Classroom Observation Project

University of Belize
Psychology of Learning
EDUC 3403
Course Instructor: Noel Carballo Ph.D.
Group members:
Manuel Tzul
Lineiry Campos
Roger Briceno
Elma Chun
Gival Marin
Yasmari Barrera
Renan Ruiz
July 26, 2016

Classroom observation
The following pointers were recorded during a classroom observation. Three
different classes were observed a mathematics class, Science class and reading
class.
The observation focused on the theories of Pavlov, Skinner and Bandura.

School: Corozal Community College

Class: 1E
Teacher: Mrs. Eva Castaneda
Subject: Mathematics
Amount of students: 29
Observers: Gival Marin and Elma Chun

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)
Teacher ends the class off with a revision
Students are given problems as practice for their tests
3

 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 Mrs. Eva Castanedas Mathematics
Classroom where she taught Binary Operation to soon to be first formers. The class
comprised of 29 students; 15 females and 14 males. Mrs. Eva started the lesson by
orally stating her objectives for the day and then proceeded to writing the topic for
the day with its definition. She explained that they will be focusing on substitution
and for the students to ask questions if they needed to. The first thing we noticed
about the students was that they were segregated by the primary school that they
came from. We also noticed that Mrs. Eva had created a routine with her students
that they must raise their hands to answer or ask questions. She solved eight
problems on the board explaining step by step what she did and why. For every

step, she asked the students if they had any questions before moving on. After
solving the 8 problems, she gave the students three to do on their own. She went
around seeing if the students were solving the problems correctly and gave a check
mark if they got the question correct. Many of the students raised their hands and
waited eager for her to reach by them to get a check mark (Behaviourism). We
noticed that while others were busy solving the problems, there were a few students
distracted by other things such as talking with their friends, clicking their pens, and
one student in particular, was busy painting his nails with a green marker. The
teacher volunteered three students to the board to solve the problems and told the
others to follow along. She asked if everyone got the answer. Few admitted that
they didnt but that they realized their error.
Mrs Eva then changed the symbol and gave harder problems to for the
students to solve (absolute value and negative exponents). Many admitted that
they didnt understand it and that they were confused by the questions while only a
few went ahead and solve the problems. Mrs Eva proceeded by explaining why the
change in symbol does not affect the way the problem is solved and showed three
examples to the students for them to see what she meant. She then gave them 2
problems to solve on their own and then continued to walk around checking to see if
they were going right. She asked two students to go up and solve the problems and
again for the others to follow along. Mrs. Eva then reminded the students that they
have an upcoming test and gave revision problems for homework. She asked if they
had any questions before dismissing them. While she did this, many students were
distracted by students from other classes passing by and many were busy closing
their books and preparing to go home.

To conclude, we noticed that students at the right hand side were the most
vocal and the ones to the back were the quietest. Mrs. Eva kept control of her class
by having established routines. Her students were not afraid to say that they did not
understand and she asked after every step if anyone had any question. While some
of the students were very talkative and distracted others in the classroom, they all
seem to be very attentive when the teacher starts explaining the procedures. Most
were quiet while solving the questions on their own but a few got easily distracted.
Mrs Eva utilized the behaviourism theory by putting a check mark if the students
got the question correctly. This persuaded them to be eager in solving the problem
and to raise their hands when finished. She also uses questioning techniques by
asking the students if they had any questions. This helps in making the students
feel that it is okay to ask questions.

School: Corozal Community College

Class: 1y
Subject: English (Reading)

Amount of students: 30
Observer: Yasmari Barrera, Lineiry Campos and Manuel Tzul
Classroom observations recorded:
1) Students were a little late
2) The class was organized
3) Interactive
4) listen to instructions at the beginning of class
5) students are curious, asking questions
6) positive classroom environment
7) students were engaged
8) students formed groups and were assigned to read in their little groups
9) student were reading loud
10) some were following instructions; some were not
11) some students were distracted
12) students were whispering, drawing and not practicing their reading assigned to them
13) became noisy
14) students reading aloud at the same time was confusing
15) some students finished earlier and were distracted doing something else
16) students now read again but quietly, some did follow instructions but didnt
17) students behaviour was positive, were engaged on their reading at some point
18) noticed that students asked the teacher how to pronounce words they did know
19) when reading some students were shy
20) students were keenly listening to their peers read now
21) others were practicing their readings were practicing their own reading when it was the
turn of a group to read aloud
22) students were sighing
23) attentive to teachers conclusion
Descriptive observation
Our child observation project was a reading summer class that was offered to
students entering first form. There were approximately 30 students in the class.
The class was a little late since they were with another teacher, however when they
were entering the class it was clearly noticed who were the hyper active students.
There was one in particular that was very talkative amongst the group.
Teacher at the beginning had given the students instructions to get in their previous
reading group. They already had a handout with a variety of paragraphs. The
teacher allowed the students to get in their groups and the order of the groups was
the same order of paragraphs in the handout.
The behaviour of students while being in their groups
Students were given the instruction to practice reading their paragraphs. So all
groups started reading aloud and at some point in time the class became noisy.

