Title: ECE 313 Child Development: Early Years
Author: thompsonjosh
Company: Texas A&M-Commerce

Guidelines for Effectively Observing Children

Many child development textbooks have adequate explanations of what constitutes a meaningful child study. These notes are taken from Puckett & Black (2005) THE YOUNG CHILD: DEVELOPMENT FROM PREBIRTH THROUGH AGE EIGHT (fourth edition). Pearson. Pp. 32-33, 38-39, 46-48. 

Four behaviors are important to the teacher/observer. 
•	Perspective-taking: the ability to understand one’s own or another’s viewpoint. 
•	Reflecting-in-action: an ongoing process in which educators think about and critically analyze their own and their student’s performance 
•	Teacher-as-learner: process by which educators continue to learn
•	Teacher-as-researcher: process by which EC professionals elaborate on their observations 

Informal Approaches to Assessment 
•	Performance – what children do and how they demonstrate their capabilities 
•	Processes – what strategies children use to pursue information, acquire skills, or solve problems 
•	Products – the types of constructions that children create and produce

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: 
Watch children and their teachers in 5 different early childhood learning environments, for about an hour each. Create a NARRATIVE OBSERVATION – a written description of your observation of the classroom experience. A RUNNING RECORD is a type of narrative observation that records all behaviors in sequential order as they occur. Use BLUE BOOK/EXAMINATION BOOKS (available in college bookstores) to write your field notes. Include the following: 

•	On the cover, write the name of the school, type of program, a contact person and phone number, date and time of your visit, the contact’s signature. 
 
•	Tell about the program. Describe how this program fulfills the program requirements for this course experience. 

•	Describe the setting, including the time the observation began and the activity that is taking place. Who else is in the room (on the playground, wherever)? 

•	Record information in a detailed, sequential, and unbiased manner. Information must be factual and objective, recording only what actually happened. Anticipate what normal behaviors look like by reviewing child development texts to understand the age and stage of this child. Consider each of six domains: physical, language, aesthetic, cognitive, emotional, and social. 

•	Suggestions: take pictures, make maps, use TIME SAMPLING and EVENT SAMPLING to aid your RUNNING RECORD. 

After the observation, in the quiet of your study (or the computer lab), reflect on what you saw. Type a reflection (one – two pages) containing three sections. 

•	Background of the program. Describe how this program fulfills the program requirements for this course experience. Include here the location and setting of this observation. 

•	Describe the observation. Quickly tell what you saw the children do (performance), using descriptive language to talk about how the children did what they did (processes), and finally, include clear descriptions of what the children created or produced (products). 

•	Make an interpretation, using comments and analysis, drawing inferences and conclusions based on objective facts included in your field notes.