TRIALOG - Educational Documentation in Waldorf Kindergartens

Empirical research project to assess the current situation and needs regarding educational documentation practice in Waldorf kindergartens in NRW, followed by academic support for the pilot phase of a Waldorf-specific observation and documentation instrument

Project: Professionalism in Waldorf Kindergartens – Educational Documentation Using TRIALOG

In early childhood education, observing and documenting child development is a central field of practice. In addition to the pedagogical aspiration to perceive children in a differentiated way, to make development visible, and to accompany and support it, there is also the requirement, now included in all federal state education plans, for regular observation of children’s developmental and learning processes, resulting in what are known as “educational documentations.”
Educational documentation is also described in NRW’s educational principles as an essential basis for pedagogical action and for successful, individualized educational support. Since summer 2014, with the entry into force of the KiBiz amendment law on the reorientation of language support, only certain procedures have been permitted in North Rhine-Westphalian kindergartens and daycare centers in the area of language development. For all other areas of development, however, there have so far been no specifications, meaning that institutions can choose from a very large and now barely manageable pool of methods.
Against this background, in 2015 the Association of Waldorf Kindergartens, NRW Region, commissioned a team from the Institute of Early Childhood Education to assess the current situation and needs regarding educational documentation practice in Waldorf kindergartens in North Rhine-Westphalia in order to provide data for the development of its own Waldorf-education-oriented observation and documentation procedure. Margarete Kaiser, Waldorf educator, educational scientist, and representative of the expert group on educational documentation of the Association of Waldorf Kindergartens NRW, was responsible as an external partner for the development of the new procedure, which seeks to expand the prescribed focus on language development through a special central emphasis on children’s sensory development.
The academic support of the pilot phase in selected institutions in NRW and the evaluation of the feasibility of the new instrument called “TRIALOG” were again carried out in 2016 by the Institute of Early Childhood Education. The evaluation results were incorporated into the revision of the instrument, enabling the Association of Waldorf Kindergartens NRW to publish the revised TRIALOG in summer 2017.
The project “Professionalism in Waldorf Kindergartens – Educational Documentation Using TRIALOG,” commissioned by the National Association of Waldorf Kindergartens, seamlessly builds on and expands the previous research process as a follow-up project. While the first evaluation study focused exclusively on NRW, the second study provides for nationwide participation by Waldorf kindergartens in order to investigate state-specific regulations and needs at the state, association, and institutional levels and to explore the possibilities of implementing TRIALOG beyond NRW. In addition, the research focus is once again on identifying enabling and hindering conditions in the use of the revised TRIALOG in NRW and on the usefulness of the instrument in individual professionalization processes.
Through the close integration of practice, the project sees itself as a transfer between academia and professional practice with the aim of further qualifying and optimizing the TRIALOG procedure in a dialogical and as practice-oriented a way as possible. The results of the study will be incorporated into the revision of TRIALOG and made accessible to all project participants and interested parties.

A three-stage project design is being implemented to answer the research questions:

Phase 1: Analysis of the current status of observation and documentation in Waldorf daycare centers through document analysis, standardized online surveys, and expert interviews.

Phase 2: Support for approximately 20 pilot institutions that introduce and test TRIALOG in their institution. Standardized online surveys and expert interviews with relevant stakeholders at the institutions.

Phase 3: Evaluation and analysis of the results, writing of the final report.

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION: Waldorf kindergartens that are interested in introducing and testing the TRIALOG procedure in their institution after an instruction session (autumn 2020), and thereby wish to contribute to the practice-oriented further development of the instrument, are asked to contact: bildungsdoku@alanus.edu

Project funding
The project is funded by the Association for Waldorf Kindergartens e. V. and by additional third-party funding providers.

Project staff
Prof. Dr. Stefanie Greubel (Project Director)
Cornelia Jachmann, M. A. (Research Associate)

Duration
03.2020–02.2023