This subject and its expected outcomes shall help to lay the theoretical basis and to optimise the operating capacity of the future

professional praxis of Early Childhood Education teachers by highlighting the thinking, performance, mastering of tools and

taking an attitude to favour the evaluation of educational action, particularly by considering and assessing the various contexts

involved.

The subject and its expected outcomes respond to these objectives:

1.  Contextualise the evaluation process from qualitative epistemological benchmarks to obtain a pedagogic view to improve the quality of education and inclusion

2.  Be aware of the importance of streamlining and systematising a participative observation to obtain a strategic vision of the teaching-learning process and to, thus, acquire a professional culture that addresses innovation

3.  Obtain tools to observe the reality of Early Childhood Education students according to its uniqueness and complexity, and its developmental contexts from an integrating and evolutionary perspective

Students learn the subject in the first academic year, so it is one of their first pedagogic encounters which will, however, not be repeated in following academic years because of the way the syllabus is distributed. This circumstance influences teaching-learning processes because, on the one hand, its introductory character is prioritised and, on the other hand, a rigorous basis cannot be ignored. Methodological options are decisive.

The socio-constructivist aspects shown in both the complex competences that students are to acquire and the evaluation  portfolio they shall be proposed, respond to this requirement described for outlining a presentation, which involves the implication and laying of foundations of the future professional praxis of Early Childhood Education teachers.

Early Childhood Education is the level of teaching par excellence in which family-school communication has to be more cared for. From professional, and eminently pedagogic training, Early Childhood Education teachers have to favour this relationship and establish it in the area corresponding to students. This subject offers students the basic basis and methodological tools to perform this integrating function.

Given the inclusive relevance of this subject, students are suggested to become familiar with education evaluations. To do so, we recommend them consult the website http://socioconstructivismo.unizar.es, where they can find examples of articles and documents, resources, or research/innovation groups that work on education evaluations.

Having passed this subject, students will be more competent to...

COMPETENCES RELATED TO THIS DEGREE

Early Childhood Education is eminently contextual: it is when formal schooling commences, but it overlaps and stems from the family area. When this training ends, teachers should be competent, among other areas, to:

(SC23) Understand that systematic observation is a basic instrument with which to reflect on practice and reality and should, thus, contribute to innovation and improvement in Early Childhood Education

(SC24) Master observation and recording techniques

(SC26) Know how to analyse obtained data, critically understand reality and write a report of drawn conclusions

COMPLEX COMPTENCES

Throughout the teaching-learning process, students learn to master competences. The link between the different subjects that belong to the Research and Diagnosis Methods area of the Department of Education Sciences, and the evaluation portfolio option allows students to be encouraged to master the four complex competences:

a) Dialectic thinking

b) Dialogic behaviour

c) Mastering coping strategies well

d) Good professional self-determination capacity

Students can consult the website http://socioconstructivismo.unizar.es for all the supplementary information they consider appropriate to consult about training and evaluations as regards complex competences by means of the portfolio. These competences shall be explained in detail during the first face-to-face sessions.

To pass this subject, students should obtain the following outcomes...

1. Identify and understand the basic concepts of context evaluation: laying foundations, models and strategies

2. Know, lay the basis of and plan a context evaluation process

3. Analyse the deontological and educational implications of context evaluation

The learning outcomes achieved in this subject are important because they deal with basic fundamental matters of the (theoretical and practical) professional praxis of future Early Childhood Education teachers.

Students should demonstrate that they have achieved the foreseen learning outcomes by the following evaluation

activities:

A written exam about the contents presented while learning. The mark of this exam shall make up 50% of the final mark.

This shall be a conventional exam marked on a decimal scale. It shall deal with the minimum contents taught by the

teacher, as well as the subject matters, basic readings and practical activities that the teacher proposed.

By an agreement reached by the Department’s Board on 06/06/14, at least 50% of the written exam will be the same for

all the groups of the same centre.

Students shall present an evaluation portfolio that includes a specific self-assessment section.

