Learning Stories – crossing borders: introducing qualitative early childhood observation techniques to early childhood practitioners in Saudi Arabia

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Learning Stories – crossing borders:introducing qualitative early childhoodobservation techniques to earlychildhood practitioners in Saudi ArabiaBerenice Nyland a & Shatha Alfayez aa School of Education , RMIT University , Melbourne , AustraliaPublished online: 12 Nov 2012.

To cite this article: Berenice Nyland & Shatha Alfayez (2012) Learning Stories – crossingborders: introducing qualitative early childhood observation techniques to early childhoodpractitioners in Saudi Arabia, International Journal of Early Years Education, 20:4, 392-404, DOI:10.1080/09669760.2012.743097

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Learning Stories � crossing borders: introducing qualitative earlychildhood observation techniques to early childhood practitionersin Saudi Arabia

Berenice Nyland* and Shatha Alfayez

School of Education, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

(Received 10 May 2012; accepted 15 October 2012)

Early childhood education has become a focus of government policy acrossthe world. Part of the present increased interest in early childhood educationhas been a focus on curriculum frameworks and socio/cultural methods ofassessment. Currently, New Zealand has emerged as a world leader in earlychildhood education, and observation and assessment techniques, developed inNew Zealand, have become an international focus of research and pedagogicpractice. One exemplar practice to have emerged from research in New Zealandis the assessment of children’s learning. An assessment project, conducted at theinstigation of the New Zealand Ministry of Education, was designed to recognisekey outcomes from the New Zealand curriculum, Te Whariki, and to providepractitioners with a tool that would assist in the development of assessment ideasand procedures. The result was Learning Stories. This present research exploredthe introduction of Learning Stories into Australia and investigated the potentialof Learning Stories as an assessment tool for early childhood practitioners in thecontext of Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: early childhood; Learning Stories; observation; assessment; SaudiArabia; Australia

Introduction

The research reported in this paper was an examination of early childhood planningand assessment practices in a number of different contexts. Learning Stories

(Carr 2001; Carr et al. 2010), as developed in New Zealand, were the focus and theproject was designed to ascertain if there were enough similarities and theoreticalunderstandings of early childhood education for practices to be shared across thecontexts of Australia, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia. Australia and New Zealandhave a history of shared research and pedagogical understanding in the field ofearly childhood (Keesing-Styles and Hedges 2007), and Saudi Arabia is activelyseeking to become part of the international community of scholars through theKing Abdullah Scholarships Program (Ministry of Higher Education 2012).Increasing numbers of scholars from Saudi Arabia are seeking international studyexperiences as part of a strategy for Saudi Arabia to develop a knowledge-basedeconomy and produce internationally competitive research. In recent years earlychildhood programmes have become a target for reforms in many countries,

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

International Journal of Early Years Education

Vol. 20, No. 4, December 2012, 392�404

ISSN 0966-9760 print/ISSN 1469-8463 online

# 2012 Taylor & Francis

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including New Zealand, Australia and Saudi Arabia. Formal curriculum frameworkshave been developed as a major reform strategy (Australian Government, Depart-ment of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations [DEEWR] 2009;New Zealand Ministry of Education [NZMoE] 1996). In Saudi Arabia earlychildhood restructure has targeted provision and the need to improve quality. Onefocus of these changes has been an identified need for the introduction of assessmentmethods in Saudi early childhood programmes that will have the potential toencompass developmental areas and include input from teachers, parents and thecommunity (Al-Shaer 2007). Such an approach to assessment has resonance withthe socio/cultural approach taken to assessment in New Zealand early childhoodcentres (McLachlan, Fleer, and Edwards 2010). This study was conducted throughresearching the development of Learning Stories in New Zealand, the introduction ofLearning Stories to Australia and the trialling of Learning Stories with earlychildhood pre-service teachers in Saudi Arabia.

