Educational Psychology

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Walk around the room to observe more students “up close” and view the room

from multiple perspectives.

Call on a wide variety of students—not just those with their hands up, or those

who are skilled as the subject, or those who sit in a particular place in the room.

Keep records

Fast pace of classrooms

inhibits corroborative

evidence

If you want to know if you are missing important information ask a peer to visit

your classroom and observe the students’ behaviors. Classrooms are complex and

fast paced and one teacher cannot see much of what is going on while trying to

also teach.

Cultural and individual

differences in the meaning of

verbal and non verbal

behaviors

Be cautious in the conclusions that you draw from your observations and

questions. Remember that the meaning and expectations of certain types of

questions, wait time, social distance, and role of “small talk” varies across

cultures (Chapter 4). Some students are quiet because of their personalities not

because they are uninvolved, nor keeping up with the lesson, nor depressed or

tired.

Record keeping

Keeping records of observations improves reliability and can be used to enhance understanding of one student, a
group, or the whole class' interactions. Sometimes this requires help from other teachers. For example, Alexis, a
beginning science teacher is aware of the research documenting that longer wait time enhances students’ learning
(e.g. Rowe, 2003) but is unsure of her behaviors so she asks a colleague to observe and record her wait times
during one class period. Alexis learns her wait times are very short for all students so she starts practicing silently
counting to five whenever she asks students a question.

Teachers can keep anecdotal records about students without help from peers. These records contain
descriptions of incidents of a student’s behavior, the time and place the incident takes place, and a tentative
interpretation of the incident. For example, the description of the incident might involve Joseph, a second grade
student, who fell asleep during the mathematics class on a Monday morning. A tentative interpretation could be the
student did not get enough sleep over the weekend, but alternative explanations could be the student is sick or is on
medications that make him drowsy. Obviously additional information is needed and the teacher could ask Joseph
why he is so sleepy and also observe him to see if he looks tired and sleepy over the next couple of weeks.

Anecdotal records often provide important information and are better than relying on one’s memory but they
take time to maintain and it is difficult for teachers to be objective. For example, after seeing Joseph fall asleep the
teacher may now look for any signs of Joseph’s sleepiness—ignoring the days he is not sleepy. Also, it is hard for
teachers to sample a wide enough range of data for their observations to be highly reliable.

Teachers also conduct more formal observations especially for students with special needs who have IEP’s. An
example of the importance of informal and formal observations in a preschool follows:

Educational Psychology 248 A Global Text