5 Learning to Observe and Document

In this chapter, we’ll explore how to observe and document children’s learning in detail. You may be wondering why we need a whole chapter on this topic. As you might suspect, this is quite a complex process, so we will discuss several considerations and guidelines. We briefly introduced some of these ideas in earlier chapters, but now that we’re considering observing and documenting more concretely, it will be helpful for you to see how these concepts fit in with the bigger picture.

Learn the Policies and Procedures

It’s so important that you’re familiar with the policies and procedures of the program. Are there any children you’re not permitted to observe? If you will be taking pictures, do you have permission from all families for their children to be photographed, or are there certain children who must not appear in any photos? Which camera should you use? These are all questions you should have the answers to before you begin your observation. Also, be mindful of everything you learned about regarding ethics to ensure you’re always protecting and respecting children.

Consider the Purpose

Once you’ve made sure you’re familiar with the policies and procedures, consider why you’re observing the children. Remember in an earlier chapter we explored different reasons why we might want to observe a child, so your purpose should be clear before you begin. Discuss your intentions with the other educators and/or the supervisor so they know what your plan is. This is especially important if you’re an ECE student completing your placement in an early learning program.

Choose Who to Observe

It’s important to view each child as an individual, but you’ll also want to observe group interactions to see how children interact with others. Look for those who are the leaders in your group, who need more one-to-one support, and who enjoy being helpers. This insight can help you organize peer scaffolding opportunities which can free up some of your time. As a gentle reminder, sometimes we connect with certain children for one reason or another, and other times a child may challenge us. Either way, we need to regularly observe each child with an open mind and an open heart, and we need to look at children with a clear lens that is free of bias. Each child has unique gifts and needs your attention and support.

Decide When to Observe

Early learning programs are busy places! You need to consider the schedule and routines and when might be an ideal time for you to observe. This will also depend on the purpose of your observation because if your goal is, for example, to get to know the interests and development of Sam (who is a new child in the program), observing while the children are in the gym might not be ideal, although that would be the perfect setting if your goal was instead to learn about the gross motor skills of all of the children in the program. Perhaps it would be best to observe Sam during a time of day when the children are free to explore the different areas of the room and play where they like, although after discussing your plan with the other educator in the room to observe Sam on Monday, you learn that there is a special event in the library during that time (which highlights the importance of the previous step where you have open discussions with your colleagues). So you can see that sometimes it can be tricky to find just the right time to carry out the observations you are hoping to.

To see a child’s full potential, you should observe at various times throughout the day. For example, some children are slow-to-warm, and it may take them some time for them to get acclimated before they can fully engage and interact with others. If a child needs a bit of time to settle in, the morning drop-off may not be the best time to observe their social development. You will want to track them throughout the day, at various times (including transition times and snack/meal times), to get a more complete picture.

Spontaneous vs Planned

As much as we can plan ahead for observations that we know we want to carry out, spontaneous observations occur all the time. Whether educators are actively engaged with their children during an activity or in the background cleaning up after an activity, educators have numerous opportunities to see and hear some wonderful developments as they randomly occur. According to Piaget, children require long uninterrupted periods of play and exploration so that they can discover things for themselves. If we truly believe that children are capable of socializing, problem-solving, and creating complex systems with rules, then we can successfully use spontaneous observations to capture a child’s development as it unfolds naturally.

As intentional educators, we can also appreciate when teachable moments arise unexpectedly. These golden moments are noteworthy as well. For example, as we witness a child attempting to master a milestone, we may provide some verbal support or guidance to scaffold the child’s learning. For example, when Abraham is becoming frustrated with not being able to get a piece of his puzzle to fit, an educator might ask, “What happens when you turn the piece around?” During spontaneous situations, we must remember to simultaneously make mental notes so that we can later write them down and reflect on a more formal plan of action that can later be used to help support the child’s well-being and development.

There are some advantages to spontaneously observing children. Being in the moment allows you to enjoy the children, and children appreciate your presence, so in those spontaneous moments, you can celebrate a child’s success or provide positive reinforcements to help them master major milestones. While being spontaneous, you can focus on the child’s interests and pose thoughtful questions to promote their learning.

Spectator vs Participant

When you’re observing children, you can either be a quiet observer on the sidelines and not engage with the children, or you can be an active participant. With the former approach (where you’re just a spectator), you would find a spot to observe from that wouldn’t interfere with the children’s play or activities. This approach is ideal for ECE students who are just learning how to effectively observe and document children’s learning because you can write down what you see and hear as things unfold.