This qualitative research was conducted in two contexts. Learning Stories andtheir use in New Zealand and Australia were examined through the literature and aninvestigation of how Learning Stories were introduced to pre-service early childhoodteachers in Australia. The second context was Saudi Arabia and the use of LearningStories was trialled with pre-service early childhood teachers. The first stage of theresearch consisted of a review of the relevant literature on Learning Stories, theirtheoretical base and development in New Zealand, their use in different contextsand their introduction to Australia. Lecturers and pre-service teachers in an earlychildhood undergraduate degree programme in Australia were interviewed abouttheir understanding and experiences in using Learning Stories as an assessment tool.Data also consisted of samples of the pre-service teachers’ work. As Learning Storieswere not part of the education programme in Saudi Arabia, workshops werepresented to volunteer pre-service teachers who agreed to trial the use of LearningStories during their practicum. The pre-service teachers and supervising lecturerswere interviewed about their views on Learning Stories as a method for assessingchildren’s learning in early childhood programmes.

The paper therefore discusses the New Zealand context, the development ofLearning Stories and 15 years of experience of using Learning Stories as theassessment tool of choice within the frame of the curriculum framework, Te Whariki

(NZMoE 1996). The Australian context is then discussed as Learning Stories

(DEEWR 2010) have also been adopted as the main assessment strategy toaccompany the new national learning framework (DEERW 2009). Examples ofinterviews with the Australian lecturers and pre-service teachers are presented. TheSaudi experience and the response to this assessment strategy is presented throughexamples of pre-service teachers’ Learning Stories recorded on the practicum.Findings suggest the Saudi early childhood pre-service teachers were enthusiasticabout the use of Learning Stories as an observation method. In all contexts thereappear to be limitations in the use of Learning Stories for programme planning.

New Zealand and the development of Learning Stories

Early childhood education has become a focus of government policy across theworld. Part of the present increased interest in early childhood education has been afocus on curriculum frameworks and socio/cultural methods of assessment (Keesing-Styles and Hedges 2007). Observation and assessment techniques, developed in

International Journal of Early Years Education 393

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New Zealand, have become an international focus of research and pedagogicpractice (Nuttall 2003). One exemplar practice to have emerged from research inNew Zealand is the assessment of children’s learning. An assessment project,conducted at the instigation of the New Zealand Ministry of Education (Carr et al.2000), was designed to recognise key outcomes from the curriculum, Te Whariki

(NZMoE 1996), and to provide practitioners with a tool that would assist in thedevelopment of assessment ideas and procedures. The result was Learning Stories

(Carr 2001; Carr et al. 2010, 2000).A comprehensive study of early childhood assessment had occurred in

New Zealand in 1995 when the Project for Assessing Children’s Experiences,a research project conducted for the Ministry of Education, was designed to addresskey outcomes in the new early childhood New Zealand curriculum, Te Whariki. Thefocus age group for this project was three- and four-year-olds (Carr et al. 2000).The project followed the view of Bredekamp and Rosegrant 1992, 29 who notethat, ‘Assessment is the tail that wags the curriculum dog. If we want to see realcurriculum reform we must simultaneously achieve reform of assessment practices’.

Carr et al. (2000) were interested in how New Zealand teachers could assess andtrack children’s learning in the early years. Suggested methods included usinglearning dispositions as a framework to avoid the pitfall of over-formal methods,while being helpful for practitioners, interesting for families and supportive forlearners (Carr 2001; Carr et al. 2000). An added advantage of the use of learningdispositions was that they built on the early childhood practice of child study thatmost early childhood practitioners were already familiar with (Arthur et al. 2007).

The New Zealand early childhood curriculum framework became compulsoryfor funded early childhood programmes in April 1998. Assessment methods ofchildren’s learning developed to accompany the new curriculum were Learning

Stories (Carr 2001). Although these were not mandated they have become a defaultposition (Blaiklock 2010a, 2010b).

The Learning Story is a narrative account of an incident that has taken place. Theobserver records the incident as a story. The story can involve individuals or groups.The teacher reflects on the story using learning dispositions to analyse the learningthat has taken place. The learning dispositions are taking an interest, being involved,persisting with difficulty, expressing an idea or a feeling and taking responsibility.Often photographs are used for illustration and to make the story accessible tothe child/children, which enhances its potential for revisiting. Learning Stories arenot compulsory in New Zealand but have been endorsed and a comprehensiveassessment resource, Kei Tua o te Pae: Assessment for learning: Early childhood

exemplars (NZMoE 2004), has been made available online for the use of all services.The Learning Story method is considered more comprehensive than previous

observation and assessment methods as they capture the context of the learningenvironment and are therefore considered to have more depth than an anecdote orrunning record (Beaty 2002). There are a number of parts to a learning story. First,the actual story and possibly photographs; second, an analysis that highlights thelearning dispositions that the child brings to the learning situation; third, based on thefirst two steps is a discussion of the learning that has taken place and the final stephas been called ‘what next’ (Carr 2001). Learning Stories can have multipleperspectives: the teacher’s voice, the child’s voice, the parent’s voice and the voicesof other children. Learning Stories are now commonly used by practitioners inAustralia (DEEWR 2010) and as a research tool (Nyland and Acker 2012; Nyland

