Introduction to pedagogical diagnostics A portfolio task – a diagnostic activity in practice Study programme: Faculty of Pedagogic Form of study: School year: 2020 A student´s name: Self- assessment 5 4 3 2 1 N Excellent Above average Average Below average Very poor Criterion cannot be applied I use terminology of PD 4 I select appropriate methods and tools in accordance with the aim of a diagnostic activity 5 I gather appropriate data 5 I evaluate and interpret collected data 5 I formulate findings (diagnosis) and possible measures 5 Formal layout of the work 5 Peer- assessment 5 4 3 2 1 N Excellent Above average Average Below average Very poor Criterion cannot be applied He uses terminology of PD 4 He selects appropriate methods and tools in accordance with the aim of a diagnostic activity 5 He gathers appropriate data 5 He evaluates and interpret collected data 5 He formulates findings (diagnosis) and possible measures 5 Formal layout of the work 5 Diagnostics / Assessment of a pupil Work assignment: In the course of an assistant training you tutor a selected pupil, or you meet him/her in a class during your work as a teaching assistant. A teaching assistant supports teachers by helping to supervise activities in the classroom, working with children on individual basis, and usually work with a particular pupil or pupils. Your task is to focus on a pupil with learning or behavioural difficulties, or a gifted pupil, and to implement a diagnostic activity according to the following procedure: 1. Gather information about a selected pupil from a teacher, a class teacher, or a worker at a school counselling centre, parents. 2. Describe the pupil, his/her difficulties and state the reason why you selected him/her and where you obtained the information. 3. Formulate the aim of a diagnostic activity, i.e. what you want to find out and/or verify by applying the diagnostic activity. 4. Select appropriate methods in relation to the diagnostic activity: choose at least three methods. Data gathering will be supported with interview transcripts, observation sheets, questionnaires … 5. Evaluate and give an interpretation of data. 6. Formulate the findings. 7. Formulate measures and prepare a plan of pedagogical support for the pupil Students of special pedagogy focus on a selected client whom they meet in the course of their training. 1. Description /Characterization of a pupil L. is a five year old girl, living in Weer since she was born. She entered the Kindergarten one year later, because she got the option to stay one year longer in the toddlersgroup. She is introverted, speaks not that much and is playing the most of the time alone. Her speaking is not that good, the other kids sometimes don’t understand her and ignore her. Her family is living together and they are not really connected to many people of the village. When L. entered the group she was already four years old and it was quite hard for her to get access to the group members. She likes to watch and listen to books and play some activities with the other kids or alone. She will be visiting school next year and it the preparation settings for school, it is hard for her to come along with the contents. She works really slowly and its hard for her to keep attention. 2. The aim of a diagnostic activity L. has to go to school next year and has some problems with speaking. She also is as described above a really slow worker and does often need special support. He parents do not really want to hear, that her daughter has some problems in learning and keeping attention. Although it is not my opinion to compare children, you can see a huge different between her and her classmates with the same age. The diagnostic activity is for finding out how L. can be supported the best in the fields of Learning, social life, speaking and her attention. Another aim is to get a better connection to her parents, to give them recommendations and help them to figure out how they can help their daughter the best. 3. The plan of a diagnostic activity (how long, where, when, whom the diagnostic activity will be carried out with) As it is one of the main tasks for kindergarten teacher in Austria the plan of a diagnostic activity will last the whole kindergarten time. Especially it gets focused how to support the kids individually, that they are able to pass the school. The diagnostic activity is just at the kindergarten, because in Austria you are not allowed to do it outside the formal institution. Therefore you can recommend some experts, but there is no guarantee, that the parents will accept. After the plan is established it will be also given to school, that they get an overview what the situation is like. 4. At least three selected methods and tools of a diagnostic activity (their specification – typology), that will help me to find out the answer for the set aim. a) non – structured observation A none structured observation is the most often used method in kindergartens in Austria, because it is a main topic in our educationplan. It is the most important task for an individually work, for a good group climate and for keeping important things. There are some forms you could use, but we only take the non – structured observation, because for us