Learning to Teach: Observing and Reflecting

This video series provides a platform for professional development in early childhood education. It introduces viewers to compelling early childhood classroom footage accompanied by facilitated discussions about observations and teaching practices. Viewers will get a hands-on look at how beginning teachers learn to closely observe children and engage in reflective conversations about children, materials, the classroom environment, and themselves.

This series begins with an introduction from Nancy Nager, former course instructor at Bank Street Graduate School of Education, and features three parts: classroom routines and transitions, dramatic play, and early materials and movement. The content enacts two essential elements of Bank Street’s teacher education pedagogy: close observation and reflective practice.

Citation

Nager. N. Learning to teach: Observing and reflecting. [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.bankstreet.edu/research-publications-policy/snapshots-of-practice/learning-to-teach-observing-and-reflecting/.

Introduction by Nancy Nager (pdf)

Part One: Classroom Routines and Transitions
Explores how an early childhood classroom functions with the support of routines and transitions

Part Two: Dramatic Play (pdf)
Examines what happens when children engage in dramatic play

Part Three: Early Childhood Materials and Environment (pdf)
Focuses on open-ended materials, such as paper, scissors, and crayons, and how children work with them in the classroom