394 B. Nyland and S. Alfayez

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and Ferris 2009). There is some disquiet that the widespread adoption of LearningStories has not been accompanied by rigorous evaluation (Blaiklock 2010a, 2010b;Nuttall 2003). Two issues highlighted have been the role of content in the earlychildhood curriculum and the problem of time for busy practitioners.

Early childhood education in Australia and the introduction of Learning Stories

In 2009 Australia developed an early childhood learning framework, Belonging,

Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF; DEEWR 2009).This framework is based on five learning outcomes which are designed to capture theintegrated and complex learning and development of all children across the birth tofive years of age range. These outcomes are: children have a strong sense of identity;children are connected with and contribute to their world; children have a strongsense of well-being; children are confident and involved learners and children areeffective communicators (DEEWR 2009, 19).

The EYLF also has a series of principles that underpin practice and focus on theaim of assisting all children to make progress in relation to the learning outcomes.The principles are: secure, respectful and reciprocal relationships, partnerships, highexpectations and equity, respect for diversity and ongoing learning and reflectivepractice. The framework was developed through a national consultative processwhich was supported by the preparation of supporting documents which consisted ofbackground research (Edwards, Fleer, and Nuttall 2008), a literature review of theexisting early childhood curriculum documents across a number of jurisdictions(Wilkes et al. 2008) and a discussion paper on the proposed national qualityframework (COAG 2008). The EYLF (DEEWR 2009) is Australia’s first nationalearly childhood curriculum document, or learning framework, the terms have beenused interchangeably (Wilkes et al. 2008). The title is explained as: the Belonging isthe connection to family, community, culture and place, Being refers to childhoodand the importance of the here and now while Becoming is about identity, knowledgeand relationships and how these change and are shaped by the circumstances ofchildhood.

An educator’s guide (DEEWR 2010) was developed to provide support for thosewho are expected to interpret and apply the learning framework within theirprogrammes. The guide was designed to stimulate conversation amongst earlychildhood educators and relies heavily on providing examples of observed practiceand relating these to the various principles, practices and outcomes. These examplesare nearly all presented as simplified Learning Stories which is an indication ofhow this approach has become common parlance for the early childhood field inAustralia. Learning Stories have gained recognition as a useful assessment tool forearly childhood practice and research and can now be found in many differentjurisdictions as they offer the potential to record children’s learning across culturesand contexts. Australian early childhood educators are now moving into a new stageof reform as a National Quality Framework (NQF; DEEWR 2012) is implemented.The new learning framework and the use of Learning Stories for assessment ofchildren’s learning are integral parts of the NQF. All pre-service courses now includetraining in the use of Learning Stories, and there is a universal expectation a child’sexperiences will be recorded using learning dispositions to interpret the learning thattook place and to plan future activities (DEEWR 2010).


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Background and early childhood education in Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) comprises about four-fifths of the ArabianPeninsula, a landmass constituting a distinct geographical entity. The countryoccupies approximately 2,250,000 square kilometres, is bounded on the north byJordan, Iraq and Kuwait; on the east by the Gulf, Bahrain, Qatar and the United ArabEmirates; on the south by the Sultanate of Oman and Yemen and on the west by theRed Sea (Al-Ameel 2002).

There is an increasing awareness of the important role that early childhoodeducation can play in the child’s development in Saudi Arabia, and there is a policyinterest in establishing early childhood centres to provide children with opportunitiesfor preparation for formal schooling. Like most countries the history of earlychildhood education is less established than that of primary education. Earlychildhood education is non-formal and includes day-care centres, nurseries andpreschool centres.

