Review article

Evaluation of comprehensive development in the educational process of preschool children

0000-0001-9694-9744Yaser Ramírez Benítez^{1  *}  , 0000-0003-3354-9342Bárbara Bermúdez Monteagudo¹  , 0000-0003-2254-6402Lidia Mercedes Lara Díaz¹ 

¹Universidad "Carlos Rafael Rodríguez". Cienfuegos, Cuba.

ABSTRACT

Evaluation is a process that must be studied as a process and as a result. The objective of this study is to analyze the content of a group of Cuban and Latin American articles on evaluation in the educational process of preschool children from the V de Gowin methodology: why evaluate? What to evaluate? and how to do the evaluation? The evaluation is carried out to assess the contents of the dimensions of education and development (value function), develop a diagnosis based on the child's strengths and weaknesses (diagnostic function), and to conduct the educational process in in order to improve it and organize the stimulation of the child and the group (formative training function). What to evaluate? In preschool childhood, development and for development, learning and for learning, the result obtained in a task and the process to solve it are evaluated. As for how to evaluate? the educator must carry out the evaluation through the use of several evaluative methods, but at the same time, she must consider some requirements, such as the unity of the cognitive and the affective, the biological and the social, the teaching and development; as well as the principles of evaluation (systematicity with the other components of the process and objectivity). Know the what for? the what? and the how of the evaluation? It is a significant step for the educator to carry out the evaluation of the integral development in the educational process of preschool childhood and guide the progress of the child in a specific way.

Key words: Development; Education; Evaluation; Preschool; early childhood; Process educational; Childhood preschool

Introduction

The main challenges of the early childhood education process in Latin America are summarized in the 2030 Agenda and are reflected in several lines of work: the inclusion of the child; promote learning opportunities and peace situations; guarantee a healthy life and promote well-being; the preparation of the educator as a promoter and executor of educational actions; the evaluation and the conditions of the child for the transition to the next stage of learning.

With regard to evaluation, various opinions have been raised where conceptions and insufficiencies are reflected. ^{Martinez et al. (2020}), ^{Sofou & Ramírez (2020}), ^{Mancilla & Ríos (2020}), have argued that evaluation in the educational process should be analyzed according to the curriculum and the objectives outlined in the educational process to stimulate and direct the child's learning.

In the last 10 years, several authors from the region highlight the need to update this topic in preschool children, since evidence has been revealed about the low preparation of educators to carry out evaluation in the educational process (^{Vallejo-Ruiz & Torres- Soto, 2020}; ^{Rodríguez, et al., 2021}).

In Cuba, research that reflects the current state of evaluation in the early childhood educational process has been scarce in the last 5 years. In particular, there are doctoral theses and some scientific publications, such as ^{Calzadilla et al. (2014}), ^{Ramírez-Benítez et al. (2016}), (²⁰¹⁸), ^{Rojas et al. (2021}). These authors have reported that attempts to carry out a comprehensive evaluation in preschool children have been insufficient due to: low preparation of educators; The comprehensive approach to analyze the results is insufficient and its implementation as a process is deficient.

In Cienfuegos, ^{Ramírez-Benítez et al. (2016}), (²⁰¹⁸), recognize other limitations that occur in evaluation: low preparation of educators to develop or modify evaluation methods (pedagogical situations and tests); few evaluative methods in the hands of the educator to assess the dimensions of education and development; few activities to prepare educators according to the requirements of the Early Childhood Educational Plan (^{Beltrán, 2017}).

In response to these limitations, it is necessary to review the subject in the Cuban context given the changes that the Educational Plan has been proposing in terms of the way of carrying out the evaluation (comprehensively), the contents to work on (knowledge and skills included in five dimensions of education and development) and the different evaluative methods to be used (observation, pedagogical situations and tests). In addition, it is necessary to guide preschool educators regarding three methodological questions of vital importance in educational practice: what is evaluation for? (Its functions), the what of the evaluation? (Objectives and contents) and the how of the evaluation? (Methods and procedures).

This article aims to analyze the content of a group of Cuban and Latin American articles on evaluation in the educational process of preschool children from the V de Gowin methodology. This methodology is made up of four elements to consider: (1) Research topic (assessment in the educational process of preschool children), (2) Questions to be answered: what is the assessment for? and how of the evaluation), (3) Concepts, principles and theories of the evaluation (4) Procedures to carry out the evaluation in the educational process.

