Importance Of Observation/evaluation

[Guest]

Could anyone share any research, examples, poems, on the importance/reason for recording observations of children. I know I've read various postings on the Forum which demonstrate the benefits of observing (I've got the one about the child who painted black over his painting because it was night time).

 

I'd like more similar examples to show to new (unqualified) staff who don't seem to grasp the importance of observation (or can't be bothered to do them!) as i want to produce a guide to/importance of observation, type leaflet.

 

Working in DN 2-4 year olds.

 

All responses greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in anticipation.

 

Sam

[Beau]

Here's something to get you started.

 

Looking, Listening and Learning

 

The Importance of Observation in Early Education

[Running Bunny]

This might help...

nursery world article

[Guest]

All I can add is that observation enables factual evidence and not assumptions but the most important thing is Evaluation, many times I have seen practitioners do lots and lots of observations but not actually evaluated what they means. The evaluations show how much the children are learning ( which equates to how much the teachers are teaching)

 

Quality versus quantity, but need more than one observation to inform assessment judgements.

 

If possible get 2 staff to do an observation on a child at the same time, and compare results.

 

Don't do observations for observation sake, have a focus, have a purpose then use the information it gives you to benefit the child.

 

Observations should not be done for managers, bosses, Ofsted, Parents, or anyone else, they should be done solely for the child, to measure, record and value the childs time, the childs moment in life that will not be repeated in the same way again, to celebrate the childs achievement and present developmental level. If it is not done for the child then why do them.

 

What do you know without doing them????

 

Basically observations clarify our everyday informal conclusions, our everyday work with the children, what they and we do.

 

Peggy

 

p.s. on re-reading obs also show how individual children learn ( learning styles) what their interests are, what their attitudes to learning are, who they are in terms of personality.

[Guest]

Hi Sam - I am FS coordinator in a school with a nursery class, reception class and a mixed R/Yr1 class and at the moment I am struggling trying to raise the importance of obs and ass with some of the staff. I am finding that although observations are being done - after they have been done nothing is happening as a result of the. As Peggy says, if you don't evaluate the obs then they become merely a paper exercise to satisfy people higher up. Having been to a moderation meeting last week we were shown the dvd that I have linked below from Early Education. It is called Supporting young children’s sustained shared thinking - An exploration and comes highly reccommended. I had thought (as suggested by Peggy) that I would try to get two people to do an obs of the same child at the same time however we would find this very difficult due to staffing ratios however there are various clips on the dvd and at the moderation a section of 5 mins was shown (a lovely clip of a boy and girl making a wigwam stand off the ground) - each person was given a blank observation sheet and had to write a formal ob of the boy in the clip. This was then swapped with somebody else's to look at the way they had done their ob and then we had to decide which language profile points we would give him based on our obs. I really enjoyed this activity and feel that my staff would thoroughly benefit from it therefore I have ordered the DVD (it's 20 pound) and am going to carry out this activity with the other staff after half term. Thanks for the links everyobody has provided - I will be using them to help me prepare my training.

 

http://www.early-education.org.uk/ccp51/cg...ions:training+m

[Rea]

We had to watch a video of children playing when I did my DPP. I remember it as being a very good pointer as to why we observe and how we focus on what we were looking at, it also showed us how learning isnt contained to one area. No idea what the video was now though but I do recall the whole class of us being surprised by how much we had missed out when the tutor went through it with us. It certainly made me more careful. We then, like Peggy says, had to review our observations, think about the childrens stage of development and hypotheticaly devise activities for them.

 

 

Would it be possible for someone to record the children so you can watch it back when you have more time? You might be able to help your new staff to focus and think

[sharonash]

We have moved on (or trying) to fromplanned play -abolishing topics and using workshop areas and childrens interest sheets.

Sheet has 4 headings (THis is our early years form!)

 

Childs name What are they playing with? What are there interests? Next step for planning

 

On this form we observe what the childrens interest are we have one in each workshop area.

