Photograph For Observation Training Session

[Guest Wolfie]

Some time ago, Peggy mentioned a photograph of a group of children that she used to start off a training session on observations - basically it was to make the point that observations need to be factual and objective and this photo usually promoted a lot of subjective observations and opinion!

 

Does anyone know where I can get hold of something similar? I know that I could do my own but I wondered whether there are any commerical ones out there that almost "invite" misinterpretation and opinion!

[Guest]

There are some short films you can use on the EYFS CD-Rom - we used these on the Observation assessment and planning course

[emmajess]

I'd be really interested to see the photo Peggy used - she's got so many great photos that she'd be able to choose one that was really spot on for the purpose!

[Guest Wolfie]

There are some short films you can use on the EYFS CD-Rom - we used these on the Observation assessment and planning course

 

Thanks for that - it's really a "still" that I'm after for this particular exercise...I'm going to use these clips later on!

[Guest]

Would love to see the photo too!!!!x

[Guest]

I think I got the picture from this book "Making Assessment Work: Values and Principles in Assessing Young Children's Learning", by Jane Drummond. (but not sure). It had black and white photo's in it that I used for obs training.

 

A photo of a group of children, in the playground environment, showing various types of emotion, facial expressions etc would suffice. The point being that when we take a 'snap shot' look at anything we all put our own perspective on what we see. Learning the skill of observation is to be totally objective. However, once we begin to know our children then this knowledge can be considered 'alongside' the factual aspects of the observation, as long as we are open to consider that a child may behave, learn, know, think, feel, etc differently to what we may expect (or presume) sometimes. (does that make sense?)

 

Making judgements from what we already know about a child can be construed as subjective, but for example, my son always smiles when he thinks he's in trouble, it's a 'nervous' reaction, to those that don't know him they think he is being cheeky, or not taking the situation seriously, when in fact it actually shows that he is aware that his behaviour has caused concern and he is anxious about the consequence, all be it just a telling off.

 

For initial observation training, students do, however, need to learn to be objective and stick totally to facts before they can, with further experience of carrying out observations, seperate, consider, differentiate between the observed facts and own knowledge of child. (hope that makes sense too )

 

I will try and find the picture in my archive of 'filed' paperwork, (but don't hold your breath, it may be in my attic )

 

Peggy

[Guest]

you may be able to find a suitable photo from the SEAL resources HERE

 

 

I know there is one picture with a child looking sad because another child has taken more than his/her share of playdough.

In a training excercise a student may say "The child is crying because the other child has taken her playdough", this would be a subjective commnet. An objective comment (assessment) would be "the child on the left appears upset because face is screwed up and tears are falling" . The Learning from this is that we cannot make an assessment from one observation, maybe the child is crying because mum/dad has just left the building. (or for many other reasons)

etc etc, the observer needs to find out more information before planning / acting. Lots to think about when observing children, and the value of understanding the importance of recognising objective / subjective evaluations / assessments.

 

 

Peggy

[Guest Wolfie]

Thank you Peggy!

[emmajess]

thank you!

[Guest]

You're welcome

 

Peggy