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We found that while documentation can be defined in almost infinite ways, much of what we know as documentation today is specifically based on the pedagogical documentation philosophy developed by Reggio Emilia.

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How can we implement pedagogical documentation in our practice?

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How can we implement pedagogical documentation in our practice?

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Have students involved in the documentation

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Have students involved in the documentation

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When students are just given feedback, they are likely to be passive recipients of knowledge. When they are active participants of knowledge (and documentation), they are active in the learning process (The Hundred Language of Children, 276).

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(Pedagogical Documentation in Early Childhood, 11)

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What was your favourite part about this assignment/activity?

What did you dislike about it?

What did you find challenging?

What did you find easy?

How did you decide on these colours? These words?

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What do you notice about the students work?

Why did they choose to write, or draw, what they did?

How does this work compare to earlier work done by the same student?

How does their work reflect their learning?

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Use documentation to guide your planning

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Use documentation to guide your planning

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"It begins with children, then moves to the teachers as we respond to the childrens work with interest, questions and careful observation. It moves back again to the children..." (96)

Use students interests that come up organically and extend them. Susan Stacey uses the example of a reading a book about a bird to her class. The students were concerned with the safety of the bird. Instead of ending the lesson there like she had planned, she continued with the theme of birds and safety the next day, which led into her class designed "bird safe windows", an activity that she did not plan for until the day before. (Pedagogical Documentation 50)

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Connecting with families through documentation

Digital documentation

Recording the big and small moments

(Susan Stacey 2015)

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"...pedagogical documentation can be described as a process-oriented teaching and learning tool that is used to capture and record meaningful interactions among children, their teachers, and their parents and families; then, the information obtained about these interactions is used to improve teaching and learning processes.” (Yılmaz, Arif, et al. 1047)

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Portfolios as documentation meet the following criteria:

support student learning,

are simple and sustainable,

have a clear purpose,

value multiple forms of evidence of learning,

hold students and teachers accountable and responsible for the learning,

value both the processes and products of learning,

engage students,

inform instructional design and teachers’ professional judgment,

result from a process (collect, select, reflect, project) rather than being viewed as an “event”,

are intentionally part of an instructional sequence–students are not just expected to “make a portfolio,” but rather learn through gradual release of responsibility.

(Knowing What Counts 86-87)

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Good documentation, regardless of area, should significantly involve the student in creating and curating their own evidence, serve to build student’s learning, examine both the “process and the products” (Knowing What Counts 87),  include multiple forms of evidence, and inform the teacher’s assessment and subsequent instruction.

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Documentation: A Central Aspect of the Reggio Emilia Philosophy

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- Reggio Emilia is small town in Northern Italy
- Italian teacher Loris Malaguzzi founded a new school after WWII
- Their philosophy promotes exploration of environment
- Children are encouraged to express themselves in many "languages"

Children explore relationships through

"the expressive,

communicative,

symbolic,

cognitive,

ethical,

metaphorical,

logical,

imaginative,

and relational"

(The Hundred Languages of Children p.7)

Using

spoken language,

gestures,

drawing,

painting,

building,

clay and wire sculpture,

shadow play,

collage,

dramatic play,

music,

and emerging writing"

(The Hundred Languages of Children p.7)

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“Portfolios open exciting opportunities for students of all ages to engage in the actual process of assessment, not just the creation of summative products.” (Knowing What Counts 15)

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"The concept of documentation, as it is used in Reggio Emilia, is a procedure used to make learning visible, so that it can be recalled, revisited, reconstructed, interpreted, and reinterpreted on a basis for decision making” (The Hundred Languages of Children, p. 274).

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Pedagogical documentation can exist as a critique of measurement tools. Measurement tools “are supposed to ensure control, prediction, and performance” (The Hundred Languages of Children, p. 227)

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“Portfolios can be used to enable students to more clearly see that they have a significant role to play in giving themselves feedback to inform their own learning. The process of creating a portfolio allows each student, with teacher facilitation, to create a deeper understanding of their own thinking.” (Knowing What Counts 15)

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Documentation is a subject of extensive debate in the children's education and care sector in Australia and internationally. 'How do we document? ' and 'How much do we document? ' are common questions; with time constraints often raised as a key challenge. The evolution and widespread use of digital technologies has raised further issues to critically reflect on, such as the impact of devices on meaningful interactions and respect of children's rights.

It is important to remember that documentation is a professional responsibility and there are no recipes or regulated formulas. The outcome-focused standards encourage educators and educational leaders to use their professional judgement and to be creative and innovative in the way the standards are met. Recognise and respond to the unique context of your service and your community members.

You may want to take the opportunity at your next team meeting to think about the theories that inform your practice, and how these influence decisions about what and how you document.

Have the confidence to be courageous, creative and reflective. There are multiple ways to document and meet the standards. Ensure these reflect your unique team, children, families and community.

What is 'documentation'?

Documentation is the practice of recording and creating evidence of learning and learning progress, helping make it visible. Documentation takes children's and educator's thinking, and the experiences that educators observe, hear and feel into written or other records that can be shared, revisited and extended over time. Rich documentation incorporates multiple perspectives, including the voices of children, educators, peers, families and other professionals (Educators' Guide to the EYLF, p. 37).

