As we live in an increasingly digital world, the whole early childhood sector has had to reflect on how we can balance parent communication, digital snapshots, and authentic documentation of children’s learning. Gowrie Victoria has kept our practice of using portfolios to document and track children’s development, and Gowrie’s Pedagogical Leader, Debbie Roper, tells us why. “Gowrie hasn’t moved away from our paper-based documentation practices,” Debbie says, “and there’s lots of important reasons for that. One being that we’ve been able to stay true to our philosophy and belief that children are active, co-constructors of their own learning, whilst coming up with responsive ways to meet the changing needs of families.”

Documentation goes beyond photos

Whilst families receive the program and reflections via email, all documentation of children’s learning is conducted in paper-based format at all Gowrie services. This is intentional; Debbie emphasises the importance of ensuring that documentation is meaningful and purposeful. “We don’t want educators to get caught up in thinking that “I need to take this amount of photos for each child, each week” Debbie says. “One of the reasons we haven’t moved towards relying on photos within documentation is because we want to keep a balance between creating meaningful written documentation and capturing children’s learning through photographs.”

Beyond this, Debbie cites the importance of purposeful photos as a practice which also promotes child safety. “From a child safety point of view,” continues Debbie, “we’re encouraging our teams to consider whether using photos of faces in group documentation is necessary. Instead, we may take photos of children’s hands when they’re engaging in an experience. This supports the viewer to focus on the learning which is happening, rather than looking at who the child is in the photograph. This also strengthens privacy and consent from families, so they know where and how images of their child are being used and shared. We can take photos of the hands of a child who’s engaging in an art experience to show the learning that’s happening, rather than the photo of a smiling face.” This means, if you were to look through a child’s portfolio, you would see images of their work, or perhaps a photograph of their hands creating an artwork.

Documentation to make children’s learning visible

Debbie reflects on how digital documentation tools are often only created for the families. “We want documentation to be meaningful for everyone,” Debbie says, “and not just for educators or families, for all stakeholders; children too.”

We ensure portfolios are located within the children’s space, always located next to comfortable seating or a couch. This means that the children can explore them; looking at photos, their work, and revisiting ideas, experiences and learnings. We also invite families to spend time with the children exploring their portfolios, either at the service or to take them home to explore.

This approach is consistent across all the Gowrie services, where you can see displays of children’s learning and project work displayed around the rooms and shared areas. Children can explore and revisit this documentation with other children at the service, with educators, or with their families.

We believe that the use of portfolios empowers young children to take greater ownership of their learning. As Debbie explains, “when children have access to documentation of their learning, like portfolios, they’re able to have more agency over their learning.” She continues, “for children, revisiting their previous work can act like a plan- they might be thinking, ‘how did I do this?’ or ‘can I do it again?’”

Whether it’s a block structure or a drawing, children are encouraged to reflect on the steps they took by looking at their previous work, unpack their thinking, and consider how they might recreate or extend upon their ideas. Portfolios become a valuable tool that children can use to deepen their understanding and extend their learning either with, or independent of educators and their peers.

“Overall,” says Debbie, “It’s about balance. Some things are sent home digitally; we use an app for whole service information sharing, email for a particular purpose, and we use portfolios for a particular purpose. We want our documentation to be so much more than just happy snaps.”

Reflective questions:

  • Are children at your service given access to, and ownership over, documentation about their learning?
  • How does your service balance digital and paper-based documentation?
  • Are there opportunities in your environment for children to revisit their learning independently or with others?
  • How might reducing photo-based documentation impact your interactions and time spent with children?
  • What strategies could you adopt to protect children’s privacy while still making learning visible?