To respond to the objective of the research, the following scientific methods were used: Theoretical methods. The Logical History to coherently organize the relevant information of the selected articles. The Analytical - Synthetic to establish the foundations of evaluation in the educational process. The Inductive - Deductive to determine from the theory the general aspects of the evaluation of preschool childhood.

Developing

The research carried out a bibliographic review to respond to the objective of the study. The selection of the articles was carried out considering the following equations: "preschool AND evaluation"; "preschool AND education"; "Evaluation AND educational process", from 2015 to 2021, from eight databases: SCOPUS, WOS, SCIELO, PsycINFO, DIALNET, LATINDEX, DIANET, EUMED. In addition, the selection considered adding two inclusion criteria and one exclusion criteria. Inclusion: (1) articles on evaluation in the educational process of preschool children and that described the Cuban reality; (2) articles on evaluation in the educational process of preschool children and that describe the Latin American reality, both in Spanish, English and Portuguese. Exclusion, theses on evaluation. Finally, 26 articles were selected (see table 1).

The analysis of the content of the articles was carried out using Gowin's V methodology (^{Novak & Gowin, 1988}). According to this methodology, the following questions were raised to identify the most relevant aspects of each article: why do the evaluation? what to assess in preschool childhood? And how to do educational evaluation in preschool childhood?

Table 1 - Articles selected and analyzed in the investigation. 

No	Articles	Magazine	indexed
1	Rodriguez, et al. (2021). Preschool evaluation and pedagogical strategies to address warning signs of special educational needs in children of the Morona Canton in 2019.	Atlante Magazine: Notebooks of Education and Development	EUMED
2	Solovieva & Quintanar . (2021). Playing with social roles in online sessions for preschoolers.	Cultural -Historical Psychology	SCOPUS
3	Restrepo & Villada. (2021). Can belief reading training influence pragmatic competence? a study on the relationships of these cognitive abilities in childhood.	Colombian Act of Psychology	SCOPUS
4	Cattani , et al. (2021). To Assessment of Children Pré -escuelalos en Varas de Família : Expert Practices of Judicial Psychologists .	Psychology Quaderns _	SCOPUS
5	Demire, et al. (2021). The evaluation of the contents of pre-school books for 4 - 6 years according to the visual design item.	Magazine Tempos e Espaços em Educação .	WOS
6	Martinez, et al. (2020). Comparative analysis of the degree of development of motor coordination in preschool boys and girls.	Culture, Science and Sport.	SCOPUS
7	Ivanivna, et al. (2020). The Readiness of Future Specialists of Preschool Education to Creative Self-Realization in Professional Activity.	Purposes and Representations.	WOS
8	Vallejo-Ruiz & Torres-Soto. (2020). Teaching conceptions about the quality of teaching and learning processes in preschool education.	Educare Electronic Magazine.	SCOPUS
9	Limachi. (2020). Evaluation of maturational development in children aged 4-5 years in preschool.	Journal of Psychological Research.	SCIELO
10	Sofou & Ramirez. (2020). The preschool PISA: a new paradigm for the evaluation of students in early childhood education.	Analytical Archives of Educational Policies.	SCOPUS
eleven	Mancilla & Rios. (2020). Perspective on evaluation, planning, intervention and monitoring in preschool education.	Education and Humanities Magazine.	DIALNET
12	Hernandez, et al. (2020). Evaluation of child neuropsychological maturity in students of a preschool in Montemorelos, Nuevo León.	Psycho Sophia.	EUMED
13	Sánchez-Dominguez, et al. (2020). The game as representation of the sign in preschool boys and girls: a sociocultural approach.	Education Magazine.	SCOPUS
14	Marchesi. (2019). Five Key Dimensions to Advance Educational Inclusion in Latin America.	Latin American Journal of Inclusive Education.	SCIELO
15	Hernandez & Cerda. (2019). Construction and content analysis of an Instrument to evaluate didactic planning in Preschool.	Athens.	SCIELO
16	Flórez, et al. (2019). Teaching reflections about the conceptions about the evaluation of learning and its influence in the evaluative practices.	Scientific magazine.	WOS
17	Gonzalez-Moreno & Solovieva. (2019). Evaluation of neoformations of preschool age in Colombian children.	Magazine Psychology University of Antioquia.	DIALNET
18	Caceres et al. (2018). The role of the teacher in the evaluation of learning.	Conrad Magazine.	SCIELO
19	Castillo. (2018). The formative function of evaluation in daily school work.	Education Magazine.	SCIELO
20	Jara & Jara. (2018). Evaluation Conceptions and Practices Declared by Teachers in Response to Permanent Special Educational Needs.	Latin American Journal of Inclusive Education.	SCOPUS
21	Gomez et al. (2018). The assessment of learning in preschool education. Approach to the state of knowledge.	Conrad Magazine.	SCIELO
22	Ramírez-Benítez, et al. (2018). Diagnostic Task System and reading ability.	Psychological Sciences.	SCIELO
23	Ramírez-Benítez, et al. (2016). Psychometric properties of the diagnostic task system instrument to assess the development of preschool children.	Mexican Journal of Neuroscience.	SCIELO
24	Pinto & Mejia. (2017). General process for formative assessment of learning.	Ibero-American Journal of Educational Evaluation	SCIELO
25	Sanchez. (2017). Mass measurements: a political production of senses and meanings about educational systems.	Sophia .	SCOPUS
26	Cuesta & Zamora. (2016). Pedagogical evaluation in the development of the educational teaching process.	Santiago.	LATINDEX

