Teachers observe children to identify their interests and developmental levels in order to plan individualized curricula. Observation also allows teachers to chart each child's progress over time, evaluate their own teaching practices, and identify classroom management issues. Written observations can then be shared with parents, administrators, and study teams to provide a well-rounded understanding of each child's development.

2. The Purposes of
Observation

3. 1. Teachers need to identify children’s interest
• Knowing what an individual child or a certain group of
children like. This could lead to webbing (finding
connections or relationships between concepts) as
means of planning curricula with children. A teacher
could set up an activity center with toy bulldozer, dump
trucks, and backhoes in the block corner .

4. 2.Teachers need to chart the development level of each
child.
• A child must be seen from several different angles.
Observation is one way to make an informal assessment
of each child’s functioning in several different
developmental domains.

5. 3. Having developmental knowledge of each child will assist
the teacher in planning an appropriate curriculum based on
individual needs.
• A child may be advanced in cognitive development but
lack social skills. The teacher could intervene with this
child to help him or her adjust to the group. Children
may be at different developmental levels in different
domains. Knowing this lets the teacher individualize
instruction and caregiving.

6. 4. Teachers need to do periodic observations to find out
how children are progressing
• In order to document changes in the child’s or children's
behavior some systematic schedule of observation is
necessary. Doing an event tally in a proscribed time
period will help determine if, in fact, the children hit
fewer times after learning some other ways to ask for
what they want.

7. 5. Observation can help early childhood teachers appraise
their own teaching practices and design appropriate staff
development.
• Teachers and students need to be aware of what they are
doing. They might want to find out how often they
interact with certain children, how a discipline technique
works with different children, or how much attention
children pay when a certain story is read to them.

8. 1. Teachers need to identify children’s interest
2. Teachers need to chart the development level
of each child.
3. Having developmental knowledge of each
child will assist the teacher in planning an
appropriate curriculum based on individual
needs.
4. Teachers need to do periodic observations to
find out how children are progressing
5. Observation can help early childhood teachers
appraise their own teaching practices and
design appropriate staff development.

9. 6. Observation can give practitioners a general overview of the
program and, at the same time, help them analyze specific
classroom management problems.
• Group cohesiveness, how well the group takes directions,
and how helpful members are with each other are
important determinants in how the group is “ working”.

10. 7. Written observations on individual children can be added to
other information to be shared with study teams, parents, and
administrators.
• Having many examples of observations taken at different
times, in various circumstances, and using different
methods has the potential to give a well-rounded picture
of each child’s development.