Documentation supports the provision of quality children's education and care by:

deepening the shared understanding of each child

identifying and analysing learning and learning progress

informing the educational program, and

making learning visible and able to be shared with others.

It also helps educators and educational leaders to reflect on their pedagogy and practices.

From a compliance perspective, documentation is both a regulatory requirement and integral to Quality Area 1 of the National Quality Standard (NQS). From my experience working in the sector, educators work diligently to support children and families and often set high benchmarks for themselves. I am aware that there is a lot of misinformation about how much and what documentation is required, so I think it may be timely to reflect on what the NQS actually requires.

What documentation is required?

The regulatory requirements for educational program documentation are in Part 4.1 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations and include three key components:

1. the educational program;

2. child assessments or evaluations; and

3. information for families.

In the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF), assessment for learning is the process of gathering and analysing information as evidence about what children know, can do and understand (EYLF, p.19).

In the school age education and care context, evaluation for wellbeing and learning is the process of gathering and analysing information about how children feel and what children know, can do and understand (FSAC, p. 17). Assessments and evaluations inform the educational program and form part of the ongoing assessment and planning cycle.

The educational program must be on display and in a location at the service premises that is accessible to families (Regulation 75). Importantly, information about the educational program must include detail of both the content and the operation of the program. It is not just a list of experiences, but how the program is being implemented. A copy of the educational program must also be available for inspection upon request.

Regulation 74 requires documentation of child assessments or evaluations for delivery of the educational program. The emphasis on 'delivery' highlights the role of child assessments and evaluations in shaping the educational program. The educational program should evolve and reflect the current learning needs and interests of the children at the service, and be based on ongoing assessments or evaluations. For a child of preschool age or under, this documentation must include assessment of:

developmental needs

interests

experiences

participation in the educational program, and

progress against the outcomes of the educational program consistent with the learning outcomes of the approved learning frameworks.

For a child over preschool age:

evaluation of the child's wellbeing, development and learning are required in some jurisdictions - ACT, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

Services that educate and care for school age children in the Northern Territory, Queensland and NSW are not required to keep documentation of evaluations of individual children's wellbeing, learning and development. However they must ensure evidence about the development of the educational program is documented. A helpful ACECQA information sheet explains this.

A copy of the child assessment or evaluation documentation specified in regulation 74 must be made available to families on request (regulation 76):

information about the content and operation of the educational program, as it relates to their child; and

information about the child's participation in the program.

Why do you document?

To provide reflective insight into your own documentation practices, take a moment to consider why you personally document the way that you do.

Is your practice driven by regulations, the learning frameworks, the NQS, workplace procedures, training, habit, family needs, hearsay or experience?

Pausing to question 'why' and unpack these influences will support you to critically reflect and examine your practice, enriching your professional decision-making.

Documentation reflects each unique service

Reflecting the unique context of each service, documentation will not look the same from one service to another. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. One of the best ways to know if you are on track is to consider practice in terms of the outcomes for children and families.

Regulation 74 reminds us to consider:

the period of time the child is being educated and cared for

how the documentation will be used by educators

ensuring it is readily understandable by educators, and

ensuring it is readily understandable by families.

It is important to ensure documentation is genuinely understandable by the educators and families at your service. Procedures need to be in place to determine or evaluate this, for example, through input and ongoing feedback from families and reflective practice discussions with educators.

Children also demonstrate their learning and progress in many and varied ways. Therefore the methods of gathering, documenting and analysing evidence to assess learning also need to be varied.

Learning evidence needs to be collected over time and in a range of situations, rather than making judgements based upon limited information or a 'tick-the-box' approach.

Documentation should be meaningful, purposeful, sustainable and promote positive outcomes for children and families.

Questions for reflection
Are your documentation processes meaningful?
Consider if documentation is simply a 'task' to be completed each week or month, and if documentation is part of a meaningful pedagogical process you undertake to gain a deeper understanding of each child.

Some key questions to discuss with your team are:

Is your documentation being used to analyse each child's learning and learning progress; to shape the educational program; and to make children's learning visible to families?

How does documentation support understanding and assessment of each child's learning progress?

How is each child's participation in the program recorded and acted upon?

How does documentation support quality outcomes for families?

How are the voices of children included in documentation?

How are the voices of families included in documentation?

How does documentation meaningfully shape the educational program?

Do documentation processes impact educator interactions with children?
Research has confirmed that process quality, " the direct interactional experiences of children in ECEC, the daily back‐and‐forth exchanges they have with educators and other children, and their participation in learning experiences ", has the greatest impact on quality and positive outcomes for children (Torii, Fox and Cloney, 2017).

Social-emotional development is particularly enhanced by process quality.

High quality interactions and relationship-building with children can be compromised if the recording of observations and/or images on digital devices becomes a priority:

Engagement with a device can limit time and genuine, two-way and sustained engagement with a child or group of children.

Capturing the 'perfect image' can be perceived as being what is of value, not the learning or the child.