it is not just observe strength or just the weakness. b) dialog with parents It is not really an interview, it is more like a dialog between the parents and the kindergarten teacher. It gives space to talk about their private life at home, the support they give their daughter, to talk about the problems they see in die development of L., it is also for the teacher to tell the parents which strengths he sees, where he sees some problems or the need of special support. Also there is place for recommendations. Important is, that it isn’t like a quantitative interview it is more like an qualitative biographical dialog. c) Inviting a “Fachberatung für Inklusion in Kindergärten, Kinderkrippen und Horten“ (Specialist advice on inclusion in kindergartens, chreches and after-school care centers) In Austria, kindergarten teachers are not really allowed to do some diagnostics. There are specialists from the country which come to the kindergarten and observe the kids with special methods. They play prepared activities and focus on the mentioned problems. They are the only ones next to the doctors, which are allowed to do some tests and diagnose if the kids have special educational needs. In Austria it is called SPF. If there is SPF the country will give some money to the institution to get a support teacher. 5. The diagnostic data gathering and processing (give evidence, e.g. interview transcripts, observation sheets, filled in questionnaires, drawings, a content analysis of learner´s work …) a) Non structured Observation During the whole time in Kindergarten she will be observed, the same as the other kids. We don’t use any forms of observation, because the most of them are not that open we like to have. The teachers will all observe the children and write their notes on a paper. Every week we have some time together to talk and discuss about it. As already spoken about it, is it just a paper where the team is writing some observations and we discuss is together. Here are the notes from the different observations: · No problems with going in the group · Takes the most of the time the same puzzle when arriving · At the beginning she almost plays alone, till another child invites her to play together · Very quiet and introvert · At school club: need twice the time of the other kids for the same work · Cannot handle exercises with more than one task · Doesn’t ask for help, when she didn’t understand, just sitting and looking in the air. · Drawing a “Kopffüßler” (People with a head and from the head there are feeds outcoming) · Needs a lot of support with cutting. · Often didn’t finish words, or pronounce it right. · Speaks really quiet and indistinct. · When running she doesn’t look where she is running · Asks a lot for reading out a book · Can keep here complete attention for about 5 till 10 minutes, than she starts to watch to other things > b) Dialog with the mother Dialog about L. > Date: 20.12.2016 Time:_________ Participants:__Martin & S. (mother) Points oft the teacher • Enormous development step • Social interaction: solid place in the group, well integrated, rarely takes on leadership, but resigns well to it, sensitive, emphatic, helpful, but also likes to withdraw very fine pleasant calm being, but can also turn up well • School club: very hard working, motivated, likes to do school club, multi-part work assignments are still difficult for her to implement, try out independently, implementation is not always successful, mistakes are simply accepted, patient • Linguistically: you notice progress, gets better from time to time, still needs time to develop linguistically! • Creativity: great imagination, great joy in drawing and handicrafts, coloring: not yet the sensitivity and the motivation not to paint • In my eyes Laura still needs time to develop, at the moment I think the school would be too much for her, which would probably stress her and does not exactly promote her development. • Until July there is still a lot of time in which we will still work well! • Very happy with Laura on the whole. It's great to see how it develops itself! > Points oft he parents: · L. loves to go to Kindergarten, she almost asks at weekend to go there. · She doesn’t tell anything about what happens in Kindergarten. · She likes drawing a lot, but she cant keep her attention if she has do fill something out. · If she is drawing peoples, you can not see what it should be. · Compare to her younger brother, she is really slow and he often steals her the show, when he knows answers faster than her, can solve some games etc. · Afraid of the schoolstart, if L. can follow the pressure. > c) Inviting a “Fachberatung für Inklusion in Kindergärten, Kinderkrippen und Horten“ (Specialist advice on inclusion in kindergartens, chreches and after-school care centers) Before the special teacher joins the group we will sit together and talk about my observations and my dialogs with the parents. From this points on the special teacher is visiting the group and observes the kid her own. After his observation and activities we will have a meeting together again and discuss about her notes and mine. In the case of L. our notes have been really similar. The special teacher (Maria) was thinking about a developmental