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Unstructured Classroom Observation Guide

The document outlines a practical task involving unstructured classroom observations in a language class, emphasizing the importance of understanding the class background and student engagement. Observations should focus on teacher-student interaction and student engagement with materials, with a reflection of 200 words required after the observation. The task is due on March 19 and aims to provide experience in ethnographic methods while fostering a supportive learning environment.

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dohongvan9
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7 views1 page

Unstructured Classroom Observation Guide

The document outlines a practical task involving unstructured classroom observations in a language class, emphasizing the importance of understanding the class background and student engagement. Observations should focus on teacher-student interaction and student engagement with materials, with a reflection of 200 words required after the observation. The task is due on March 19 and aims to provide experience in ethnographic methods while fostering a supportive learning environment.

Uploaded by

dohongvan9
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Practical task #5: Unstructured observation

This week, you will use the ethnographic approach to conduct unstructured classroom
observations. You should find a language class that you can observe as a nonparticipant.

Your observations should last for one hour and it is much better for all parties if you start at
the beginning of the class.

In your 200-word reflection, try to incorporate aspects of the experience and evaluation of
the method based on the readings and discussion we had in class. What are these

The point of this exercise is to give you the experience of conducting unstructured
observations. Do your best and (try to) have fun.

Post the short discussion (200 words) of your experience under the relevant topic on the
module’s QMPlus together with a copy of your original handwritten (scanned) or typed
notes (as a separate file).

This task is due Sunday 19 March by 23:55 pm on QMPlus.

To first conduct the observation, I did feel it’s important I understand some background
information about the class and what they have been learning. The professor helped walk
me through what the students have learnt for the past few weeks and what they will touch
on for this lesson. The main focus of my observation is the level of interactiveness between
the teacher and the students as well as the engagement of the students with the materials.
The class size being small affords the students the opportunity to interact with the teacher
and the teacher also created many opportunities to make sure the students was the centre
of learning. While observing the class, I could see that the students were not particularly
very focused on the materials. As the teacher could probably also observe this, he gave out
questions that pushed students to pay attention to the materials such as “Shall we reflect on
this” and when students gave somewhat vague answers, he would ask “Why would you say
that?” to help students articulate their thoughts. When students mistook thesis statement
with the introductory part, the teacher clarified in detail to her how she got it wrong and
tried to make sure she had understood it before moving on to the next part. One critical
thing which I’ve noticed is that the students are very open to asking questions such as, :
“What’s the difference between a hypothesis and a thesis statement”. This can be
attributed to the fact that because the teacher creates an classroom in which students can
feel as if they are encouraged to ask and learn, which is incredibly conducive to their
learning process.

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