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Observing Children Article
Observing Children Article
Our Proud
Proud
Her tage
Charlotte Anderson and Edna Ranck
Observation
and
Early
© Karen Phillips
Childhood
Teaching
Observation of children has a long To this day there is a continuous
history in early childhood teaching. emphasis on classroom observation of
Early nineteenth-century German young children in education texts and
educator Friedrich Froebel (1782– professional preparation. To under-
Evolving 1852) wanted kindergarten teachers stand each developmentally unique
child (compared to other children)
to be observers of children (Froebel
© Karen Phillips
the formation of social relationships,
or do we also consider how children’s
play reflects their growing under-
standing of events in the real world?
When we watch children build with
With increased research on social informal notes and keep running blocks, do we see only construction
relationships, emotional needs, and records on each child (Read & and collaboration, or do we also look
children’s interests for teachers Patterson 1980) and develop differ- for evidence of spatial thinking in the
to draw on, early childhood texts ent data collection techniques for construction and the story narrative
began to explicitly call on teachers recording individual, group, and the children are thinking about as
to observe and interview children so student progress (Almy & Genishi they build?
they could begin to nurture all dimen- 1979). Vivian Paley (2004) illustrates
sions of the “whole” child. Suggestions the contributive value of observation Observation as a part of documen-
of what to look for when observing and other documentation of children tation. An observation can lead to
varied, depending on the findings for the teacher. Jablon, Dombro, and many understandings about children,
of new research about children. Dichtelmiller (2007) further cement all of which merit documentation and
Teachers might look for motor, social, the power of observation. reflection (see Carter & Curtis 2011).
and emotional skills and understand- Whether providing explicit guidance What we see can help us plan further
ings about aesthetics and nature and for teachers about how to observe or lessons about world events, spatial
the physical world (for examples, see suggesting specific aspects of chil- thinking, narrative development, and
Landreth 1942). They could observe dren’s behavior to observe and inter- many other worthy topics that chil-
children as scientists, mathemati- pret, all of these resources appear to dren are ready to explore.
cians, and players (Gans, Stendler, help teachers understand more about
& Almy 1952) or see how children the children they teach. Some authors
socially adjust and deal with feelings (for example, Paley 2004) provide Looking to the future
(for examples, see Read 1960). wonderfully rich descriptions of chil-
dren and, by example, demonstrate Educators no longer watch children
the power of observation for improv- for signs of Froebel’s version of play
Observation as a new asset ing classroom practice. nor do they look for Hall’s play stages.
Increasingly, new research focuses But we do want to see how children
Eventually, observation itself as much on teacher consciousness are developing and learning, whether
became an explicit topic in texts, or awareness as on the play teach- they are solving social problems, in-
including how teachers might use ers are to observe. Sherwood and ternalizing self-control, or making