lag and that L. is sometimes just overstrained. She also recommended me to give her more time and space to finish exercises in more steps. The next step was a dialog with the special teacher and the mother, where I just have been a moderator and a support for both sides. Maria told the mother, that she thinks that L. needs more time, because her behaviour is in some situations not like a 5 years old. She gave the mother the advice to go with L. to the hospital and get her checked, if she maybe has a developmental lag. 6. Evaluation and giving interpretation of the diagnostic data (analyse gathered data and interpret the findings) Non-structured Observation: L. is a quiet girl who doesn’t starts a conversation. She is playing a lot with herself and with stuff normally the youngest kids play. It is hard for her to keep up with the things she should do for school preparation. If she is speaking it is sometimes hard to understand what she is talking about, because she speaks really quiet and her pronouncing is not clear. Seeing her next to the other kids her age, he has much more problems to solve exercises, because of the understanding of the task, keeping the attention, working speed and sometimes understanding of the content. Dialog with parents: L. mother was not talking that much about their private life, for me it felt like she wanted to keep her privacy, what I accept. We were talking a lot about the difficulties of L. and she agreed. She told me that she recognized it by her own too, because L. has a younger brother and he is faster in working, he often does some tasks from L., because she doesn’t understand. For the mother it is hard to see, that her daughter has this difficulties and she is really afraid for L. to go to school. We have been also speaking about what she could do to help her kid and we managed out, that she will go to her doctor and let him have a look, if L. maybe needs Logopaedia. The dialog was really emotional, but successful, because her mother sees, that there are some difficulties but she also sees that there are ways for support. “Fachberatung für Inklusion in Kindergärten, Kinderkrippen und Horten“ Maria was talking with the mom of L. and they told her similar things than I did. She just told the mother, that she is thinking, that L. maybe has a developmental lag and it would be not good for L. if it would be like this and no one would see it, because it would be overstrain for her whole life. So Maria and the mother figured out some ways how the process should go on. They decided to do a developmental check in the hospital. After the check they found out, that the level of her development was not like a 5 year old, it was like a 4 year old. 5. General conclusion for all applied methods (based on findings up to now sum up a conclusion and the results of findings) After all the methods get used, we found out that L. has a developmental lag. She is working like a 4 years old and not like a 5 years old. In Austria there are really good options to get some support inside the class. We got a support teacher, which was not only there for L., she was there to support the whole group and gives L. sometimes more time to do their exercises. For luck L. didn’t need to get the SPF, so she was allowed to go to school normal. L. did a good job the last half of a year in Kindergarten, so the headmaster of the school wanted her to go to school. And now three years later she is doing a great job in school. 6. The plan of pedagogical support, IEP. The plan will be used to find strategies to support L. in the field of develop her skills, she needs for school. It is also important to support her in her own time and space, she needs to develop her the best way. Another part to use the IEP is, that it should also support the parents, the way they can support their daughter. 7. Reflect your own experience with diagnostic activities, and after that evaluate the outcome of your work in the chart on the front page. We didn’t knew the PSP before, because in our hometown, Austria , we haven’t used it before, we have a different kind of PSP who can used by every teacher individually. It was a good process to get some new views and different clues to get some information. It is clear structured and allows to work with the PSP together with parents, other colleagues and support teachers from the country. In Kindergarten it may be not able to get used to work with the kid by showing him the PSP. So it is maybe a good strategy to motivate ourselves and the parents, but for the directly motivation of the children it may not helps, because they are too young to read. Pedagogical support plan SCHOOL INFORMATION Pedagogical support plan (PSP) Name and surname of the child, pupil or student (“student”) L. T. School Kindergarten Weer Form Form Reasons for creating the PSP We want to get an all-round sight of the children in Kindergarten and therefore we created a PSP. We wanted to get a way to give the girl a good school start. Date of preparation December 20^th , 2016 PSP evaluation scheduled for Date of planned evaluation I. Characteristics of the student and their difficulties (strengths, weaknesses; description of difficulties; where applicable, special-pedagogy diagnostics with