Some students in their groups were reading along with their group members while
other students were clearly not interested in the reading class since, they were busy
doing other things rather than practicing their reading. Moreover, several students
were playing with their pens and pencils and were writing on their note book.
In one group there were two girls that were having their own conversation, one of
the girl was writing on her notebook. After writing in her notebook the girl did not
hesitated in pulling the page out of her notebook. The other girl beside had been
telling her not to pull her pages apart.
The teacher then noticed that the class had become noisy, so the teacher kindly
asked them to lower their volume and asked them to read in their minds.
At that point the students realized that they were being noisy and upon the teacher
calling their attention the students then focused on their tasks and they all seem to
cooperate in their groups.
After the teacher had given the students time to practice their reading; he asked the
first group to read aloud their assigned paragraph.
In the first group, the three students were reading however at the middle of the
reading one student in the group started mumbling. The two other continued
reading. Others in their groups were still practicing their own reading and were not
paying attention to the other readers.
Students from different groups were having conversation at a distance while some
students were slouching on their arm chair.
The point is that most students that are slow readers were the ones that were not
paying attention to the others that were reading. When those students had their
turn, it was clear that they were struggling to read, others were mumbling and
others were just moving their lips as if they were reading.

School: Corozal Community College

Class: 1L
Subject: science
Amount of students: 34
Observer: Renan Ruiz and Roger Briceno
Classroom observations recorded:
1) Students reach little late on class

2) Students took some time to settle down

3) Groups of students formed in the same class
4) Some students stayed at the back of the class and had some talking at the beginning of the
lesson.
5) Students knew that when raising of hands teacher will acknowledge for them to response a
question or to ask a question
6) Some discussion among the students on the groups
7) Some students repeated the same answers that was given before due that they were not paying
attention
8) Some students were talking with each other during the lesson
9) During the discussion the students were little loud among the groups
10) Students were eager to leave the class room as the time was approaching the end of the class
11) Students that left as they were dismissed didnt pack the chair as how they were instructed.
12) Some students didnt took notes when they were instructed.
13) Students got focused every time teacher passed by the students.
14) Some students were playing around in their little groups and not paying attention to the
teacher.

Descriptive observation
In the class of 1L in the science lab, many of the students reached late, hence it
took some time to settle down for the lesson to start. The noise at the beginning of
the lesson was considerable, that is one of the reasons that they were taking long.
The late students were the ones that tended to stay at the back of the class, their
attention was called and they fixed and started to focus in class. During the
breaking of the student to groups, students again started to get a little noisy, due
that they grouped with their friends or students that they felt comfortable and
hence the talking began. The time of class participation in the lesson took place,
and only a few started at the beginning, then after having a correct response and
good feedback by the teacher, students then started to response to questions. At an
instance a student started make himself to be the centre of attraction in his little
group, but make the class a little distracted. Then the same guy that was making
noise was the one that was not copying his notes at the beginning, until the teacher
called the attention of the student again. To make it worst the same student had all
his notes mixed up in a note book, his notebook had note from different subject. He
also one of the students that was not participating and was always distracted. The
class went on with some participation of the student later on in class by him

repeating the answers that others had said. When the class was approaching to the
end many of them were more aware of the time than the teacher. As soon as the
buzzer went, many had already packed their bags and didnt finish to copy their
notes. Then some of them left the class as soon as the teacher said that they are
dismissed, without packing their chairs properly on top of the tables. They were
more eager to get out of the room and meet their other friends from other classes
that some left even garbage of pencil on top of the tables.