As in many countries the private sector dominates early childhood education inthe KSA. The first early childhood service in the KSA was established in Jeddah cityin 1955 and was a private centre, called Dar Alhnan, which means the House ofTenderness. Then gradually the number of private early childhood centres grewand by 1964 there were 13. A study done by UNESCO, in 1981, indicated that earlychildhood education was provided solely by the private sector until 1965 when thegovernment decided to also enter the field. After 1965 the government started to takeon a regulatory role and by 1966 the Ministry of Education had established the firstgovernment early childhood centre. In 2004, there were 1320 preschool centres, ofwhich 342 were government-run (public) and 978 were private. Combined, theyserved 1,00,032 children (MOE 2004). Therefore, most early childhood services areprivate, and a wide variety of educational approaches and practices are in evidence.Early childhood centres accept children aged three to six years, and because of theincreasing importance placed on early childhood education the MOE has developedpolicies and practice guidelines to encourage high-quality learning experiences forchildren and their families. Many services have found it difficult to comply with theMOE rules and guidelines. Reasons for this include factors like the hiring ofunqualified teachers, using inappropriate buildings and often a lack of learningfacilities and equipment (Al-Noaim 1996).

Adults presently employed in early childhood services come from a variety ofeducational and training backgrounds, and this has caused anxiety that a diverseworkforce will not have a shared theoretical understanding of how children learn orthe philosophy and objectives of early childhood education. Research studiesinvestigating the issue of teachers’ education and training in Saudi Arabia haveconcluded that there is a massive need for in-service training, resources andprogrammes for early childhood teachers (Al-Ameel 2002; Al-Noaim 1996; Mahdly2001). Many of these studies commented on a lack of a national curriculum for earlychildhood services, and some suggested early childhood education should becomepart of the formal education system. Research also focused on the lack of qualifiedteachers.

The main aim of early childhood education in the KSA is to prepare children,via a righteous upbringing, to be resilient in the face of life’s diverse experiences.One of the most important aims of early childhood education is to teach childrenabout Islamic beliefs and practices. Government educational policy specifies the


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foundations on which education is based. These foundations are derived from acombination of Islam, the religion of knowledge and learning (Gahwaji 2007):

The objective of education: understanding Islam correctly and completely, implantingand spreading the Islamic doctrine, providing students with Islamic values andinstructions, acquiring knowledge along with different skills, developing constructivebehavioural tendencies; advancing society economically, socially, culturally, andqualifying members in order to become useful in the construction of their society.(Educational policy article 28, MOE 1976)

Views of young children in Islamic teaching are highly compatible with principlesand beliefs about children’s learning and development suggested in internationalmainstream theoretical approaches to early childhood education, such as, develop-mental, behaviourist or sociocultural theories (DEEWR 2009). From the Hadith(sayings from The Prophet Mohammad) there is a view that young children shouldbe respected, listened to, understood, treated with kindness, offered overt acts ofaffection, and the importance of children playing is emphasised (Saeed 2004). Animportant initiative of the government saw the establishment of a Saudi NationalCommission for Childhood (SNCC) in 1979. The general objective of the SNCC wasto create a policy on child-related needs and activities in the KSA and organise theefforts of the various agencies concerned with children’s affairs. Some of thefunctions are stated below:

� To organise relationships between government agencies, national associationsand institutions concerned with childhood in the Kingdom in order to achieveintegration and avoid duplication.

� To formulate a national strategy on childhood to help the competentauthorities in the Kingdom to promote various aspects of child welfare.

� To propose child-related programmes and projects for implementation bygovernment and private agencies.

� To establish a database on all child-related affairs in the Kingdom, update itsdata and exchange such data with all the agencies concerned.

� To prepare for the meetings of the Supreme Council for Childhood and thePlanning and Follow up Committee.

� To monitor the implementation of the recommendations and resolutions of theSupreme Council and the Planning and Follow up Committee.

� To monitor activities of regional and international bodies and institutionsconcerned with childhood.

� To encourage research, studies and all forms of children’s culture.� To prepare periodic reports on the activities of the SNCC (Gahwaji 2007, 8).

