Observation Paper

Ashley White

November 15, 2006

LSR 100/F

Observation Paper

In order for one to completely understand why something or someone does what they do, one must sit and observe the object without being judgmental. In a recent sitting of LSR 100/F our class was assigned to do two observations. The first observation was to be done in a setting where cognitive learning was taking place. For this Observation I went to the California Science Center. This particular setting was extremely fun to observe children as well as for me. The second observation was to take place in a setting that allowed children to develop physically, so I went to the CSUN Lab School and I observed a group of kindergarteners, and I learned a lot about them.

When I went to The California Science Center I saw many things that I had not noticed before about how children develop. Like how I remember from elementary school fieldtrips, there were many different experiments that showed cognitive development. However at the time I did not know that I was developing cognitively. One of the experiments that I liked the most and that I actually took part in was the one where the children had to mix different colors of water to see what the results where. This allows kids to grow cognitively because they learn what two colors make when you mix them together. When I watched one of the children doing the experiment he was really confused and appeared to be lost because he could not get the fact that when you mix two different colors together the result will be another totally different color. The girl in particular that I was watching was at the table for a while trying to figure out how the experiment worked. You could tell that she was getting frustrated with it because when ever a student did the experiment and left she would look at them like hey why can I do it. She kept mixing the colors and was amazed at the result, but she could not understand why it was happening. After a while of me watching her she figured it out with the help of her teacher. This is a good example of Piaget’s theory. He said that children learn by exploration, and the girl that I was watching explored by mixing two colors and by getting a new one she learned that the mixture of two colors made a new one.

Another experiment the children as well the adults liked was the one where you had to wear goggles so you could tell what it would be like when you were drunk. Once you had the goggles on you were to try and shoot a basketball in a hoop. However, when they tried to shoot the basket in the hoop they thought that they were shooting it towards the hoop but it was actually like at the wall. This experiment is a good example of cognitive development. The children need to use trial and error to see where they needed to aim the ball to actually make it into the hoop. When I did it, it was funny because I thought the children where not making it because they were little, but it really was hard. This experiment gave this little boy a chance to use his forebrain, which is responsible for cognitive thinking, and his sensory motor skills.

The second part of this observation paper is about the school or an observation that involves social development. For this part I went to the lab school and observed the kindergarteners while they were at playtime. There were these two girls that were playing on the jungle gym and they wouldn’t get down. It was funny because they were very daring. The teachers that were watching the kids were like they were scaring me. It was funny because whatever the one girl did the other girl would follow her and do the same thing. This was an example of social development because both of these girls are were learning from each other and the girl that was following the other girl was learning from the teachers that were telling her not to do what se was doing. Another thing that was funny to me was that the girl that was the leader out of the two girls that were playing together was always the one that the teacher would call. I think it was because the teacher knew that the other girl was following her.

Another example was the group that was playing basketball. First of all it was really cute because they were kind of good, better than me actually. However, there was a group of children that were playing basketball tog ether, well not really basketball but they were taking turns shooting the basketball and they were all playing nicely together and taking turns. While the children were playing another child wanted to play with the rest of the kids. However, there were not enough balls left to play with so the teacher made then share but the kid that was there in the first place didn’t want to share with them. But the teacher was making them share. The boy was crying and he got mad that he was the one that the teachers choose him to share with the new child. After a while the child got over it in a sense and just began to play nicely together. This among many other situations is a great example of Vgotsky’s theory, which states that children that are influenced by adults take part in activities that impart particular values and cultivate specific intellectual skills. Which basically means that children need to rely on others.

All in all throughout these two observations I learned that there are a lot of different ways that children learn both from adults and one another. There are also various aspects the help and are associate with the way children learn and how they learn as well. When observing children through a one-way mirror I was able to hear and see things that I would have never seen as well as fail to notice. I noticed that when children are outdoors they act totally different than when they are in a classroom setting, which also facilitates a whole different type of learning. While in a classroom setting the children seem to be more relaxed and calm, however, on the contrary outside they are free, and they scream and run around. While doing these observations I learned that one must detach themselves completely from the children to get a good sense of what is going on. That way you are able to notice things that influence why the children are acting the way they are for example, are they loud because it is almost time to eat lunch, is it time to go home, or maybe even time to take a nap. All of these issues are examples of things that may or may not influence why children act the way they do, which in turn would influence the way they learn. Working in any of these environments would be very fun, and from these observations I learned that what ever I do that involves kids and learning will in some form or another involve hands on activities because they facilitate growth and development.

Field Notes

Observation 1: California Science Museum

There are a lot of schools here today

It is a museum so a lot of children were present.

Children running to different parts of the museum.

Some children are attracted to different types of experiments. For example some child prefer hands on activities while others prefer physical activities.

Children mixing different colored water together.

This experiment was showing children and trying to make them understand that when you mix two different colors you will get another color. (Cognitive development)

Little girl did not understand.

She could not understand that by mixing two different colors another color would be created. It may have been to complex for her to understand.

Experiment with the goggles and basketball hoop (very popular).

There were a lot of children at this experiment because they got to physically do something that involved their own bodies.

Kids where laughing when they could make the basket when the goggles where on.

The children where having fun while they where learning

Trial and error.

The kids had to see which angle to shoot the ball at so it would go in the hoop even though where they thought it was going was not where it really went.

Observation 2: CSUN Lab School

There are many partnered children

Children play with people that they feel comfortable with. Thy get to make that choice.

Children where cleaning the pumpkins up from Halloween

Shows children how to work together when cleaning up.

Two boys on the jungle gym outing away the pumpkins

Shows teamwork. One sat on top and rolled the pumpkin down the slide the other received it and out it away. Very smart I thought.

Children playing basketball.

All the children where learning how to play nicely together. Taking turns and sharing

New child wants to play but there where not enough balls.

One child had to share and he started crying. A lot of children at this age are just learning how to share and this child obviously did not like to share.

Young boy started to cry.

Does not like to share

Student finally shared.

The child realizes that sharing is a good thing to do because the teacher explained it to him. Showing cognitive growth.