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Specific Areas To Consider In The Evaluation Process © Beverley Paine Evaluating your learning program and the various activities you provide for children means considering, in some detail, the following aspects:
Evaluation that doesn't form part of a continuous process of planning, action and reflection, can become meaningless and a waste of time. If you are recording and evaluating to satisfy educational authorities only, then you and your children will soon become cynical about the entire learning process, and cease to enjoy it. You may quickly learn to resent recording your children's progress and may even stop recording altogether. Although this may seem satisfying in the short term I have seen many instances where families lose track of what they children have learned. Sometimes this leads to repeating 'lessons', which is boring for the children and quickly turns them off learning atogether. It also has the effect of eroding confidence that home education is successful. Relationships include communication, respect, trust, values, attitudes, discipline and responsibility. These areas come up frequently in daily home life, although if ignored can become overwhelming issues of conflict affecting the smooth operation of home schooling. This can cause much unnecessary stress, frustration and possible 'burn out'. Relationships take conscious effort to work well, and relationships within families should never be taken for granted, especially in home schools. Work out before commencing any learning activities who will be taking responsibility for what aspects of each activity, and what role each person is to play. There is no need for the parent to always be the person directing the learning, or organising the materials or timing of activities. Children enjoy taking responsibility if encouraged. Evaluate each of the above aspects of relationships and seek ways to continuously improve how individual members of the family relate to each other, and also to the wider community in general. The learning process includes all aspects of learning happening for your children; their sensorial learning, active and experiential learning, learning through discovery and exploration of new things and concepts, and learning with mentors, tutors, including working as 'apprentices'. These reflect the intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual and physical growth of your children. When evaluating learning processes you need to reflect on whether you have set realistic goals based on the individual needs of each child, if you are flexible enough, if you are allowing the children to work at a reasonable pace based on their overall development or allowing them to set their own pace, and if the activities are meaningful to each individual child. It is useful to consider if the learning processes are creative ones, leading onto other learning opportunities. When looking at resources you need to consider their appropriateness, effectiveness, safety, if there are enough for everyone's needs, if they are of good quality, and if there is sufficient variety to meet individual needs. Don't forget to assess the general environment, and people accessed in the learning process. These are resources too. There is more information on evaluating resources in Evaluating Materials for Home Education. One of the most useful things you can do is to regularly evaluate your own performance as a learning guide for your children. This is often overlooked by home schooling parents, but demonstrates and builds professional educational skills. The following is an excerpt from a parent's week-by-week evaluation note book:
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Please note: |
and support person Beverley no longer
takes phone call or email inquiries.
Please join one of her yahoo groups
if you want to know more about
homeschooling or have a question.
Beverley supports:
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Annual National |
Home Education Association
AussieHomeschool
Rockpool Homeschool
Joyous Learning
Life Learning Magazine
Parent at the Helm
books, ebooks and booklets by Beverley!
Interested in homeschooling, but still not sure? Read All You Need Is...'
Looking for educational resources?
Home Education Directory
Questions about homeschooling?
Browse the Article Library.
Wondering what to teach? See
Australian Homeschool Curriciulum
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Children Learning Naturally Support Group
Travelling and homeschooling? Keep in touch with
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HEA Resource Directory
to find some of the best Australian
home education resources available!
Including...
Always Learning Books
Downunder Literature
Spiral Garden
Australian History Pictures
Home education is a legal alternative
to
school education in Australia.
State and Territory
governments
are responsible for regulating
home
education. Different states have different
requirements, however home educating
families are able to develop curriculum
and learning programs to suit the
individual
needs of their children.
For more information visit the
Home Education Association
Thank you for visiting!
Pioneering members of the home education movement in Australia, Beverley and Robin Paine are passionate advocates of true educational choice for families. They began homeschooling their children in 1986 and three years later started the South Australian Home Based Learners network.
Beverley wrote Getting Started with Homeschooling in 1995-97 and since then continues to write books and booklets on home education. She balances spending time helping home educators with working in her garden and renovating her home, as well as continuing to build her collection of writing on a variety of homeschooling subjects. Beverley maintains an extensive collection of websites as well as several Yahoo groups supporting families teaching their children at home.
In 2007 Beverley joined the HEA and became a committee member in 2008: she also edits and produce the HEA Newsletter, HEA magazine, Stepping Stones for Home Educators, annual Resource Directory and other HEA publications.
If you'd like to keep in touch with what Beverley is up to her in her life, sign up for the Homeschool Australia Newsletter or visit her Homeschool AustraliaFacebook page.