In the KSA the goals of early childhood education, as well as to educate the child inthe Islamic culture, are to ensure optimum development in cognitive, physical,language, social and emotional domains, to prepare the child for the primary school,encourage the development of self-regulation and to secure the child’s needs.In recent years the MOE has been trying to initiate a shift from teaching practicesbased on traditional instruction methods to an emphasis on more child-centredpractices. This has proved problematic in some instances given there is such a varietyof provision. In the KSA you can find early childhood centres that use traditional


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teaching methods, services that use more open creative teaching methods andservices that present a mixture of these approaches. Early childhood education policyin the KSA is aimed at providing learning experiences and activities that will addressthe numerous requirements of the MOE. The followings are recommended:

� The activity is suitable to the Islamic religion and culture.� The activity needs to recognise the child abilities and needs in the areas of

development. Moreover, it should consider free play times.� The social and natural environment of the child needs to be considered and

recognised.� The education philosophy of the preschool will be recognised.� A qualified teacher is needed to help choose and guide these learning

experiences (Al-Otaiby and Al-Swailem 2002).

As with teaching and learning approaches, Saudi early childhood centres have adiversity of methods for assessing children’s learning. Some centres use portfolios.The teacher is expected to make a portfolio for every child in his/her class to showthe development of the child throughout the year and to assess his/her learning.The portfolio contains samples of work that the child has done, the teacher writescomments about the child’s development and records input from the parents. Somecentres use anecdotal records or rating scales. These are common child studymethods (Arthur et al. 2007; Beaty 2002) and like many education systems the MOEin the KSA is looking for an assessment that is more encompassing and includes arecord of social relationships, inclusion and participation as well as includingdevelopmental information. The assessment process also needs to be shared withteachers, parents and the wider education community (Al-Noaim 1996).

Vygotsky’s socio/contextual/cultural theories are now considered an appropriateapproach to more inclusive education and assessment practices. The role ofculture and language in child development is emphasised. As Rogoff (2003) states‘I emphasize that human development is a process of people’s changing participationin the sociocultural activities of their communities’ (52). Therefore, the environmentand background of children needs to be considered by the teachers because teachingis directly connected to a child’s identity. A child’s development is influenced, eitherdirectly or indirectly, by all the surrounding people, materials, ideas and beliefs.Rogoff observes that as children develop they inevitably learn through watchingthose around them. As sociocultural theories of learning and development (Arthuret al. 2007) become more widely adopted across contexts it was considered worthexamining the potential of Learning Stories for early childhood practice in SaudiArabia.

The research

This research was qualitative and used an interpretive approach (Neuman 2000) toexamine how lecturers from an Australian university and a KSA universityintroduced Learning Stories to pre-service teachers. In Australia and SaudiArabia interviews (Patton 1987) were conducted with lecturers and pre-serviceteachers. In Australia the lecturers were asked about their methods of introducingLearning Stories, and the pre-service teachers were questioned about the experienceof learning about and using Learning Stories. Relevant resources, materials, and


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examples of the pre-service teachers’ Learning Stories were collected. The pre-service teachers in the KSA volunteered to attend workshops on Learning Stories andthen implemented this observational technique of recording and interpretingchildren’s learning during their placements. The pre-service teachers and thesupervising lecturers were interviewed, and the pre-service teachers shared theirLearning Stories. This research is an examination of ideas and practices crossingborders. Therefore in this paper the perspective from each context is presenteddifferently. From New Zealand there is a brief description of the development ofLearning Stories, from Australia the responses of lecturers and students expected toadopt this assessment method are reported upon and from Saudi Arabia the practiceof Learning Stories is reported upon.

Australia

Three lecturers and three students were interviewed about their understanding ofLearning Stories. Lectures and teaching methods were observed; the students’ workwas examined and discussed. This following is a brief summary of the interviews.The three lecturers and students expressed enthusiasm about Learning Stories as amethod of observing and interpreting children’s learning. They all agreed there werebenefits of using Learning Stories as an assessment approach as they presented aformat they provided a frame for writing and interpreting that made sense and gavethe students confidence to share their observations. However, the students differedin that two were more interested in using Learning Stories while a third wascomfortable in using anecdotes for observing and assessing children’s learning. Thisstudent commented that the anecdote made more sense because Learning Stories

took a long time to do and could not be done for all the children.The lecturers and students agreed that Learning Stories offer contextualised

information, highlight the children’s relationships with materials and other people,are accessible to all members of the learning community, provide opportunities tolook at social and cultural influences and emphasise participation; they are anassessment tool that is potentially inclusive of the group of children, educators,families and community.

