Researching self-evaluation in early childhood education: an investigation of a strategy for improving educational practice
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Hurst, Victoria Margaret. 1997. Researching self-evaluation in early childhood education: an investigation of a strategy for improving educational practice. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]
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Text (Researching self-evaluation in early childhood education)
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Abstract or Description
This study combines the data from three linked research activities which examined how teachers and other practitioners in the Early Years of education (0-8) can improve their practice through evaluating their own work. The major thesis of the research is that the practitioners' observation and research of children's educational interactions and experiences provide effective data both for judging the appropriateness of the curriculum provided and for developing more appropriate ways of providing for learning.
Starting with an exploratory pilot stage (Phase One), and a second stage of action research undertaken jointly by the researcher and a number of practitioners (Phase Two), the research proceeded to a third stage (Phase Three) in which it formed a part of a national project in practitioner self-evaluation through action research.
Analysis and interpretation of the data from these three research activities highlight aspects of the nature and the requirements of practitioner self-evaluation in the Early Years, and cast light on how educational improvement can be initiated, directed and implemented both by practitioners and by policy makers. In particular, differences between approaches to evaluation are traced to differences in the curriculum model employed, and the important role of observation in self-evaluation and thus in curriculum improvement is shown to be related to the adoption of a developmental approach to the curriculum in the Early Years.
The research thus offers a basis for recommendations for strategies for improving the quality of educational provision for young children.
The action research model used in the three phases of the research is also analysed and its suitability for research and development in Early Years educational settings is explored. In this exploration, of particular interest is a resultant shift in the research focus, as the researcher's own perspectives and development themselves became a further subject of the research.
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Item Type: |
Thesis (Doctoral) |
| Identification Number (DOI): |
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| Additional Information: |
Note on the submission of this thesis Vicky Hurst enrolled as a PhD student at Goldsmiths in the early 1990s. She completed her thesis, but was unable to submit it before she died on 26 April 1998. This submission comprises: - The Thesis itself; she completed the text of her thesis, and the only changes it has been necessary to make have been the rationalisation of the paragraph numbering and the typefaces. - The Bibliography: she made notes on some of the works to which she makes reference in the thesis, but did not leave any bibliography as such. It has been necessary to go through the text of the thesis and compile a comprehensive list of her references, and to annotate as many as possible from sources other than her own notes. There is only one reference which it has not been possible to trace, Otto (1995) (see pages 57-58). - The Appendices; she collected together much of the material she intended using in her appendices, chiefly comprising the typescripts of her audio-recordings, but was not able to compile it into any rational order. The appendices included in this submission are entirely her own work, but the selection and ordering of it is the outcome of an effort to reconstruct her intended rationale. Antony Hurst, March 2001 |
| Keywords: |
Early Years Education, self-evaluation, action research |
| Date: |
1997 |
| Item ID: |
33814 |
| Date Deposited: |
25 Jul 2023 08:36 |
| Last Modified: |
08 Aug 2023 13:44 |
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URI: |
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