network of public preschools in Slovenia is concerned – thus also needs to be implemented through suitably methodologically designed tools.

Keywords

documentation; evaluation; preschool education; quality; Reggio Emilia pedagogical approach; Slovenia

Hrčak ID:

125035

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/125035

Publication date:

26.6.2014.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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