Once you’re working as an educator, you will more likely be a participant observer, so you can either jot down notes on the spot or wait until you have a spare moment, and then you can elaborate on them at the end of the day. The value in participating and observing is that you can involve the children in the documentation process by explaining what you’re doing and asking them questions to further inform your observation. However, sometimes as a participant observer, you won’t have a chance to document your observations until quite some time has passed, and this makes it more challenging to recall the vital details which are important when tracking behaviours or assessing development.

Include the Required Information

Check with the program to ensure you’re including all of the required information and following the preferred format. For instance, ECE students are often asked to use only a child’s initials because they share their observations with their college instructors,  whereas when working in a program, educators will most often need to include the child’s full name since the documents will not be shared outside of the program and will be stored securely.

Including the date is important to determine exactly how old the child is at the time of the observation, so be sure to follow the formatting the program uses. For instance, if the date is June 24, 2023 and you write it as dd/mm/yy, it will appear as 24/06/23, but if the program actually uses the yy/mm/dd format, it will be incorrectly noted in the child’s record that the observation occurred on June 23, 2024. That error could lead to confusion and concerns about the child’s development. Depending on the observation tool you use (we will explore these in an upcoming chapter), additional information is often required including the name of the observer, time or day, setting, and reason for the observation, so it’s important that you’re familiar with everything that is needed so your documentation is complete.

Capture Children’s Dialogue

If possible, and especially if it’s relevant to the purpose of your observation, try to capture exactly what the children have said by including direct quotes. This can be very helpful in instances where you’re looking to get a better idea of a child’s expressive language skills. For instance, if you document that Emily said, “I need to put my shoes on my foots,” this will paint a clear picture of Emily’s strengths as well as some small grammatical errors she might still be making that we will want to address. We can then compare that quote with one we capture two months later where Emily correctly says “Look at my feet!” and determine that the supports we put in place were effective. This isn’t to say that capturing direct quotes is always the best approach since oftentimes it’s perfectly sufficient for educators to paraphrase what children say. For example, if we’re looking to learn about the Sam’s interests (the new child in our program), and we engage in a ten-minute conversation with him about the castle he’s building with the blocks including the moat to protect the royal family that lives there from the dragons, paraphrasing that conversation would still allow us to document what we learned about his interests in building with blocks, castles (including their defensive strategies), and dragons.

Revisit your Documentation

After you’ve observed children and jotted down some notes, especially when you’re an active participant and unable to include a lot of detail, it’s important to revisit your documentation to fill in any gaps, add any additional thoughts you didn’t have a chance to initially take note of, or expand on anything that you can. The key to this step is doing it as soon as possible after the observation so everything is still fresh in your mind. The more time that passes, the more difficult it will be to access specific memories. For example, by not documenting the children’s dialogue or capturing their key quotes in a timely manner, you may find it difficult to remember their actual word choices and use of vocabulary which are essential for assessing a child’s expressive language development.

This step where you revisit your documentation can be very useful if you’re more comfortable writing in a language other than English when you’re observing children. You may find this helpful so that you’re not spending too much time finding the right English word while simultaneously trying to capture what you’re seeing and hearing as it’s unfolding. Then, when you revisit your notes, you can use a dictionary or thesaurus to find the English terms you feel best capture what you observed.

During this step, you can also consider adjusting your wording by using more precise language to accurately reflect what occurred. For instance, if you initially jotted down that Jeremy went from the cubby area to the dramatic play centre, but then you recalled that he actually skipped there, changing “went” to “skipped” adds great detail to this observation and can help in the next step when we reflect on what we observed. We’ll discuss the value of descriptive language in more detail in an upcoming chapter.

Finally, revisiting your documentation gives you a chance to ensure you can read what you’ve written, expand any abbreviations you used, and include all of the contextual information you need (date, time, setting, etc.).

Below is an example of how rough notes are transcribed into a professional copy. Repetition and practice offer opportunities to become knowledgeable as to what to write and how to record. Over time you will develop efficiency in documentation and able to convey clearly what you have observed.

Interpret, Reflect, and Respond

This relates to step 4 in the observation cycle where you draw connections and consider what you observed. What is the significance of it? Be sure to include the perspectives of other educators, the child’s family, or anyone else who can help you interpret what the observation might mean. Next, you will consider how you can respond to what you observed. Will you perhaps provide Sam with different materials to incorporate into the castles he builds? Or following Emily’s small grammar errors, maybe you’ll decide to read some books with her or even just engage in more elaborate discussions where you can model correct language. This step of reflecting and responding is quite complex, so we’ll be exploring this in much more detail in an upcoming chapter.