Peer-reviewed researchWeekly research brief
The Bush Kinder Assessment Tool: Supporting Educators to Understand Children’s Learning in Nature-Based Early Childhood Education Settings
Australian educators co-designed an assessment tool for bush kinder that helped them understand children's learning in nature more deeply.
What's new
This small pilot participatory action research project involved three preschool educators, an early childhood pedagogical leader and a bush kinder researcher in co-designing and testing an assessment tool for nature-based teaching aligned with Australian curriculum frameworks. The team applied the tool during bush kinder sessions, and data came from their reflections and individual interviews with each educator. The key finding was that the tool helped educators deepen their understanding of children's learning in nature.
Why it matters in Aotearoa
Nature-based early childhood programmes are growing in Aotearoa, and services face similar questions about how to assess learning outdoors. A similar co-design process could be used to align assessment with Te Whāriki.
Putting it into practice
Early childhood teams running nature sessions could co-design a simple observation or assessment template linked to their curriculum framework and trial it together over several sessions.
How strong is the evidence
A very small pilot in which the researchers were also participants; it describes educators' experience of using the tool and does not measure children's learning directly.
What to read
The full article, particularly the description of the tool and how it was co-designed.