Consider the Early Childhood Australia Statement on young children and digital technologies and ' model self-regulated digital technology use...that recognises the importance of sustained social interactions' and relationships (ECA, 2018).

In guiding your reflection, you might ask yourself:

Is device use impacting interactions and relationship-building with children and between children?

How does my service monitor digital technology use for documentation?

How does digital documentation promote positive outcomes for children?

If devices weren't used to record observations and assessments/evaluations, what would be the benefits and challenges?

How could limited device use promote positive relationships and outcomes for children?

What message is sent to children about the 'photo-worthiness' of their learning?

Does documentation respect the rights of the child?
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child affirms children's rights and provides an ethical and legal framework for their realisation. The Convention acknowledges the obligations and responsibilities that society, communities and families must honour and respect. The 42 Articles specifically affirm children's right to an education, to privacy and to be protected from any activities that could harm their development.

Review The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and consider:

How do documentation processes respect children's right to privacy?

Are children aware of their rights?

Is a child's permission sought before taking images of them or their learning?

Further reading and resources to guide your practice

ACECQA - Information sheet - Documenting programs for school age children

Commonwealth of Australia - Resource - Educators Guide: Belonging, Being & Becoming

Commonwealth of Australia - Resource - Educators Guide: My Time, Our Place

Early Childhood Australia - Resource - Statement on young children and digital technologies

Mitchell Institute - Research - Quality is Key in Early Childhood Education in Australia

United Nations - Resource - Convention on the Rights of the Child

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ACECQA's National Education Leader , Rhonda Livingstone shares her insight into National Quality Framework topics of interest. Documentation is a subject of extensive debate in the children's education and care...

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"there are no recipes or regulated formulas" (ACECQA)

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"Documentation is the practice of recording and creating evidence of learning and learning progress, helping make it visible. Documentation takes children’s and educator’s thinking, and the experiences that educators observe, hear and feel into written or other records that can be shared, revisited and extended over time. Rich documentation incorporates multiple perspectives, including the voices of children, educators, peers, families and other professionals (Educators’ Guide to the EYLF, p. 37)"

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"Documentation supports the provision of quality children’s education and care by:

deepening the shared understanding of each child

identifying and analysing learning and learning progress

informing the educational program, and

making learning visible and able to be shared with others.

It also helps educators and educational leaders to reflect on their pedagogy and practices." (ACECQA)

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“The list of possibilities can be endless.” (Knowing What Counts 25)

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Pedagogical Documentation 25
Taking photos of learning with text. When taking the photos, ask yourself; what are my students learning, how are the learning, and why is it important?

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“Recent literature has shown that pedagogical documentation is a means of increasing communication and collaboration between the school and the home…in the search for each child’s voice and agency.” (Yılmaz, Arif, et al.)

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Pedagogical documentation can be collaborative! Ask your fellow teachers to look at your classes documentation. What do they gather from it, and how does it differ from your interpretation?

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"Because of the visual presentation and explanation, documentation triggers conversations between children and parents". (Seongmi Lim, Moon‐Heum Cho, 368)

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"The practice of collaborative inquiry...insists that teachers look at evidence of learning and documentated observations of learning process together. Documentation offers a kind of raw data that has not yet been interpreted. It gives the teaching team a common platform for thinking together about learning" (The Hundred Languages of Children, 282)

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"The Reggio system can be described succinctly as follows: it is a collection of schools for young children in which each child's intellectual, emotional, social, and moral potentials are carefully cultivated and guided. The principal educational vehicle invites youngsters in long-term engrossing projects... It is the Reggio community, more so than the philosophy or method, that constitutes Malaguzzi's central achievement." (The Hundred Languages of Children p.xiv)

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Reggio teachers cultivate:

personal expression & growth in expression

reflection on personal thinking patterns

communication in order to contribute to the group

meaningful relationships with subject matter

creating and deriving meaning

technical abilities in order to further the above and in order for children to be able to "make their own learning visible" (The Hundred Languages of Children p.7)

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Documentation can also be organize on a virtual (and secure) platform, which can then be easily shared with...

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At certain points (weekly, per term, per year) organize and review your documentation

Reflect on what you have learned from teaching and what the documentation reveals to you about the students' learning

Consider how to integrate these learnings into future instruction

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Reggio recognizes and fosters relationships between parents, students, and teachers as partners in learning, with a focus on collaborative and problem-solving style learning (including small-groups and project based activities).

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Time consuming

"Sometimes (teachers) underestimate the depth of reflection involved, and the text does not do justice to the children's thinking and ideas. Or (teachers) working in busy classrooms simply cannot find the time to collect and assemble... traces of children's work..." (Pedagogical Documentation xii).

Push back from parents (specifically in regards to portfolios)

"Sometimes parents think (portfolios are) "fluff" because they don't know what to do or what their role is" (Knowing What Counts 88)

Lack of Resources

"Most of the participants mentioned that they needed an assistant teacher/support staff while using the pedagogical documentation method. They called for help from the candidate teachers in their class or support staff at their schools since it was difficult to maintain teaching while documenting." ("Examination of Turkish Early Childhood Teachers' Challenges in Implementing Pedagogical Documentation" 1051)