ECD 100 Seneca College Outdoor Playing Environments Among Kindergarten Children Paper
Help me study for my Psychology class. I’m stuck and don’t understand.
In this assignment, you will be analyzing an outdoor play area. You will need to find a suitable video, document the play episode, then answer a series of questions aimed at critiquing the outdoor play space
Observation: Locate a video that will allow you to observe preschool or kindergarten children playing in an outdoor environment. The video you choose must meet the following criteria:
- Must be able to see the entire outdoor play space
- Must enable you to identify various types of play (Playing and Learning In Early Childhood Education, pages 56-64)
- Must NOT have a narrator describing/analyzing play in the background
- It is acceptable to use a video where an ECE is working alongside the child(ren) as long as the ECE is not restricting the child(ren) from engaging in different types of play.
- It is preferable to be able to hear the child(ren) speaking, so you can assess play and their interactions
Videos can be found on YouTube, Kanopy, or any other site of your choosing.
Documentation (250 words): Document your observations using accepted and established forms of documentation (running records, anecdotal records, etc.). Detail in writing the important aspects of this observation. (less than 250 words)
Critique (400 words): The quality of the outdoor play area impacts the types of play that are possible, the ways that children interact with each other, and the overall behaviour of children. Your task is to assess the effectiveness of the play area in your video based on the factors listed above. Identify both the positive and negative aspects of the play area. Conclude your assessment with a recommendation to help improve the play area. Here are some questions to consider when making your assessment:
- How did the play area impact the types of play, social interactions, and overall behaviour of thechildren?
- What features of the play area either encouraged or discouraged social interactions between children?
- Could the features or layout of the play area lead to behavioural challenges for some children?
- What types of play are unlikely in this play area?
- What is the biggest weakness of this play area? How did this weakness impact play, interactions, and/or behaviours?
- What should be done to improve this play area?
Video to help you with Documentation:
The Basics of Observation and Documentation
OBSERVATION
- What to consider when observing children:
- Interactions with their environment
- Communication
- Emotional state and well-being
- Interrelationships within the group
- Rather than focusing on the product of children’s actions (what), consider the process (how).
- How are children using the materials? How are children adjusting and refining their actions?
- What questions do children appear to be exploring through their actions?
- How are children using the physical space?
- How do they react to different levels of sensory stimulation?
- How do they use their time?
- What are children saying about what they are doing and thinking?
- What does their body language tell you?
- How are children responding emotionally to their environment, experiences and each other?
- What are children doing in the context of others in the group?
- How are they adjusting their actions in relation to others?
- How do they demonstrate understanding of another’s perspective?