Observation
Experiential Context
When I walk into my classroom in the morning, I am doing one of various things that have unconsciously become routines. Sometimes I begin taking roll, others I am looking at something on the internet, or checking mail, or creating some new document for some new idea. The bell rings, and I finish what I am doing while students get adjusted. Still other times I stand and begin talking right away. This is good for the work ethic of the class, and it sets a tone of dedication to the period of activities that is planned and ready to go.
Academic vs. Psychological Aims of Education
If we look at teaching as solely the instruction of an academic subject area, we are often contented with a well planned lesson, and a well-executed work period. It is my contention, however, that deeper, lasting and intelligent learning occurs when classroom resonance is at a maximum, as such a classroom atmosphere gives a solid foundation for academic learning. It generates a cognitive setting that begins to see knowledge as part of the human experience, and at once the personalities involved feel valued, anxiety is low, experience is efficient and profound. Thus, psychological wholeness is also attended to. While some may defend the claim that school is solely an academic venture, I am of the party that disagrees, and feels school to be an academic environment through which psychological wholeness and mature development are the ends and the means to a self-fulfilled young adult. The academic and the psychological nature of school is not dualistic, rather, two exist as one in the same sense that our mind exists in our body and at the same time contains our perception of our body, The psychological validates the academic, and the academic validates the psychological. The two dispositions and goals, maturity and knowledge, are, in spite of our opinions, inextricably part of the same whole.
The Metaphor of Reading
The other day, as I tend to do, I challenged myself to image a world in which I only wrote and spoke, but in which I read nothing. I imagined this to take a glance at the discourse of experience. I wanted to see if it was more important to experience or to learn via transmission (e.g. reading, listening to lectures, etc.) Very quickly, of course, I realized that reading gives content to our writing, which gives shape to our experience. While it is possible to write experience without reading about a subject, it is likewise impossible to interact with others, in the lexicon of the various people and opinions, if we do not read different styles of writing, different ideas, different words. When we read, we are enabled to communicate with others because we are exposed to different structures of language and different points of view. Happiness, as psychological wholeness being my goal, I know studying new topics with new vocabularies and studying interactions with differing opinions is one of the essential tools to attain wholeness. And at the same time, when I study something interesting or hear a new idea, I am satisfied most when I write it down, think about it, and watch and hear it chime against my psyche. Thus, reading is essential, but more importantly, reading exists as a metaphor for understanding others, and my library in my classroom, as a student of the mind and as an effective teacher, is the students themselves and their outward projections as displayed in emotions, classwork, tones of interaction and engagement.
Observation in Practice
This brings us to our present topic, observation. In this essay, I mean observation of the condition of the student psyche. While the teacher will never have the access that a student has to a student’s psyche in esse, the teacher can attempt to piece together a picture of the student’s psychological demeanor through the senses and intuition. We can hear the student, the tone of voice, the words being used, the subtle or unconscious reactions to interaction and through his or her ideas. We can see the student, the posture, the style of dress, the looks on the face, the gestures and through his or her classwork and engagement. We can intuit the student’s attitude through our own feeling “that something isn’t right”, although we have to be sure to have a clear understanding of the differences between how a student actually is and how we assume or project the student to be. The skill of closing the gap between perception and reality is one that may never be mastered, but it can be honed through constant and honest reflection.
As a teacher, my main job, on the surface, is to teach a subject. Thus, I think it at least professionally or politically expedient to start with some sort of academic work that the students can begin with while I sort out my other beginning-of-the-period duties. It is important that this “bell work” does not depend on my presence as a speaker or instructor, rather, it should be an independent or group activity that can be started quickly and with little explanation. While this may seem obvious (almost all teachers use some sort of bell work to complete initial administrative duties), the second task of the day, observation, is far more important and is not considered a common best practice. Many teachers who care do this observation semi-unconsciously and in an incomplete manner, checking on students who are severely upset and getting rid of discipline issues as quickly as possible. Active observation, however, watches the entire class, looking for some sort of sign (through perception and intuition) that an individual or group of students is not in the midst of some sort of psychological disruption.
For at least five minutes, the teacher looks on, student by student, either randomly or purposefully. The random approach gives us an effect similar to dowsing for water. We are naturally pulled to our own intuited area of focus. Purposeful active observation happens when someone chooses a student based on previous concern or obvious distress at the moment of entering the classroom. Maybe we have noticed a student’s grades dropping, or maybe when the student came in, he or she gave a loud sigh and through his or her books on the ground. In any case, we continue this looking on the students until finding those of interest. They are the starting point for the day’s attempt at resonance in the classroom. While throughout the period, we may find other subjects of interest, but this initial observation acts as a good start to the process and a safe workspace for honing our skills of psychological development.
When one notices these students, one begins interacting through gestures or dialogue, in a way that attempts to give an open opportunity for the student to step forward with his or her claim and conflict. Observation in this manner is parallel to choosing focus-students for remediation and intervention, selecting four or five students who will receive extra academic attention. As we become better and noticing and interacting with the students, the process becomes more acute, and resonance is almost consistently trying to cycle through the relationship atmospheres we encounter.