Assessment Features

According to ^{Moreno (2016)}, the evaluation has three functions: diagnostic, evaluative and formative. Regarding the formative function, ^{Cáceres, et al., (2018)}, define that its purpose is to regulate the educational process in the classroom, that is, the daily school work, which is integrated into the didactic intervention since it is focused on processes rather than learning outcomes. This conception is consistent with the function "direction of the educational process" and "regulator of the activity", raised by the Cuban authors, since the essential thing is to conduct, organize and regulate the educational process through the assessments and diagnoses issued by the evaluation. (^{Hernández & Cerda, 2019}).

Regarding the diagnostic function, the most controversial issue of evaluation, ^{Moreno (2016)}, defines it as the function that seeks to classify the student based on weaknesses and potentialities, since it is more oriented towards evaluation as a result than as a process.

However, in Cuba, the diagnostic function in preschool children is governed by the principles of ^{Franco (2016)} and those established in the Educational Plan (^{Beltrán, 2017}) as part of the requirements of the third improvement of early childhood education:

• Principle of dynamic, continuous and systematic character. Diagnosis is a permanent process of obtaining evidence.

• Principle of the individual and multilateral approach. Each subject is valued in their individuality, taking into account not only their own limitations, achievements and potential, but also those of the school, family and community context.

• Principle of the preventive, feedback and transforming character. Diagnosis facilitates continuous refinement of programs.

• Principle of multi and interdisciplinary, collaborative and participatory character. All the elements that directly or indirectly affect the child's multilateral development must participate in the diagnosis.

From these principles, the intention is to diagnose the child or the group considering the assessment of their comprehensive development, the contents of the five dimensions of education and development (value function), in a continuous and systematic way, and to conduct the educational process for the sake of to improve it and organize the stimulation of the group or the child (training function).

In preschool childhood, the educator must make a diagnosis of the child, although the evaluation is not static, nor unique, that is, the information obtained is continuous, systematic, comprehensive and co-participatory, therefore, the diagnosis is continuous, systematic, transformative and participative with the family.

The information obtained is used to diagnose the potentials and weaknesses of the child (diagnostic function), not to classify, rather to direct the educational process, the stimulation of the child, his development and his learning (training function). In the same way, the information is valued, it is analyzed between the educator, the family and other educational agents (value function), since the intention is to understand the development of the child in an integral way and in the different development spaces.

What to evaluate in preschool childhood?

Evaluation is a didactic component of the educational process, which has the function of diagnosing, assessing and conducting the process with quality, for decision-making and stimulating development and learning. In preschool childhood, what to evaluate is directed towards the process, rather than the contents of the child's development and learning. To meet this objective, the educator must use evaluative methods such as observation, pedagogical situations and specific tests, although, in the same way, he must consider theoretical and methodological principles, incorporated from other sciences, to carry out a quality evaluation, make decisions and assume a critical position of their own performance and actions.

