Research Article review

Observation and Early Childhood Teaching: Evolving Fundamentals

Author(s): Stuart Reifel

Source: YC Young Children , March 2011, Vol. 66, No. 2 (March 2011), pp. 62-65

Published by: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/42730724

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Our Proud

Heritage Observation

and

€arly Childhood

Teaching Evolving

Fundamentals

Stuart Reifel

Let them observe, lead their

pupils to observe, and render

themselves and their pupils conscious of their observations.

- Friedrich Froebel

Observation of children has a long history in early childhood teaching. Early nineteenth-century German educator Friedrich Froebel (1782- 1852) wanted kindergarten teachers to be observers of children (Froebel [1826] 1902) so they could learn how children think and learn, build on their interests, and understand the

importance of their play to growth and development. He believed that children learn to solve problems and think about life, science, and art as

they manipulate objects and observe the results of their actions. Teachers

were also seen as learners, about their

students: they needed to observe to understand how children were

developing.

To this day there is a continuous emphasis on classroom observation of young children in education texts and professional preparation. To under- stand each developmentally unique child (compared to other children) requires teachers to use observation and interpretation skills. Standardized school assessments fail to provide this kind of information about chil-

dren. In the past decade of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, with US society placing more emphasis on testing and academic curriculum, many teachers are expected to give more attention to children's written

work than to things that teachers can actually see children do. It is worth our while to reconsider the impor- tance of teacher observation and how

our thinking about observation has evolved over the years.

From the past to the present

When Froebel encouraged teachers to observe and make themselves con-

scious of their observations, he had

in mind something very different from how we think about observation in the

twenty-first century. Teachers then were to think about how children with

Froebel's gifts and occupations were

Stuart Reifel, EdD, is professor of early childhood education at the University of Texas at Austin. He teaches undergraduate courses on childhood play and cur- riculum and works with graduate students on research related to play, teaching, and curriculum. Stuart's major focus is play theory and practice.

Our Proud Heritage is published in the March, July, and November issues of Young Children and features contributing writers who offer insights on past practice, knowledge, and leadership in early childhood education. For submission guidelines, go to www.naeyc.org/yc/columns/ourproudheritage or contact one of the coeditors: Edna Runnels Ranck at [email protected], or Charlotte Anderson at [email protected].

This column is available in an online archive at www.naeyc.org/yc/columns.

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playing their way to an understanding of nature, beauty, and divine unity.

Froebel wanted teachers to see

how children developed as they manipulated specific objects (gifts and occupations he designed for their education), such as blocks for design construction, parquetry shapes for picture creation, paper strips for weaving, and drawing forms (Brosterman 1997).

Teachers knew what to look for as

the child manipulated these objects from simpler forms (such as stacked block piles) to more complicated configurations (such as symmetrical configurations of blocks that resem- bled flowers). They used their obser- vations to nurture children toward the

next developmental object manipula- tion, assuming that children were acquiring the knowledge that Froebel built into his play objects. Today's teachers have a broader range of

developmental and learning concerns than those identified by Froebel.

The Child Study Movement. Through his Child Study Movement, G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924) and the many graduate students who followed him asked teachers to observe and

interview children to understand their

developmental stages and ultimate readiness for school learning. Using direct observation and systematic ver- bal interviews with children, teachers could learn about children's interests

and thinking. Hall's recapitulation theory

described how children re-create the

evolutionary history of our species. Through play they outgrow their "primitive" origins on the way to the civilizing benefits of education. Observation allowed teachers to rec-

ognize the signs that children were still playing in ways that made them too immature to benefit from academics.

Research into practice. Hall and many who followed him wanted sci- entific research to serve as a basis for

teachers to think about children's edu-

cation, including the physical, social, emotional, and intellectual aspects of human development.

John Dewey (1859-1952) encour- aged educators to see the seeds of democratic social relationships in the classroom play of young children. Arthur Jersild (1902-1994) wanted teachers to observe and have con-

versations with children to under-

stand more about their interests, as

well as their motor, language, social, emotional, cognitive, and imaginative learning. Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) and Jean Piaget (1896-1980) focused on their theories of what we know

about children's thinking; they also showed us how to observe the ways children make sense of their worlds.

For nearly two centuries, research- ers used their observations and con-

versations with children to identify new aspects of how children behave in classroom activity and, perhaps more

Why Observation? How Teachers Benefit

To build relationships with children

• Get to know each child

• Respect and appreciate children • Connect with children

• Foster children's competence and success

To become a skilled observer

• What do I want to find out?

• When and where should I observe?

• How do I record what I observe?

• How do I organize the information I collect?

To observe and document

effectively

• Observe over time

• Watch children in varied situations

• Record what you observe

• Organize the information you collect

Adapted from J.R. Jabloň, A.L. Dombro, and M.L. Dichtelmiller, The Power of Observation from Birth through Eight, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: Teaching Strategies & NAEYC, 2007), iii. © The authors. Used with permission.

important, to provide new ways educa- tors could reflect on or become con-

scious of what those activities mean

for children's education. Interestingly, while play is defined differently throughout the changing eras, it con- tinues to be a major focus of observa- tion (Frost, Wortham, & Reifel 2008).

Teacher preparation. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centu- ries, textbooks for teachers of young children were prescriptive, explain- ing how to get children to march to music and how to lead counting drills. Frequent descriptions of chil- dren's activities reflected teachers'

use of observation (for examples, see McMillan 1921).

