Running Head: Children Observation Project

Topic: Child Observation Project

Subject: Psychology of Learning
Teacher: Mr. Noel Carballo
Student: Gival Marin

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Notes for the Observation of Students:

Definition is stated
Binary Operation
Students know that they must raise their hands to answer questions
They asks a lot of questions
Teacher solves 8 problems slowly step by step
Teacher asks yes or no if they understand
Students were confused about Absolute value
Changed symbol and students got even more confused
Teacher clarify their confusion
Gave 3 practice problems
Teacher goes around to see if the students understand
Students were volunteered to solve problems on the board
Teacher uses Behaviourism (check mark)
Teacher gives even harder problem to the students (-4)3
Teacher ends the class off with a revision
Students are given problems as practice for their tests
Teacher tells the students what to study for
Not all students do the work in class
Clicking pens
students are talkative
Students choose to sit close to others from their previous school (segregation)
15 females, 14 males
Several students look outside as other students exit their classes
Majority of the students seem attentive at all times (look at the teacher)
Few students seem eager to answer but some hesitate.
Some students lose attention and distract others by speaking to them.
Some students arent afraid to admit they dont understand.
The students at the back of the class are relatively quiet.
The right side of the class are the most vocal in the class

Descriptive Observation:
On Tuesday, July 19th, we observed 1E Mathematics Classroom where Mrs Eva
Castaneda was the instructor. The topic for the day was Substitution in Binary Operation. This
class comprised of 29 students in total; 14 girls and 15 boys. The students sitting at the back of
the class were the quietest ones while the students at the right side of the class were the most
vocal. Mrs Eva based her lesson on drilling the students until they understood. The students of

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this class seemed to have been paying attention throughout. One little girl wanted to distract
others but the students didnt allow her nor did the teacher gave her gave her attention.
The class was well-behaved and they knew the rules of the classroom such as raising
hands to answer or ask questions, to respect others opinion and to ask questions if they didnt
understood. One very impressive aspect of Mrs. Evas students was that they were not afraid to
ask questions and to say they did not understand. Mrs Eva implemented lower level thinking and
higher level thinking. She gave more complex problems along the way to see if the students were
able to think further than what she had just taught. Many got confused when she did this but a
few were able to figure it out without her help. There was only one time in the entire lesson
where many of the students got distracted. This was when the buzzer sounded and students from
other classes were dismissed ahead of Mrs. Evas students. Many of them looked outside the
windows rather than to listen to the topics for their upcoming test. Mrs. Eva kept asking if they
had any questions about the test but many were more concerned on being dismissed than to pay
attention.

Analysis of the Observation:

Bloom's Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership of educational
psychologist Dr Benjamin Bloom in order to promote higher forms of thinking in
education, such as analysing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures, and
principles , rather than just remembering facts (rote learning). We can see how Mrs. Eva
implemented Blooms Taxonomy in her classroom. She started off with small and easy
problems for the students to get the gist of Substitution before giving them higher level

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thinking problems. This change in level caused confusion for some students but a few
were able to solve the higher level problem without her help.
In this Math class, BF Skinners theory of operant conditioning was also
present. Skinners operant conditioning was based on the idea that behaviour is determined by
its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, which make it more or less likely that
the behaviour will occur again. We saw that there was one little girl at the back of the class that
kept wanting to distract the other students attention but they didnt allow her to. We also saw
that the students knew that they must raise their hands to ask or to answer questions. Also, the
teacher had already conditioned them that when she goes around, she places a check mark if they
got the problem correct. This was a positive reinforcement in that it encourages the students into
wanting to get the work done correctly so that they can get a check mark in their books.
Henri Tajfel's greatest contribution to psychology was social identity theory. Social
identity is a persons sense of who they are based on their group membership(s). In the
classroom, it was noticeable that students from their previous primary school tend to sit next to
each other. Tajfel (1979) proposed that the groups which people belonged to were an important
source of pride and self-esteem. Groups give us a sense of social identity: a sense of belonging to
the social world. These students do not as yet feel belonging to this class. They are used to being
in a certain environment and so they are more comfortable by sitting near students that they are
used to being with. We saw that the girls at the back all belong to the same primary school and
they were the quietest. This shows that maybe they arent used to being asked questions or are
used to being in a class where the teacher does all the talking. The students on the right also
came from the same primary school, however, were very vocal unlike the others. This shows that
perhaps they are used to having discussions with their teachers from their previous primary

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school. They werent afraid to say neither that they were confused nor that they didnt
understand.

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References:

Bloom, B.S. (Ed.). Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., Krathwohl, D.R.
(1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive

Domain. New York: David McKay Co Inc

Source: Boundless. Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning: Skinner. Boundless
Psychology.

Boundless,

26

May.

2016.

Retrieved

27

Jul.

2016

from https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychologytextbook/learning-7/operant-conditioning-47/basic-principles-of-operant-conditioning

skinner-197-12732/
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. The social
psychology of intergroup relations?, 33, 47.