One student and one lecturer believed that Learning Stories do not have anydisadvantages. However, two students said that the Learning Story approach doeshave some disadvantages. They thought that they are best for a small group, notsuitable for a large group and Learning Stories take a long time. Two lecturersbelieved that the advantages are reliant on ‘practice’. To use Learning Stories in aneffective and efficient way the practitioner needs experience and practice. Onelecturer said that sometimes teachers spend more time doing the Learning Stories

than reflecting on the information they have.

Example from Saudi Arabia

In this section of the paper examples of a Saudi pre-service teacher’s work arepresented to indicate how effectively the idea of Learning Stories has been adoptedin the new context. The example involves three children during a free play sequencewith the observer interacting (Table 1).


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The story

This observation contains many stories. Two children are playing together andindicating their knowledge of the adult world of clothes and shopping as well asthinking of relatives not present who they wish to involve in the pretend play. L also asksthe shop assistant, G, to keep the clothes by the cash register until they have finishedtheir shopping. This suggests she has observed such actions when shopping with adults.The roles the children take on, G at the cash register and the other two as parents seem toemerge seamlessly. These children may have taken on these roles before. The teacherintervenes twice, once to urge L to buy something as G was waiting and the second timeto state it was time to pack up. At this stage G is no longer in the story.

The analysis

The pre-service teacher as observer, interpreter and planner of future activities hasrecorded the dramatic play sequence using a Learning Story format. Photographs

Table 1. Learning Story � dramatic play � shopping for clothes.

Focus Learning Story

Showing and interestL to S: ‘they are all beautiful,can you choose for me’

ParticipationL and S went to the cornerwith baby clothes and L said,‘do we buy this for ourdaughter?’

Overcoming difficultyS took some items and bagsand started putting the itemsinto the bags with somedifficulty. He used three bags

Expressing an idea oremotionS then saw a picture ofSponge Bob on the wall andsaid, ‘look Sponge Bob I lovehim’

Taking responsibilityS and L then participated inemptying the bags andreplacing the clothes in thedramatic play corner

During the free play period S, L and G walked into thedramatic play corner, which was a shop for selling clothes andaccessories. The clothes had sale labels. G went to the casharea and said ‘come on guys, buy stuff and pay me’. L went tothe accessories corner and said to S, ‘they are all beautiful canyou choose for me’. So S helped L choose a cap and then said,‘it is your turn now, choose a cap for me’S chose a cap for L and L put it on. L went to the clothescorner, took a top and said, ‘look teacher this is the size of myyounger sister’. The teacher said, ‘why don’t you buy it foryour sister. G wants someone to buy something’. L went to Gand said ‘how much is this salesgirl?’ ‘66 riyals’. L then said,‘keep it here until I finish my shopping’. S said, ‘put myT-shirt with your clothes and we will buy them together’. L,‘these are my husband’s, put them next to mine’. L and S wentto the corner with baby clothes and L said, ‘do we buy this forour daughter?’ S then saw a picture of Sponge Bob on the walland said, ‘look Sponge Bob, I love him’. L pointed at the walland a picture of a girl in a red dress saying, ‘this is like my reddress’. S took some items and bags and started putting theitems into the bags with some difficulty. He used three bagsand the teacher said, ‘time is nearly up you have to rearrangethe toys’. S and L then participated in emptying the bags andreplacing the clothes in the dramatic play corner

Analysis of learning Future activities � what next

Training children toexperience and try new thingsin a simple way Trainingchildren to work in teamsAssisting children to acquireself-confidence through playSkill development throughhandling the clothes

The teacher could join in and help develop the storythrough questions, for example, why did you choose this?Who should choose the baby’s clothes, the father or themother?Help the children write their shopping story and put it in thelibrary corner.Place pictures of Sponge Bob on the drawing table to colour in


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were also taken and were included in the right-hand column. These photographs didpotentially enhance the observations the pre-service teacher recorded and supportedher choice when of material to support the focus. For example in the taking an

interest section she has selected two children looking at the clothes and one askingthe other to choose because they are so beautiful. The photograph has two childrenintently examining clothes through intense gaze and feeling them with their fingers.It is interesting here that the pre-service teacher’s notion of what should happen inthe early childhood centre dominated this analysis.

Future activities

The suggestions in the last part of the Learning Story template are more directlyrelated to the story than the analysis section. However, the suggestions for futureactivities support the story as an anecdote but not in-depth learning as they are basedon present interests. This is an issue for pre-service teachers in other countries andhas been researched in Australia (Nyland and Ferris 2009).