Young Children • March 201 1 63

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With increased research on social

relationships, emotional needs, and children's interests for teachers

to draw on, early childhood texts began to explicitly call on teachers to observe and interview children so

they could begin to nurture all dimen- sions of the "whole" child. Suggestions of what to look for when observing varied, depending on the findings of new research about children.

Teachers might look for motor, social, and emotional skills and understand-

ings about aesthetics and nature and the physical world (for examples, see Landreth 1942). They could observe children as scientists, mathemati- cians, and players (Gans, Stendler, & Almy 1952) or see how children socially adjust and deal with feelings (for examples, see Read 1960).

Observation as a new asset

Eventually, observation itself became an explicit topic in texts, including how teachers might use

informal notes and keep running records on each child (Read & Patterson 1980) and develop differ- ent data collection techniques for recording individual, group, and student progress (Almy & Genishi 1979). Vivian Paley (2004) illustrates the contributive value of observation

and other documentation of children

for the teacher. Jablon, Dombro, and Dichtelmiller (2007) further cement the power of observation.

Whether providing explicit guidance for teachers about how to observe or

suggesting specific aspects of chil- dren's behavior to observe and inter-

pret, all of these resources appear to help teachers understand more about the children they teach. Some authors (for example, Paley 2004) provide wonderfully rich descriptions of chil- dren and, by example, demonstrate the power of observation for improv- ing classroom practice.

Increasingly, new research focuses as much on teacher consciousness

or awareness as on the play teach- ers are to observe. Sherwood and

Reif el (2010) report their findings that today's preservice teachers bring with them beliefs and understandings that influence how they see children's play.

Reflective teaching. Observation is necessary for teachers' understand- ing of children, but developing the skills to think about what teachers

observe and to integrate their reflec- tions in their teaching are what lead to the planning that supports children's learning. Teachers then begin to see all the aspects of development and learning that researchers tell us are there to be seen.

There are many conceptual lenses to help us all understand children. The need is to learn which lens to

use when we watch what children do

(Frost, Wortham & Reifel 2008). When we look at group play, do we see only the formation of social relationships, or do we also consider how children's

play reflects their growing under- standing of events in the real world? When we watch children build with

blocks, do we see only construction and collaboration, or do we also look

for evidence of spatial thinking in the construction and the story narrative the children are thinking about as they build?

Observation as a part of documen- tation. An observation can lead to

many understandings about children, all of which merit documentation and

reflection (see Carter & Curtis 2011). What we see can help us plan further lessons about world events, spatial thinking, narrative development, and many other worthy topics that chil- dren are ready to explore.

Looking to the future

Educators no longer watch children for signs of Froebel's version of play nor do they look for Hall's play stages. But we do want to see how children

are developing and learning, whether they are solving social problems, in- ternalizing self-control, or making

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sense of classification (Coppie & Bredekamp 2009).

Building on a long heritage of observation, teachers will discover

new things to see and new ways to understand children. With these

in mind, they can know more, for example, about children's friendships, their depth of thinking (especially when children cannot say all that they know), the social influences on classroom learning, how children are constructing their gender notions of what it means to be a girl or a boy, and what motivates children to do

what they do. All of children's classroom play

requires sensitive observation and constant reflection to see how play contributes to children in the present and over time. These are aspects of children's performance that can tran- scend what tests help us to know, and they all build on observation.

References

Almy, M., & C. Genishi. 1979. Ways of Studying Children. Rev. ed. New York: Teachers Col-

lege Press. Brosterman, N. 1997. Inventing Kindergarten.

New York: Harry N. Abrams. Coppie, C., &S. Bredekamp, eds. 2009. Develop-

mentally Appropriate Practice in Early Child- hood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Curtis, D., & M. Carter. 2011. Reflecting Chil- dren 's Lives: A Handbook for Planning Your Child-Centered Curriculum. 2nd ed. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf.

Froebel, F. [1826] 1902. Education of Man. Trans, by W.N. Hailmann. New York: Appleton.

Frost, J.F., S. Wortham, & S. Reifel. 2008. Play and Child Development. 3rd. ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall/Merrill.

Gans, R., C.B. Stendler, & M. Almy. 1952. Teach- ing Young Children in Nursery School, Kinder- garten, and the Primary Grades. New York: World Books.

Jabloň, J.R., A.L. Dombro, & M.L. Dichtel- miller. 2007. The Power of Observation for

Birth through Eight. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Teaching Strategies & NAEYC.

Landreth, C. 1942. Education of the Young Child: A Nursery School Manual. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

McMillan, M. 1921. The Nursery School. Lon- don: J.M. Dent & Sons.

Paley, V.G. 2004. A Child's Work: The Impor- tance of Fantasy Play. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Read, K. 1960. The Nursery School: A Human Relationships Laboratory. 3rd ed. Philadel- phia: Saunders.

Read, K., & J. Patterson. 1980. The Nursery School and Kindergarten : Human Relation- ships and Learning. 7th ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.

Sherwood, S., &S. Reifel. 2010. "The Multiple Meanings of Play: Exploring Preservice Teachers' Beliefs about a Central Element of

Early Childhood Education." Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education 31: 322-43.

Additional resource

Jablon, J. 2010/2011. "Taking It All In: Obser- vation in the Classroom." Teaching Young Children 4 (2): 24-27.

Copyright © 2011 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints online atwww.naeyc.org/yc/permissions.

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