^{Vallejo & Torres (2020)}, declare that scientific research on the quality of teaching-learning in the educational field of preschool children is scarce in recent years. Likewise, they analyze the importance of evaluation to direct the educational process and in this regard, they specify that, "for evaluation processes to be of quality, it is considered necessary to carry out evaluations at different times and using various techniques (...) This finding evidences a teaching conception that understands evaluation as a continuous and formative process" (p.12)

From the educational sciences, what to evaluate depends on where you look: education systems, institutions, the process, learning, development. In terms of evaluation, all aspects related to education are potentially evaluable. However, ^{Castillo (2018)}, ^{Cáceres, et al. (2018)}, ^{Pinto & Mejía (2017)}, ^{Moreno (2016)}, specify that the object of the evaluation can be defined from units of analysis, suitable for educators, managers and researchers.

When asked what to evaluate? the aforementioned authors specify: it is necessary to evaluate the achievements, the competencies, the learning according to the programmed objectives. An evaluation as a process (formative) and as a result (summary), with a view towards the singular and to a lesser degree towards standardizable features; what is important is the holistic, the systematic, the integral in its context, the achievements of the stage to assess, make decisions and improve the educational process of learning and for learning.

From this perspective, several Latin American authors have proposed their conception of evaluation. ^{Pinto & Mejía (2017)}, specifies it as "a systematic, participatory and reflective process that allows an assessment of the development of the student's potential, for decision-making that guarantees the achievement of the objectives established in the Curriculum. National" (p.1).

On the other hand, ^{Castillo (2018: 5)}, defines it as "a process in which value judgments are made about the actions and productions of the student body, through construction and communication for decision-making and the improvement of education; from which various purposes are derived, diagnostic, formative and summative evaluation”.

The foregoing shows that the object of the evaluation is analyzed from units of analysis, rather than a specific content or a finished performance. The evaluation must assess the educational process in a systematic, comprehensive manner, with the participation of other educational agents for decision-making and improvement of the process. Undoubtedly, this theoretical position can be adapted to any educational process, whether in preschool, primary, secondary or university education.

In preschool childhood, the review revealed two definitions: (1) set of situations to measure the child's skills and knowledge (Restrepo and Villada, 2021;) and (2) process of collecting cognitive, emotional and moral information (^{Sofou & Jiménez-Ramírez, 2020}). However, ^{Limachi (2020)} highlights the need to assume the conception of evaluation from units of analysis due to the possibility it offers of using various training elements in the educational process: planned objectives - performance obtained, as a process - as a result, the learning - for learning. This vision responds with acceptance to its functions: diagnostic, evaluative and formative.

In Cuba, the conception and functions of evaluation are not alien to the trends in the region, and are contained in Res. 238/2014, educational policy to carry out evaluation in the educational process of preschool children: "it has an integral, personal, qualitative, systematic, continuous character; and it is a guiding guide for the direction of the educational process" (p.1). The authors of the article assume a conception, which recognizes the contributions of the resolution and the experience of other Cuban researchers in early childhood (^{Siverio & López (2016)}, ^{Franco (2016)}): the evaluation constitutes an assessment of the integral development of the child, to diagnose and make decisions in the educational process. The results obtained through evaluative methods are taken into account, but also the process where the development takes place.

In this conception, the evaluation has a guiding function of the process, but at the same time, as a regulator of the activities and the stimulation of the child. The intention is pedagogical, more than the final result, it is opportune to consider the process, a diagnosis to direct the activities in the educational process rather than to classify; the use of information is what is relevant for decision making, assessing the child's development and directing the educational process in the group.

^{Siverio & López (2016)}, ^{Franco (2016)} have specified what to evaluate? in preschool childhood. Specifically, the authors specify that the evaluation should be aimed at the general skills and knowledge of the stage, although it should also be aimed at skills prior to the 1st grade (pre-writing, pre-reading and elementary notions of mathematics).

From this perspective and characteristics, the early childhood educational plan (^{Beltrán, 2017}) and other Cuban researchers of preschool childhood (^{Suárez-Garay, 2018}; ^{Mazó, 2018}), establish that the evaluation should be directed (objective) towards five dimensions of education and development, as an expression of the integral development of the child: Dimension of education and development of Communication, Motricity, Relations with their environment, Socio-personal and Aesthetics.

