Observe… and learn!

In Chapter 6 of your TopHat text, you find an introduction to observational research that starts with Jane Goodall’s work with her chimpanzees. Classic! That’s what I think of too, when I think of really good observational research– carefully watching behavior, “out in the wild.” But classrooms can be pretty wild, too! And observing them carefully in a scholarly way can be just as exciting and challenging as living in the wild with the chimpanzees and gorillas.

Read TopHat Chapter 6 completely– it’s good, watch the videos. I found it worth it.

 When I think of doing observational research in the classroom, I think of Jane Goodall living with the chimps, while taking careful observations of their behaviors. Well.. not that kids act ever like chimps, right? But my point is the image I have of the researcher, sitting in the wild, not hiding, but interacting as a participant observer. Yet sill having a system for reliably noting examples and non-examples of a variety of behaviors that, taken, together, might explain the bigger picture of chimp (classroom) activities. Observations from across the field (room) or while engaging in feeding and grooming behaviors (teaching) were all designed to build a general theory of how and why things occurred as they did.

Actually, I think Chapter 6 does a very nice job of clarifying how a systematic approach to observations is quite different from casual observations made by participants in a situation. Attempts can be made to be more objective, to ensure that others watching the same thing would make the same observation (if not the same interpretations and conclusions), and to triangulate observations with other evidence to double check that the patterns that appear are real. So what are the equivalents of these various forms of scholarly observation to classroom learning? Most of the time teachers are participant observers, yet they are not actually fellow students in a class, but instead a special type of participant (the leader). Teachers can also be observers (of other teachers) in the back of the class, so more like traditional participant observers. Or they could be like undisguised observers, if they go to another school, in another country, and observe classroom teaching (e.g., Americans observing a Chinese classroom).

Much of the work on teacher evaluation is done based on Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, with factors such as “creating an environment of respect” and “communicating expectations for learning” that are, almost exclusively, evaluated by 092 certified administrators visiting classroom to observe. In short, not only is observational research a part of student learning, it has recently become a central factor in teacher evaluation, and the associated research on teaching.

Here are some Observation Techniques (pdf) and the types of information they might be provide to a classroom researcher. These should help guide your discussion for this module.

Case Study: Multimedia Storytelling and ELL

One thing a tech-integrating teacher can do is observe a special case. Case studies provide concrete examples that can help to inform theory-building and can suggest researchable questions that can be addressed with other research methods. Consider the Case Study of Alba, a bilingual (Spanish-English) elementary reader (Rivera 2013). As a scholarly paper, what do you observe about the methods and writing style? Could you see yourself composing a case study of a student who piques your interest?

Other Readings:

Risk of Bias (RoB) assessment Sterne et al (2019) https://www.bmj.com/content/366/bmj.l4898

Essential Understanding:

Observational research requires careful thinking and planning and doing it is quite different than just watching something to form an opinion.