Conclusions

This research is investigating what early childhood practices in Australia/New Zealand might be appropriate for the Saudi Arabian early childhood educationcontext. As discussed many methods of planning and assessment are shared, and theobservational strategies used in Saudi Arabia, rating scales, checklists, anecdotalrecords and portfolios, are familiar to Australian practitioners (Arthur et al. 2007).The two countries therefore have a shared language about early childhood education.Learning Stories have been widely adopted in Australia since the implementation ofthe new curriculum framework, the EYLF (DEEWR 2009), and the accompanyingEducator’s guide (DEEWR 2010). There is no equivalent presently used in SaudiArabia. As Learning Stories have originated from the child study philosophy thatboth countries embrace then it would appear to be a reasonable initiative to introducethis form of recording and assessing of children’s learning into early childhoodteacher education programmes in Saudi Arabia.

As there is an identified problem in Saudi Arabia, in relation to the quality ofearly childhood teacher preparation, then the introduction of Learning Stories mightassist in improved practice through more inclusive and reflective planning andassessment. The other benefit of Learning Stories is that they have been designed asa vehicle for teachers to research their own practice and develop high-qualitypractices that are relevant to the local context. Like early childhood educationsystems across the world the early childhood education system in Saudi Arabia is aneclectic mix with many ideas adopted from Western ideologies. This sharing is anadvantage in terms of international involvement and sharing of different approachesthat can contribute to countries developing educational system. Learning Stories, as asocio/cultural approach to viewing experience, are a method of acknowledging whatis important in terms of local culture and context while acknowledging the value ofbeing aware of shared historical concepts of early childhood education and theimportance of borrowing ideas when appropriate.

The limitations in the one example given suggest that Learning Stories are notnecessarily an easy tool to use. New (2007) in a discussion of cultural activity theoryand Reggio Emilia thought that observation and assessment practices like these


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should support three aspects of early childhood education and these are makinglearning visible, teachers as researchers and curriculum as long-term projects. Itcould be argued that the students’ observation and analysis support the first two aimsthat New mentions but the idea of curriculum as long-term projects, which could beequated with the ‘what next’ column, is not obvious.

This research explored the idea of Learning Stories as a method of recording andassessing children’s learning. Lecturers’ and students’ experiences in teaching andlearning about Learning Stories were recorded. On the whole these experiences werefavourable. Therefore, it seems worthwhile to find out more about the implementa-tion of Learning Stories and the impact of using such methods on everydayexperience for children and teachers in the early childhood setting. The response tothe concept of the educational practice of using Learning Stories in the KSA waspositive. The early childhood education field in the KSA has many commonaltieswith Australia’s early childhood educational theory and practice, and this researchhas indicated that Australia has adopted Learning Stories in the local and nationalcontext to support the implementation of the new curriculum. With the call in theKSA for a national curriculum for early childhood education the need to exploretheories and practices and a new assessment approach for the children’s learning,built on the existing understandings, seems significant.

Interestingly experiences in all three contexts indicated Learning Stories mighthave limitations for planning. In New Zealand Blaiklock (2010a, 2010b) suggeststhat they are time consuming and this means some centres have adopted the practiceof recording one story per child each month. In Australia the time-consuming natureof the exercise was commented upon, and two of the three lecturers indicated thatLearning Stories required practice if they were to be recorded and analysedeffectively. The Saudi pre-service teacher, who recorded the example Learning Story

discussed in this paper, indicated similar problems. The Saudi story was a valuableexpression of these children’s understandings of the social environment on a numberof levels; the analysis, based on learning dispositions, was competent and then thelast two sections encountered difficulties. The first, what learning was visible,resorted to commenting on general curriculum aims of an early childhoodprogramme like gaining confidence and the importance on teamwork. The lastsection on plans for the future presented short-term extensions of the play that hadbeen observed. Carr et al. (2010) have continued their research into the value ofusing learning dispositions as a way of exploring children’s learning. This may be thearea of the research that needs attention. The concentration on learning dispositionsmay be a way to bring ideas of curriculum content and children’s optimum growthand well-being together and assist practitioners who are experimenting andresearching the use of the Learning Story method of assessment.

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Documents

Learning Stories – crossing borders: introducing qualitative early childhood observation techniques to early childhood practitioners in Saudi Arabia