Unit 8

• Observation


  The act of watching something or someone to gain further information
• Types of observation


  • Participant observation
  • Non-participant observation
• Participant observation


  The observer is joining in with the activity they are observing
• Non-participant observation


  The observer is keeping themselves at a distance from the activity they are observing
• Types of observations


  • Planned observations
  • Unplanned observations
• Planned observations


  You can target a specific activity or skill. For example, observing how well a child can count
• Unplanned observations


  You can capture natural occurrences that you may not be able to predict such as a child's first steps
• Observers


  • Early years practitioners
  • Parents
  • Professionals (e.g. speech and language therapist)
  • Other children
• Observations from all these observers should be acknowledged but as the information is second hand, it should not be used as the sole source of assessment when monitoring children's development
• Types of assessment


  • Formative assessment
  • Summative assessment
• Formative assessment


  Done frequently to assess the child's learning and development needs over a period of time, and informs planning and immediate responses to children
• Summative assessment


  Done at specific stages to provide a summary of the child's learning and development at a particular point in time
• Assessment informs future planning so the practitioner can ensure the child has access to age and stage appropriate resources and activities
• Finding out the child's interests


  Enables the practitioner to plan activities that will interest the child and support provision of the characteristics of effective learning
• Identifying stages of development

  Enables the practitioner to ensure that the activities meet the child's needs to support their progress
• Understanding triggers in behaviour

  Enables the practitioner to recognise the triggers and therefore intervene to support the child to self-regulate and avoid the unwanted behaviour
• Gaining insight to share with the parents/carers and professionals

  Creates a positive relationship with parents and carers and provides consistency between home and the early years setting which will support the child's wellbeing
• Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions


  Ensures that the child's needs are being met through the support they are currently receiving and ensure that the support can be adapted appropriately when needed to provide an inclusive environment
• Supporting assessment of the child's holistic development

  Enables the practitioner to track the child's progress against the current framework requirements and identify any areas that require more support
• Supporting other professionals


  Promotes better partnership working and promotes the sharing of information to provide a holistic approach to supporting the child's needs
• What to do when observing children


  • Concentrate on watching the children
  • Listen carefully to what is being said or what noises are being made
  • Write down what you see and hear so you don't forget it
• Challenges when observing


  • Difficult to understand everything the child said
  • Missed some of the video while you wrote things down
  • Ran out of space on the paper or the pen ran out
  • A lot of background noise made it hard to concentrate
  • Unsure what to write down
  • If children made a noise or said words in "child language" rather than the proper pronunciation, it was difficult to know how to record it so it was understood
  • Too much going on to capture it all
• Overcoming challenges


  • Be prepared – have plenty of paper and a spare pen
  • Write in note form rather than full sentences – as long as you can understand what you write it doesn't matter what it looks like
  • Write the children's noises and incorrectly pronounced words phonetically
  • Concentrate on the child's development rather than writing everything down that they do
  • Ignore everything going on around you and just focus on the observation
• Objective


  A record of what is seen and heard, does not include an opinion, states the facts and details only, avoids interpretation
• Subjective


  Is influenced by past events, is based on personal experience, is based on opinion, feelings or assumption, is subject to interpretation, is based on personal values and beliefs and the opinions that come from these
• Observation 1


  • Jasper is playing with the building bricks. He is only using green and blue bricks because he thinks the other colours are for girls.
• This is subjective as the observer is making an assumption of why Jasper is choosing certain colours
• Observation 2


  • Polly is reading a book. She turns the pages one at a time. She then puts that book back and says" I want to read a book about horses now". She then gets a book with a horse on it and reads it for 3 minutes without speaking.
• This is objective as it is only recording what is actually happening
• The importance of objectivity: It ensures all observations are consistent regardless of which practitioner does them, it prevents parents/carers being upset by your opinions so can be shared more widely, it is an accurate record of what has been seen and heard, it is easier to write down the facts than to try and interpret them so this makes the observation easier and quicker, you might not provide appropriate support to meet a child's individual needs if you have inaccurately interpreted their stage of development
• The potential consequences of subjectivity: Your interpretation or opinions may be inaccurate, different practitioners may interpret the child's actions or words differently so there will be inconsistency in the observations if they are done by different people, your opinions may be insulting or offensive to parents or carers, you may miss some of the child's actions or words while you are thinking about how to interpret what you have already seen or heard, your observations may be based on personal values and beliefs and the opinions that come from these
• Reasons for recording observations

  • We don't forget what we have observed
  • The observations can be shared with others such as parents/carers, early years practitioners and professionals
  • The recording can be used as evidence to assess and monitor the child's learning and development
• Components of recording observations

  • The aim
  • The recording
  • The evaluation
  • The planning
• Ways to record observations

  • Media methods (video, photo, digital)
  • Learning journal
  • Post-it notes
  • Narrative/free description/written account
  • Checklist
• Observer


  What the observer is wanting to find out (e.g. behavioural triggers or learning and development progress)
• Recording


  The method of recording the observation and contains all the objective records of what has been observed
• Evaluation


  An assessment of what has been observed and recorded (e.g. mapping the child's actions and words against the expected stages of development within the EYFS)
• Planning


  Informs future resources, activities and intervention that could support the child and their holistic development
• Components of recording observations

  • The aim
  • The recording
  • The evaluation
  • The planning
• Ways to record observations

  • Media methods
  • Learning journal
  • Post-it notes
  • Narrative/free description/written account
  • Checklist