Observations

WHAT IS AN OBSERVATION?

The process of observation is more than just watching children. It is defined as a “systematic process used to listen to and watch children in their play, for the purpose of gaining information” (Dietze & Kashin 2012, p. 75).

WHY ARE OBSERVATIONS IMPORTANT?

Knowing how children play, investigate, explore, engage in peer-to-peer and child-adult relationships provides early learning practitioners with insight and understanding into the whole child.

Observation is a key responsibility of early childhood educators as it provides an opportunity to gain insight into how children think, learn, and make sense of their world (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2017).

Planning play-based environments for young children requires early learning practitioners to have knowledge about and interest in each child. Best practice is to then use these observations to gather information to create experiences that build on children’s natural curiosity, ideas, abilities, and life experiences.

Once we have insight and understanding into the whole child, the early learning professional can:

determine each child's interests, skills, and needs
measure children's growth and development over time
make changes to the environment
identify concerns
make changes to the program
provide information that staff and parents can share

We must ask ourselves as Early Childhood Educators two questions while observing children in our care:

1. Why am I observing this child?

2. What do I hope to gain?

Observations should be a narrative of only facts, of what you see and hear.

Observations of play and learning help educators co-construct the environment with the children based on their inquiries.
Observing play and learning provides insight into learning style
Observing play and learning provides the educator with insight into the child’s representations of current knowledge and experiences
Observing play and learning provides educators with insight into the child’s development
Observing play and learning provides educators and families with insight into the whole child, their connections, desires, and interests

A THINKING LENS FOR REFLECTION AND INQUIRY

thinking lens.pdf

The Thinking Lens is a tool that helps us as educators engage in reflective practice and think through our observations. It can help us make sense of children's theories and play as well as help us recognize our own bias and how it may be playing a role in what we are interpreting.

Once we begin to reflect on our observations and develop theories and meaning about the children's play we then begin the planning stage. For next steps or more information about this process please reach out to ELQI.

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