Chapter 6 Using Observation in Guiding Childlren

Chapter 6
Using Observation in
Guiding Children
Guidance of Young Children
Ninth Edition
Marian Marion
© 2015, 2011, 2007 by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Marion. Guidance of Young Children, 9e.
6-2
Drives decision-making in early childhood
education
Assessment in Early
Childhood Education

6-3
Assessment: Definition
Gathering and recording information about
young children’s development and learning

6-4
Overall Goal of Assessment
 Identify a child’s strengths
 Build on a child’s strengths

6-5
Purposes of Assessment
 Supports a teacher’s planning so that they can
meet needs of each and every child
 Identify individual children who might need
focused programs or intervention
 Evaluate effectiveness of programs and services

6-6
Who Benefits from Assessment?
 Children: learn in an environment and with
curriculum matched to their strengths and needs
 Teachers: function in their professional role better
because they can get good information about a
child’s strengths and needs
 Parent(s): get a better picture of their child’s
development and learning

6-7
Appropriate Assessment in Early
Childhood Education
 Uses many sources of information
 Appropriate for all children, no exceptions
 Assesses all developmental domains (state
learning standards focus on all domains;
therefore, teachers need information about all
developmental domains)
 Always carried out ethically

6-8
Assessment should be
Performance-Based
Children apply skills and knowledge in a real-
world setting
Examples:
• works samples
• interviews with children
• teacher observation

6-9
Reasons for Observing
Children’s Behavior

6-10
Children communicate with
behavior
Behavior has meaning
Words and behavior give clues about
 what has happened
 who was involved
 when things happen
 where things take place

6-11
Discover and build on children’s
strengths
Observe behavior to discover children’s:
• preferences
• strengths
• needs

6-12
Review individual needs
Observations contribute to teams assessing
individual and special needs
Teachers do not diagnose but assist in a diagnosis

6-13
THE FIVE ‘W’ QUESTIONS
ABOUT CHILDREN’S BEHAVIOR

6-14
Who was involved?
• Child alone? Other children? How many others?
• Adults? Who? Teacher(s), volunteers, parent(s)?
• Animals?

6-15
What happened?
• Note the precise nature of the behavior
• Record what happened before and after the
behavior
• Note how long the behavior went on

6-16
When the behavior take place?
(Be specific)
Does it occur:
• at the same time(s) each day?
• at different times of the day?
• on the same days?
• on different days?

6-17
Where did the behavior take place?
Does it occur
• in the same place?
• in different places?
• almost anywhere?

6-18
Why might the child have behaved
this way?
• Requires careful reflection
• Reflect on answers to the other four questions
• Decide if you have enough information
• Do you even need to interpret the behavior?
• Do you need more information before you can
make an accurate conclusion?

6-19
Narrative method: tell or narrate a story
Non-narrative method: no story needed
Practical Methods for Observing
Children’s Behavior

6-20
Narrative Methods
• Anecdotal records
• Running Records

6-21
Anecdotal Records
‘Snapshot’ of an incident
Brief story told with written notes
Useful for:
many behaviors
many aspects of child development
different parts of children’s learning
Can be spontaneous or planned
Advantages: Easy to learn, take little time to use
Disadvantages: Very little information given, making
it difficult to draw reasoned conclusions

6-22
Running Records
o More detailed retelling of
incident
o Needs a clear focus
o Take only about 5 to 10
minutes
Information on:
○ Context, background,
and time
○ Details of the incident:
objective and detailed
○ Child’s speech and
actions are recorded
○ Only observable data
recorded
○ Comments or
interpretation if and only
if warranted

6-23
Non-Narrative Methods
 Checklists
 Rating Scales
 Event Sampling
 Time Sampling

6-24
Checklists
 A list of characteristics or behaviors
 A check is recorded if a child shows the behavior
 A blank space is left if the behavior does not occur
 A short-cut method, takes little time
 Doesn’t need to tell a story
 Should be used several times to get an accurate
idea

6-25
Checklists (continued)
Benefits
Easy and quick to use
Flexible
Drawbacks
Lack of information about the quality of the behavior
Do not say anything about the frequency of behavior
More powerful when combined with anecdotal or
running records

6-26
Rating scales
Used after a previous observation to summarize
observations and make judgments about a child’s
behavior
Shortcut method
Does not present original data
Organizes information in a quick, easy-to-read format
Advantages include: ease of use, does not require
training
Disadvantages include: great possibility of personal
bias

6-27
Event Sampling
Used to observe one particular aspect of a child’s
development or learning
Identifies a specific, precise target behavior
Involves teacher observation followed by recorded
instances of only the defined behavior
Focuses on something so specific that a bit of detail is
encouraged
May include potential drawbacks such as ill defined
behavior

6-28
Time Sampling
Allows teachers to observe small samples of a child’s
behavior
Used for recording interactions
Does not record every instance of behavior
Observations are divided into time intervals
Requires less writing
Target behaviors may occur outside of the interval
designed for monitoring

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