 

 

We fill this in during the day am and pmsessions You may have 6 children for example playing in the creative area all doing different things. By the end of the day you may have loads of children on the forms and then you plan for the next day

Sounds simple doesnt it but its really hard to plan like this.

This takes up so much time that it replaces our daily observations and at the moment we dont seem to have any real purpose in doing these forms apart from it might tell us that x hasnt gone in the creative area so how can we encourage him to do so, so I suppose it tells us something.

Can you tell me with this motivational planning if this is the sort of thing you are doing- maybe we have to work at it a bit more?

 

Do you have a certain stepping stone that you observe children on or do yo just observe themplaying and then tie it into an area?

Do you choose x amount of children each day .

 

How do you plan your adult led experiences in keyworker groups or just lay it out on a table for all children to visit or target children? Do you link these with a certain stepping stone as a main point as obviously it will cover more than one area of learning?

 

Do you have focus activites as well as adult led ones? In this case is the focus on for all children or again target again do you choose the areas of learning to be covered.

 

Do you have a medium term plan as ours has gone where you again choose areas of learning that you will be covering?

Do you have a short termplan as we dont we now only have a blank sheet with workshop areas on it then we write in it the day before what we are putting in that area- again would you link the toys/activities to an area of learning

 

Confused so am I please help me

 

Does anyone have an example of

Observation sheet for the week?

Short term plan if using one?

Adult led activity- we have never had one of these?

Our Focus activity just says activity resources, what we hve to do and the area of learning it relates to

 

I have a planning meeting tomorrow - think I might have a sicky only joking any help would be great thank u

[Rea]

Lots of questions there Sharonash, the thing that jumps out at me is that you say you dont have time to do daily observations, but the notes you take during the sessions are surley obs arent they, or have I misunderstood?

 

If 6 children are at the sand, can you not use that time to take some obs, their language, fine motor skills, social interaction etc? I dont imagine all the children have to have an obs done each day so you could limit it to the children around a particular activity over a short period, maybe linked to an ELG or maybe just a more general observation which can then be linked to a goal. You might be focusing on math language but notice a child making patterns, so you would use that ob too. Take a look through at the end of the session and see what you have. If the obs dont reflect all the childrens interests, it doesnt mean they wont be interested or gain from the experiences of what you plan the following day.

 

My adult led activities were the focused ones. Any other things I wanted to know about the children I found out from observing them playin gwith their peers and in general chat with me or other staff.

These focused groups werent in keygroups though, I know some people who do it that way and thats fine, it didnt work for us but it is a personal thing I think.

 

We used to now and then focus our obs just on the activities, every 10 minutes or so we'd take a quick look at how equipment and activities were being accessed, i.e. were the books being used without an adult present and how did that change with an adult? Would the dough be better used if it was next to the home corner?

 

We didnt have medium term plans after I suddenly failed to see the point of them. I merely listed all the festivals and special events we would be covering during the year, resources needed, and who was to sort it, plus a space for extra ideas (I had a really annoying habit of adding and changing things, or at least thats what the staff subsiquently told me!).

I had a weekly plan detailing the equipment that was on the rota so we didnt forget the boxes at the back of the cupboard but this obviously changed depending on what the children asked for or what new idea I thought up over night.

 

I cant help with planning sheets I'm afraid except my adult led sheets were really detailed, someone told me the plan should read so that if a supply person arrived she/he would know what was wanted, how it was to be achieved , resources needed and children to who the activity might have a special focus, as well as an evaluation sheet, not just saying how well the activity had or hadnt worked but how it could be improved.

Hope your planning meeting goes well

[Marion]

Does anyone have an example of

Observation sheet for the week?

Short term plan if using one?

Adult led activity- we have never had one of these?

Our Focus activity just says activity resources, what we hve to do and the area of learning it relates to

 

I have a planning meeting tomorrow - think I might have a sicky only joking any help would be great thank u

 

Our Focus activity is adult led and we have an evaluation sheet copied onto the reverse of the sheet.

The group observation sheet can be adapted for different sized groups as required

Focus_Activity.doc

Group_Observation_Sheet.doc

focus_evaluation.doc