Empoweringpreschoolsinusingperformanceindicatorstoassesschildrenslearninganddevelopment.PDFVIP

Journal of Basic Education, Vol. 17 No. 1, 2008 © The Chinese University of Hong Kong 2008 基礎教育學報，第十七卷第一期，二零零八年 ©香港中文大學 2008 Empowering Preschools in Using Performance Indicators to Assess Children’s Learning and Development Margaret N. C. WONG Anissa Y. M. YUNG Rebecca H. P. CHEUNG Faculty of Professional and Early Childhood Education The Hong Kong Institute of Education Assessment and evaluation are essential educational practice. In December 2003, a set of Performance Indicators on the Domain of Child Development (revised edition) was published by the Education Manpower Bureau and Social Welfare Department to assist preschools in Hong Kong to evaluate young children’s performance in learning and development. This paper outlines how a project conducted by the Hong Kong Institute of Education has empowered 15 Hong Kong preschools using Performance Indicators to formulate strategies for self-evaluation on the Domain of Child Development. Implications for successful change of the assessment culture in the preschoosl are discussed. Key words: child assessment, child development, performance indicators, school improvement 160 Margaret WONG, Anissa YUNG, and Rebecca CHEUNG Background Keeping up with the international trend, Hong Kong has in recent years launched the Performance Indicators (PIs) for preprimary, primary, secondary, and special schools to enhance school effectiveness and accountability (Rao, Koong, Kwong, Wong, 2003). To enable a thorough assessment on the performance of preprimary institutions, a set of PIs covering four major dom ains (Management and Organization, Learning and Teaching, Support to Children, and School Ethos and Children ’s Development) has been developed and used by the Educatio