Marion 10 Chapter 6

Guidance of Young Children
Tenth Edition
Chapter 6
Using Observation in
Guiding Children
Copyright © 2019, 2015, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Learning Objectives
• Explain the reason for assessing children’s development
and the nature of authentic assessment in early
childhood education.
• Recall reasons for observing children’s behavior.
• Identify methods for recording observations objectively
and to avoid bias or subjectivity.
• Explain the major practical and effective methods that
teachers use in observing children’s development and
behavior.
• Defend the utility of portfolios in observation and
assessment.

Assessment in Early Childhood Education
Drives decision-making in early childhood education

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

Overall Goal of Assessment
• Identify a child’s strengths
• Build on a child’s strengths

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

Different Forms of Assessment
• Summative assessment: Summarizes what children have
learned over a long period
• Progress-monitoring assessment: monitors progress at
preassigned times during the school year
• Formative or Authentic Assessment: Performance based,
observation-based and appropriate for all children

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

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

Assessment Should Be Performance-Based
Children apply skills and knowledge in a real-world setting
Examples:
• work samples
• interviews with children
• teacher observation

Reasons for Observing Children’s
Behavior

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

Discover and Build on Children’s Strengths
Observe behavior to discover children’s:
• preferences
• strengths
• needs

Observe Individual Needs for Possible
Further Screening
• Observations contribute to teams assessing individual
and special needs
• Teachers do not diagnose but assist in a diagnosis

The Five ‘w’ Questions about Children’s
Behavior

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

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

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?

Where Did the Behavior Take Place?
Does it occur
• in the same place?
• in different places?
• almost anywhere?

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?

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

Narrative Methods
• Anecdotal records
• Running Records

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

Running Records
• More detailed retelling of incident
• Needs a clear focus
• 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

Non-Narrative Methods
• Checklists
• Rating Scales
• Event Sampling
• Time Sampling

Checklists (1 of 2)
• 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

Checklists (2 of 2)
• 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

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

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

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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Marion 10 Chapter 6

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