I had an opportunity this week to indulge in an experience not often afforded to our staff - that of being a fly on the wall!
Standing back to observe the action, the fine details of what leads up to key moments, what controls or influences the ebb and flow of the room, or those trigger moments that see a calm, successful activity slide over into over-excited chaos - it's all incredibly enlightening.
The specific point of my visit this week was to understand the triggers affecting the behaviour of a particular child. This approach was invaluable in gaining an insight into the character and needs of the child and how these were being met.
With an alternative focus,it could be used to gain an insight into how well the environment and layout of the room is working; how successful routines and procedures are; the level of engagement exhibited by the staff or the intensity of play achieved by the children.
To gain an understanding of the experiences of a child, you must try to blend in, be unobtrusive but capture everything - a difficult task in a room full of inquisitive pre-schoolers! Ideally you would arrange extra time for the novelty factor to wear off.
If this is not possible and the technology is available, a video camera is an impressive tool.
To capture staff performance or levels of child involvement, I have successfully used various grading structures assigned over set snapshots of time, using a recording method that captures enough detail while being quick and easy to use.
For example, when looking at the level of play attained within a room I have used a grid to record for each subject in 30-second intervals, whether complex (C) or simple (S) play is exhibited, and in what social grouping; alone (A), in pairs (IP), parallel (P) or in groups (IG). When you look at the results of such an observation against the approaches to learning offered in many of our play rooms, it really is quite an eye opener!
