When the new EYFS framework was published, it shone a spotlight on the function and value of observations, and an evolution began. Dr Helen Edwards examines this transformation of the way we observe learning and development in Early Years…
For many years, recording high volumes of observations and assessments had become a tick list exercise to demonstrate attainment of the Development Matters statements. This was something for which the statements had never been designed.
The new framework has helped to turn the tide. We now have a greater understanding that, with a well-designed curriculum and provision, and with skilled early years professionals, most children will make good progress. This is regardless of the amount of evidence you collect.
But, observations have always been about much more than assessment. As we move beyond tick lists, how can we fully support staff? And crucially, what does a meaningful observation look like?
A good place to start is to ask “What determines a useful observation?”. For me, there are two key responses to this question: first, to understand better the needs of each child; and second, to plan an appropriate curriculum for them.
Observations help educators find out what is interesting and motivating to children and how they respond to particular learning experiences. You can also discover the factors that influence children’s levels of involvement and wellbeing.
As well as understanding what our observations help us to notice about children, we need to be clear about the function and nature of observations. They should:
Anyone who has entered the Early Years sector in the past ten years will have used observations to support assessment systems. These typically relied heavily on tick lists of outcomes for each child to achieve by a certain age or stage. Without these in place, it’s understandable practitioners may feel they have little support in assessing young children.
Reception teacher Nicola, a member of the Tapestry Support Group on Facebook, explained her concerns:
“I do my own baseline and then assess each half term against my own criteria as I know what they need to be doing each term to get to the goals [...] It worries me that a newer teacher or TA would find this difficult; it’s a huge amount of knowledge that is needed on child development [...] We are all 15 years plus experienced so we know the next steps for individuals.”
More experienced early years educators can draw on years of practice and training which means they have a well-developed understanding of child development.
They can apply this when observing and assessing children. They know how to support a child’s existing interests, and levels of development. And they know how to take their learning further by creating extra challenge, or providing new resources or provocations.
Supporting staff with less experience, or those who feel at sea without tick lists, is important in making observations really valuable.
A good place to start is with the Characteristics of Effective Teaching and Learning. Taking the first section, Playing and Exploring, suggest a question or two to your member of staff before they observe the child. For example:
Using open-ended questions to help with the observation will encourage a narrative approach. This results in an observation unique to each child. This, in turn, provides information that can help you plan provision, discuss with staff and share with parents or carers.
For example, instead of writing ‘Syed likes joining in with nursery rhymes’ and ticking the associated statement, a narrative observation will explore how Syed:
Observations shared by more experienced staff can be valuable resources for helping educators who feel less confident in creating observations. They can be used in reflective discussions with team members, demonstrating the characteristics of meaningful observations.
More broadly, observations play a part in professional learning by providing a starting point for important conversations that help to:
All staff will benefit from revisiting their relationship with observations. This includes where to go for advice (colleagues, guidance documents), and having conversations about what good observation practice looks like in their setting.
The evolution of observations is also impacting how they are documented. In its purest sense, an observation includes collecting, interpreting and reflecting on a child’s learning and development.
Turner and Wilson (2010) talk about the curiosity that this demands, explaining:
“Pedagogical documentation invites us to be curious and to wonder with others about the meaning of events to children. We become co-learners together; focusing on children’s expanding understanding of the world as we interpret that understanding with others.”
For some settings this now focuses on using video to capture children’s learning. These enable educators to revisit and reflect individually and together, noticing children’s non-verbal communication.
Certainly, at Tapestry we can see that the amount of video stored on our servers has increased steadily. Photography also continues to be popular.
Video and photography observations can also be shared and discussed easily with the child themselves. This can support language and develop metacognition skills.
In 2018, three quarters of the profession cited paperwork as a regular source of stress, especially that associated with evidencing children’s development to Ofsted inspectors.
Many said that they believed much of this paperwork was unnecessary, time-consuming, and took staff away from interacting with the children.
A welcome outcome of the move away from tick lists has been less time spent on paperwork.
Dr Julian Grenier, author of Working with the Revised Early Years Foundation Stage: Principles into Practice (2020), explains how the revised framework helps to give practitioners more time to be with children:
“Most children will make sound progress, given favourable circumstances at home and in their setting. It is not necessary to track lots of examples of their learning and progress.
“In fact, the work involved in doing that can damage practitioners’ wellbeing. It can stop practitioners from spending time with the children and helping them to learn new things.”
Observations still have their place and we have an opportunity now to reduce their number but make sure they remain useful in sharing learning with parents and carers, and planning further learning experiences for the children.
As a secondary function, observations still help practitioners to:
A pragmatic approach is needed which demonstrates children’s development and learning, whilst not taking up too much time. Practitioner Roz describes this well:
“Each keyworker does a group update daily for parents with pictures and what they did that day and then one in depth report/review/observation per term, per child.
“That is enough to demonstrate progress for the majority. We do extra ones for those with concerns if we need to.”
Dr Julian Grenier is also clear that some children may need more detailed records at times. He says:
“It may be helpful to think about this as keeping records on some of the children, some of the time, but not all of the children, all of the time. Some children may require more detailed records than others.”
Meaningful observations are as much about what we choose not to record as what we do. It’s our professional judgement that helps to inform these choices.
The balance between rich, informative observations that are also efficient to make is where much of the evolution in observation practice is currently happening.
Dr Helen Edwards is co-founder of Tapestry – an online learning journal for early years and schools which encourages reflective practice.
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