The evaluation portfolio shall include the products specified in each class group, but the following generic format is proposed:

a) The products resulting from learning activities following the criteria and conditions set in the subject (40%)

b) The students’ self-assessment report, which must be duly documented, about their participation in the subject (10%)

Evaluation criteria

a) The criteria for the written exam are the usual kind: correction, relevance and conceptual rigour

b) A rubric will be provided for each evaluation portfolio product that will apply the following general criteria: formal

orthotypographic corrections, rigour, coherence, feasibility and multireferentiality

Marking criteria and requirements to pass the subject

The evaluation activities (written exam and portfolio) are independent, and passing one of them shall never condition the other

being done. Each one shall make up 50% of the final mark. The evaluation portfolio shall include a specific self-assessment

section. Self-assessment shall make up a maximum 10% of the final mark.

To obtain a positive mark for this subject, students shall have to pass the written exam(2.5 points out of 5) and the portfolio

(2.5 points out of 5).

Overall test and second call

The subject evaluation corresponds to only one type, and no distinction is made between the continuous evaluation and the

overall test. The evaluation outcomes, criteria and requirements set out above shall apply to all students,

regardless of their circumstances to learn the subject (regular attendance, irregular attendance or absenteeism).

Maintaining the subject evaluation outcomes between the first and second calls shall be established in the planning and

design of the subject done by the teachers in charge in order to take into account the situations and specificities to carry out

teaching for each academic year.

Fifth and sixth calls

Students of the fifth and sixth calls must be aware that their evaluation shall be made before a Board of Examiners, and this right

cannot be renounced. Nonetheless, students can opt in advance to do the test with the other students in the group

and then place it inside an envelope to hand it in to the Board of Examiners (Art. 23 of the Agreement of 22 December 2010,

of the Governing Board, by which the Regulation on Evaluation Norms for Learning of the Universidad de Zaragoza was passed).

In either case, the same evaluation criteria and requirements shall apply, which shall be specified as ordinary and

general for the subject.

The teaching-learning methodology is based on a socio-constructivist model. The teacher and students act as both mediators

and learning resources. Dialogue is considered the basic principle of teaching-learning processes, and also of the evidence

produced by students.

Methodological strategies:

- Students’ autonomous and cooperative work

- Case study

- Reading and commenting on texts

- Monographic works

- Conferences and presenting experiences

- Training seminars

The syllabus offered to students to help them achieve the foreseen outcomes comprises the following activities...

1. SCHEDULED LEARNING ACTIVITIES

1.1. Face-to-face activities: 60 hours

1.  Master classes: 42 hours

2.  Solving problems and cases: 13 hours

3.  Tutoring works: 5 hours/group

1.2. Non-face-to-face activities: 90 hours

1.  Autonomous individual and/or group study/work

2.  Documentation, literature and document searches

3.  Preparing products in a processes portfolio

2. GENERIC ACTIVITIES PROPOSALS

- Students’ autonomous work and critical reflection on basic context evaluation concepts with the mediation of teachers’ explanations and bibliographic guidance.

- Create conceptual maps as a study learning product

- Participate in debates about the implications of different context evaluation models by students registering incidents

- Prepare accounts about the implications for Early Childhood Education teachers of context evaluations

- Design context evaluation processes in a cooperative group for the cases proposed by the teacher. Analyse them

1. A conceptual approach to context evaluations: qualitative methodological benchmarks, true evaluation and a participative observational methodology

2. Context evaluation models: analysis of requirements, research-action matrices, person-centred environmental evaluations and indicators systems

3. Observational context evaluation strategies by taking a participative approach based on communicative processes.

Processes of change, innovation and improvement from a context evaluation perspective

4. Intrinsic axiological and deontological matters of context evaluation

5. Designing context evaluation processes

A. PRESENTATION: as students learning this subject come from different backgrounds, the first face-to-face sessions shall be used to present the subject in detail, by particularly adapting the proposed contents and the evaluation procedures, and performing activities

B. DEVELOPMENT: while this subject is being taught, the foreseen activities shall take place (as specified during the initial sessions)

C. CONCLUSION: students shall do the written exam and deliver their evaluation portfolio on the officially indicate dates

Students participating in the first face-to-face sessions to specify the aspects set out in the teaching guide, such as tutorial times, distributing groups, etc., is key.