the aim of determining adjustments in education; current health condition; other factors influencing setting up support) L. is a 5 year old girl, living in the village since she was born. He is living together with her younger brother and her married parents. She was visiting the toodlers group already and came to Kindergarten one year later, because the teacher of the toddlers group thought it would be to much for her to start that early in the kindergarten. She has a quite character and likes to play alone. She doesnt speak that much and most of the time she let other kids tell what she should do. Her mother didnt really got open minded to the team of the Kindergarten first, but it was changing during the time. Strengths: · Loves going to Kindergarten · Is a gentle girl, who is always caring for others · Likes to make music · Loves to listen books. · Avoids troubles with others. · Tries to get out of herself with speaking and doing activities · Has no fear do make mistakes Weakness: · Language skills (speaks very quite, low level) · Needs the twice time or more for the same exercieses than the others · Hard to keep attention, if its not to books. (Content) · Prefers easy games, she already knows. (rituals) · Learning disability II. Setting the objectives of the PSP (objectives of the student’s development) · Improve her language skills and support her doing some logopedic exercieses · Give her the time she needs to solve exercieses on her own · Give her place to be the centre of the group. · Push her selfconfidence · Help her parents to find a way how she learns the best. III. Support measures at school (Provide specific procedures in the categories of the support measures you use.) (a) Teaching methods (specification of adjustments to the methods of working with the student) · Play a lot of games, where she has to work with different levels. · Give her options to retry things much more · Build spaces, where she can be the centre and show what she is able to do. · Do some individuall learning activities to figure out which learning type she is. · Give her some gifts, and compliments, when she can solve exercieses on her own. · Support her parents with methods of learning. · Cooperate with logopedics and neurologics. (b) Organization of education (adjustments to the organization of education in the classroom or, where applicable, outside the classroom) · Get a supportteacher · Doing school preperations in small groups, or individually · Prepare individual learning games · Support the parents (c) Evaluation of the student (definition of the adjustments to evaluation; how the evaluation is carried out; what is the aim of the adjustments to the evaluation; criteria) · No evaluation with a form. · Just observing the child to get an overview how he is doing · Talking to other Teachers to get a different view. · Talking to the parents and the doctor as well · Inviting the special teacher from the country (Fachberatung für Inklusion in Kindergärten, Kinderkrippen und Horten a mobile person from the country with a special education, who is coming to Kindergarten, to support the kids, the teachers and the parents) (d) Aids (textbooks, worksheets, ICT technology, etc.) · Support teacher · Textbook for the teachers to get to know a developmental lag better · Easier worksheets, with less tasks, and exercises she is able to solve · Materials for her to improve the already learned things · No special games or anything (e) Requirements for the organization of the teachers’ work · Get into the topic of developmental lags · Work sensitive with failures from L. · Plan some more time for doings exercises in steps · Be there for the parents · Working out some materials of a lower level IV. Support measures for home preparation (description of adjustments to home preparation, form, and frequency of communication with the family) · Getting the signature from the parents to get contact to the doctors and logopedics · Regulary meetings with the parents · Giving some materials they can use at home · Advices for parenting advices to get an understanding for L. Situation V. Other support measures (to respect the health condition, stress the situation in the family or at school—relationship problems, status in the class; in what activities, in what way) · Do not make it to a topic in class · Work out differnces as a main topic in general · There are no health problems or status problems · Support the parents and tell them also what their daugther is doing great VI. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the PSP on: (Fulfilment of the objectives of the PSP) · PSP clearly shows ways of support which can be used · Maybe it was not that easy, because I wrote it after everything was already done · Is a good way to show what the difficulties are and that there are a lot of ways to make difficulties to a solution that is ok · For the parents it is motivation and pushes them to keep going on supporting and believing in the kid. Recommendation for an expert examination^1 xYes ☐ No ☐ PPC ☐ SPC ☐ SEN ☐ Other: Other Title Name and surname Signature and date Class teacher Martin Pachler Teacher(s) of subject(s) SCC employee Kindergarten Weer Legal representative All names are shortend to keep privacy