FULL REFERENCE: Werry, S., Cown, P. and Skeoch, R. (2021). Huritao: Critical reflection on pedagogy through assessment. NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 23(1), 1 – 13.
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ABSTRACT: Te Whāriki, Aotearoa New Zealand’s early childhood education curriculum states assessments need to make learning ‘visible’. This paper discusses how a particular form of narrative assessment, called trissessment, challenged kaiako (teachers) to reflect critically on their pedagogy. Trissessment uses the indigenous whaikōrero tikanga of tau utuutu (a speech making protocol) as a way of amplifying tamariki (children) and whānau (family) voices in the assessment process. Our project was a collaboration between researchers and kaiako-researchers of four-year-olds in an early childhood centre. Thematic analysis of trissessments and interview data obtained from kaiako and whānau revealed kaiako were paying much closer attention to tamariki through observation and listening; becoming more curious about what intrigued tamariki, thus deepening kaiako insights into children’s learning. As kaiako reflected critically on the learning that comes from the tau utuutu process, there was a profound shift in their pedagogy.
Key words: Assessment, pedagogy, reflection, practitioner research.