The authors of the article assume that the contents of the dimensions are found in the following table 2:

Table 2 - Dimensions of education and development in preschool childhood. 

Dimensions	Contents
motor skills	Content related to the voluntary and involuntary movements of actions. It includes gross and fine motor skills, the development of motor skills, coordination skills, flexibility, the development of correct posture and healthy lifestyle habits. Motor skills: Precision of actions, speed, coordination, efficiency, economy and harmony. Jumping, walking, running, pointing, grabbing, kicking, hand-eye coordination, walking and sitting postures, speaking, skewering, hitting, throwing, eating, dressing, running, crawling, catching. Lateralization: Hand, foot and guiding eye training. Be right or left-handed.
Communication	It focuses its attention on the development of the processes of comprehension and construction of messages elaborated with signs of different character, verbal and non-verbal, as a result of the active participation of the child in the different communicative situations of daily life and in the use of procedures communicative dialogue and monologue character. Communication skills: Identify and describe objects, people and phenomena by name and characteristics. Identify and pronounce the sounds of language. Compare, classify and analyze using language as a mediator. Regulation of the child's actions through language (internal language).
Relationship with the environment	This dimension not only deals with knowledge of the environment (natural, social and object worlds), it also involves the child's interaction with said environment. General intellectual abilities that allow him to interact and assimilate knowledge, at the level of elementary notions, of behavioral norms, feelings and moral qualities, in relation to the different elements of the environment. It integrates the areas of knowledge and development: Knowledge of the world of objects and their relationships, Knowledge of the natural world, Knowledge of the social world and Elementary Notions of Mathematics, computer content, role play and work activity. The development of cognitive interests, the desire to know, curiosity and the formation of feelings and positive qualities towards the environment and its diversity.
Esthetic	Stimulate children as spectators of cultural manifestations and as subjects that express it in the different organizational forms. Promote an aesthetic attitude that allows them to enjoy everything beautiful in any manifestation, place, context in which it develops; all of this should enable the formation of moral, ethical and aesthetic qualities of the society in which he lives. Category should be used as: Nice, cute, beautiful, beautiful, nice, / ugly, horrible, horrible, frightening. Good, kind, honest, tender, /bad, cruel, malicious, harmful and harmful. Comical, laughable, funny, humorous, entertaining / burlesque, ridiculous, funny. Noble, glorious, wonderful, fantastic, great, perfect / malicious trickster despicable dreadful.
personal social	It is the formation in the child of personal identity traits as a human being, a member of a family, a community and his country, the development of independence, emotions, feelings and moral qualities and hygienic, nutritional and social behavior habits. . Its contents have an outlet in the treatment of the contents of the other dimensions at all times of your life. The aspirations of the curriculum converge in this, which is why it offers a comprehensive vision of child development.

From the reviews carried out, what to evaluate in preschool childhood is defined as follows: the integral development of the child is evaluated where the fundamental path is the five dimensions of education and development; the skills and knowledge acquired and those that are in the process of being acquired with the help of the adult, which are necessary for the next stage. The development (integral) and for the development (the conditions that generate it), the result obtained in a task and the process to solve it are evaluated.

How to do the evaluation in the educational process of preschool childhood?

A review of the literature revealed two complementary directions to consider in how to do the evaluation, first, the use of evaluation methods to collect information, and second, experiences incorporated into educational sciences from other sciences and disciplines to improve the evaluation.

Evaluation methods are effective tools to carry out evaluation in the educational process. In this sense, ^{Moreno (2016:196}) specifies "When it comes to the subject of educational evaluation, (...) The menu of options is not very diverse: observation, interview, jobs or tasks, presentations, traditional exam, objective tests, self-assessment, co-evaluation (...) The important thing in all cases will be the uses made and the functions".

Similarly, ^{Moreno (2016)} comments that the application of evaluative methods is not the same in scientific research as in the classroom context. In the classroom, the educator carries out several actions to conduct the process, therefore, sometimes, it is difficult for her to apply the evaluation techniques and procedures effectively.

From this perspective, several educational researchers recommend using evaluative methods to carry out the evaluation in any educational process, however, its effectiveness depends on three elements: the moment of its application (at the beginning, partial or end), the type of education and teaching methods (^{Moreno, 2016}; ^{Castillo, 2018}; ^{Cáceres, et al., 2018}). In this sense, the article focuses its attention on preschool children due to the particularities of the educational process, its objective, its methods and ways of applying the evaluation.

