For my observation, I have decided to choose the available YouTube videos about young children in classrooms. I have watched multiple pieces, yet some of them deserve specific attention. As such, in Weber’s (2012) video, children participate in the creative learning process. Namely, they paint with their hand on a piece of paper, aided by their teacher. The video demonstrates how quickly children acquire the motoric skills required for such an action. They practice not only spreading the paint across the surface but making dots with their fingers as well. Thus, it was significant for me to observe how children can be interested in new things and continue learning them when a variation of practices is present in the process.
The next exciting video was no less informative about children’s behavior. Precisely, the video presented by AvanceNational (2013) was the observation of teachers making conversations with children. It was shown that children value peer-to-peer communication. The adults that were asking the children to participate in a dialogue constructed their thoughts in a simple way, yet pointing out that it is the answer of a child that matters. Moreover, I noticed that one of the teachers asked about what was going to happen after the child’s actions; the child, in turn, guessed about the ongoing phenomena. So, it was an approach that benefits children’s imagination and thoughtful observation skills.
Watching these videos made me conclude that the most important matter in children’s education is dialogue. Furthermore, communication should be done in a respectful manner. A child can learn better if there is no push and some variation of activities is present so that their attention would not fade. Moreover, engaging children in answering questions is helpful for shaping their problem-solving skills. Thus, the observation of children online was useful for my education.
References
AvanceNational. (2013). Engaging children in meaningful conversations [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Weber, M. [Margaret Weber]. (2012). Child observation 2 312 [Video]. YouTube. Web.