The Classroom Observer: Developing Observation Skills in Early Childhood Settings

Systematic observation is essential for educators to evaluate properly the effectiveness of curricula and to address the problems of individual students. This new third edition emphasizes early childhood, and focuses on those skills that will enable the observer to make appropriate, valid inferences and to arrive at decisions based on objective observation data gathered in natural learning environments and diverse educational settings.

Includes new focuses on:

• Procedures for observing environmental factors that affect learning and behavior
• The importance of understanding the cultural and linguistic characteristics of children’s learning environments
• The key role of observation in the assessment process
• The forms of observation, with illustrative examples
• The exploration of reliability, sampling behavior, recording formats, summarizing observational outcomes, and validity

Using photographs, sample worksheets, a simple format, and straight-forward language, the authors cite fascinating real-life examples from early childhood that can be applied to a variety of classroom experiences.

Marla R. Brassard, PhD, Associate Professor in the School Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, has been assessing preschool children and their families in research settings, public schools, and university clinics for over 25 years. Her research focuses on psychological maltreatment of children--its assessment, the emotional/behavioral injuries that result, and contextual factors that moderate the effect of maltreatment (particularly the role of schools, teachers, and peer relationships). Dr. Brassard has published four books and numerous articles and chapters, and cochaired the task force that wrote the" Guidelines for the Psychosocial Evaluation of Suspected Psychological Maltreatment" (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, 1995). She also studies psychological aggression in teacher-student and peer relationships, and its impact on children's functioning, in a longitudinal study of secondary school children.
Ann E. Boehm, PhD, Professor Emerita in the School Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, is well known for her groundbreaking work in identifying the importance of young children's knowledge of basic relational concepts to their understanding of teacher and text directions. She has developed two widely used early childhood tests to assess this knowledge, and currently is working on editions for children with visual impairments. She has written extensively on assessment issues at the early childhood level and cosponsors an annual conference and teaches a graduate course entitled "Observing and Assessing the Preschool Child." Dr. Boehm's research interests include cross-cultural development of relationalconcepts used in different direction formats, the role of comprehension in direction following, and intergenerational literacy.