Seen in this way, how to do the evaluation in preschool children is preceded by a methodology that guides and organizes the execution of the evaluation. Specifically, most Latin American countries use the evaluation methodology in preschool education as a tool to direct the evaluation in the educational process with systematicity and scientific rigor, such is the case of Ecuador (^{MEN, 2019}), Chile (^{MINEDUC, 2018}) and Mexico (^{SEP, 2017}).

In Cuba, Res. 238/2014, current methodology to carry out the evaluation in the educational process of preschool children, defines an evaluation concept, its forms and its application methods. With respect to its forms, three types are established during the educational process: the systematic, the partial and the final.

Systematic evaluation is carried out throughout the educational process through observation and with notes in a notebook. The precise resolution: "you observe how they work, how they interact with other children and adults, how they are motivated (...) what difficulties they face, how they use the media, toys and teaching materials, how they answer questions" (p.3)

With respect to the partial evaluation, the use of observation is important, although it is necessary to use other evaluative methods to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the child. In this sense, the resolution 238/2014 indicates: "it constitutes the moment in which the teacher and the executor together with the family, carry out an analysis of the development achieved by the child (...) explorations, tests are foreseen, pedagogical situations are created to deepen in some aspect and the results of the activity are analyzed" (p.4).

On the other hand, in the final evaluation, the educator must carry out an intense work in the group "individual results are recorded based on the developmental achievements reached (...) the diagnostic tasks that are applied in the preschool grade explore the level reached in aspects related to language, fine motor skills, visual perception and the establishment of relationships" (p.5).

In this way, how to do the evaluation in preschool childhood can be summarized in three forms of application. In particular, observation, pedagogical situations and tests are used as the most frequent evaluative methods in the educational process. Pedagogical situations are the most used by educators due to their relationship with evaluation as a process. In this technique, the group or the child is presented with a problem to solve and, consequently, the educator assesses the way to solve it, the skills and knowledge that underlie the activity, and finally organizes the stimulation based on weaknesses and potentialities observed. On the other hand, the tests are more specific to a dimension of development in particular (communication or motor skills) and have greater theoretical, methodological and technical rigour, in addition, their purpose is generally oriented towards evaluation as a result.

Both in the partial and final evaluation, the pedagogical situations and the tests are necessary to carry out an assessment of the integral development of the child, however, in resolution 238/2014 there are limitations regarding how to carry out the evaluation.

First, in the partial evaluation, the pedagogical situations and the tests that must be applied in the different years of life (4th, 5th and 6th years of life) are not specified, and second, in the final evaluation, the Diagnostic Task System (STD) applies only to children in their 6th year of life, leaving out children in their 5th and 4th years. In addition, the STD has been questioned for two reasons, parents know it and apply it to children before the educator (^{Calzadilla, et al., 2014}), and for its diagnostic validity: children with 5 points have the same initial preparation than the child with 3 and 4 points at the beginning of the 1st grade (^{Ramírez-Benítez et. al., 2018}).

A possible solution to these limitations is to develop an evaluation methodology in its three forms of evaluation (systematic, partial and final), and which, at the same time, contains observation, possible pedagogical situations and specific tests by dimensions and suitable for all preschool ages (4th, 5th and 6th year of life), because in this way a better quality and organization in the pedagogical delivery can be expected.

Said methodology to be proposed must be consistent with the requirements incorporated into the educational sciences to improve evaluation: consistent with the principles of evaluation (^{Franco, 2016}) and with psychological foundations from the Historical-Cultural approach (^{Solovieva, et al., 2019}) and the use of activity theory (^{Solovieva & Quintanar, 2021a}). Frank (2016). Evaluation principles.

To observe the effectiveness of evaluative methods within the pedagogical sciences, it is necessary to recognize two principles: the nature of the system and the objectivity of the evaluation:

• Character of the system: Relationship of the evaluation with the other didactic components of the educational process. The forms, contents and other aspects of the evaluation respond to the objectives at each stage and of the entire process as a whole, as well as the demands of management and quality control of said process.

• Objectivity: validity and reliability of the evaluation. Validity is the correspondence between the objectives outlined by the educator, the contents to be evaluated and the results obtained with the evaluation methods used. While reliability refers to the stability of the results obtained when repeating the evaluation or when being qualified by different educators.

These principles are the starting point to obtain quality evaluation within the educational process (^{Franco, 2016}). However, the objectivity of the evaluation has had insufficient treatment in the current methodology to carry out the evaluation in preschool children, while the others are reflected in Res.238/2014.

^{Solovieva, et al. (2019)}. Foundations of the Historical Cultural approach.

An intrinsic characteristic of the child's psychological development is the relationship between the cognitive and the affective. The development of skills and knowledge are established from this relationship, the affective processes influence the acquisition and improvement of the cognitive ones in the course of development, while this influence the former by organizing them. In the same way, this union is expressed in behavior, therefore, the educator when applying the evaluation methods must describe, analyze and explain said relationship, even when the pedagogical situation has the intention of evaluating only the cognitive, since both processes are inseparable.

Another analysis of vital importance is the relationship between the biological and the social, and especially, in the analysis of the compensation processes of development. The evaluative judgment obtained from the evaluation should be oriented towards the education and development of the child. The alarm sign in the development of the child is a starting point for the educator to organize and plan the educational process, and thus exercise the skills, knowledge, values and habits according to the year of life.

From this position, it is vital to consider the link between teaching and development. Education directs development, and developmental evaluation is a moment in the educational process to reorganize and direct the education and development of the learner.

^{Solovieva and Quintanar (2021a)}. Activity theory.

• The actions of man as a system. In action you can see the manifestations of education and development of the child. From this argument, educators must observe the child's actions as a vital element to analyze their development and direct them to higher levels of expression.

• The actions direct the development when they comply with the structure of the activity. An activity is developer when it motivates the child (interest, needs), has an objective (direction of the activity), with guiding bases for the actions (conditions to carry out the actions) and with a result (result that allows verifying the fulfillment of the objective and offers the opportunity to use help levels).

Considering the requirements discussed above, the revisions carried out in the last 10 years in the early childhood educational process, as well as the observation of the educators when carrying out the evaluation, the authors of the article specify how to carry out the evaluation in preschool children:

• through the use of evaluative methods such as observation, pedagogical situations and tests to be applied in the three forms of evaluation: systematic, partial and final.

• consistent with the theoretical and methodological requirements of the Historical-Cultural approach in terms of the unity of the cognitive, the affective, the biological and the social, teaching and development.

• with a playful approach, in the sense that evaluating is a way of playing in preschool children, although with a defined purpose, organized and directed by the educator.

• assess development in a comprehensive manner through the contents of the stage (skills, knowledge, values and habits) in all organizational forms of the educational process. These contents are summarized in three: procedural contents (know how) are integrators par excellence, since they summarize the other contents of the educational process (conceptual and attitudinal), and go through the different organizational forms of preschool childhood education, they also express the actions the child performs to demonstrate mastery of a skill. Conceptual content (knowledge) refers to facts (important event in the child's life and their relationships with others), data (brief and precise information about the child's history, their family, community and national context) and concept of reality (notions and ideas of himself, of objects and his environment). Attitudinal contents (Being), make up the values, habits and rules that the child's cognitive, affective and behavioral components).

Conclusions

The educational process in preschool childhood is a space of significant value to lead the child's development and learning. Knowing what to evaluate for, what to evaluate and how to evaluate is a significant step for the educator to carry out an evaluation of integral development in the educational process.

The integral development of the child is evaluated, but also to conduct the educational process; skills, knowledge, values and habits.

How the evaluation is done goes through two prisms, through evaluative methods (observation, pedagogical situations and tests), but also considering other demands learned from other disciplines or sciences, such as the unity of the cognitive and the affective, the biological with the teaching and the validity and reliability of the results obtained.

The information compiled by the educator, together with the family and other educational agents, is used to assess development and learning in a comprehensive manner, to make a diagnosis based on strengths and weaknesses, and direct the educational process. A diagnosis to guide the educational process and the stimulation of the child, and not to classify.

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Received: December 25, 2021; Accepted: March 14, 2022

^*Autor para correspondencia. E-Mail: [e-mail]

Los autores declaran no tener conflicto de intereses.

Todos los autores gestionaron la información, revisaron la redacción del manuscrito y aprobaron la versión finalmente remitida.