Educational objectives Techniques and tools for observing behavior
Obiettivi formativi (EN)
General aims. The course aims at providing the students with principles and methods of observational research and at developing students’ skills in designing relevant observational research projects..
The course provides the basic knowledge needed to measure behaviour and a review of observational methodology as a valuable alternative approach to experimental research, often yielding highly informative results in situations where more invasive experimental techniques would be undesirable, unethical or just impossible. To justify its place alongside experimentation as a rigorous scientific method, observation needs to be systematic and have attention paid to project design in the way that observations are made and recorded.
The course is organized in two parts, a theoretical and an applied section. The first part includes an introduction to observation and contexts to use observation of behavior, and a review of the main theoretical approaches that use quantitative behavioral observation. The second, larger part includes the presentation of the observational method and the presentation and exemplifying application of the main observational techniques. They range from traditional time diary techniques and direct observation to newer Internet mediated recordings and storage.
Students will be provided with theoretical and methodological tools valuable for recording, measuring, coding and interpreting behaviour in educational contexts, and also usable in teachers’ education. As for the applied section, the course aims at deepening students’ observational and interpretative skills in analysing behaviour and at fostering students’ skills in applying methodological research tools in order to be able to implement all the stages of a project design: from the initial observations, to the formulation of hypotheses, and their subsequent testing with further systematic observations.
The expected learning outcome would be: to know the main theoretical perspectives, and main research interdisciplinary areas, using observational methods; to know some of the methodological research tools used in ethological, ecological, Piagetian, psychoanalytic and ethnographic approaches to observation; to know how to record behaviour, measure reliability and validity and assess between-observer reliability; to know how to plan a research design and how to interpret and present findings; to be aware of the ethical issues in relation to the assessment and testing of children and in relation to privacy in online studies.
Specific aims. For the students, passing the exam would imply being capable of: 1) Having a basic knowledge and understanding of the theoretical foundations of the different behavioural observation techniques; having a basic knowledge and understanding of characteristics, use conditions, advantages and limits of the different qualitative and quantitative techniques based on the observation of child behavior in different contexts; having a basic knowledge and understanding of the opportunities to use specific tools for observing and evaluating the child’s abilities in different developmental domains (Descriptor 1 : Knowledge and understanding); 2) Being able to use the different observational techniques learned during the course, and apply the most appropriate in educational practice; being able to design a simple data collection based on the observation of child behavior in an educational context; being able to assess the reliability and validity of data collected through observation, and to carry out a descriptive analysis of collected data (II Descriptor: Applying knowledge and understanding); 3) to develop critical judgment and interpretive skills to analyse observational data in different contexts, by means of: research (individual and group) activities that will include the collection and the analysis of research data, and the writing of research reports and their collective discussion in the classroom; to develop reflexive skills with regards to the ethical implications of observational research (III Descriptor: Making judgments); 4) to develop skills to interpret, present and communicate the empirical results of observation, to both expert and non expert audiences, by means of: public presentations of data and observations in the classroom, collective classroom discussions of data and analyses, and the writing of analytical reports regarding collected data, which will be assessed at the end of the course (IV Descriptor: Communication skills); 5) to develop skills in autonomous learning and the detailed study of theoretical methodological and applied knowledge usable to the study and the design of effective observational research projects in different educational contexts (V Descriptor: Lifelong learning skills)
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Educational objectives General aims. The course aims at providing the students with theories and methodologies
regarding the study of socialization practices in different educational contexts, and at developing
students’ skills in designing relevant socialization contexts involving both children and adults. The
course grounds onto a cultural, situated and interactionist perspective, which emphasizes the
concepts of participation, discursive competence and community of practices.
The course develops across two different modules: 1) Children and socialization to language; 2) )
Socialization processes and forms of participation in intercultural contexts.
Both modules include a theoretical and an applied section. The first module examines the main
theories of language socialization in a cultural perspective and particularly focuses on children’s
participation to conversational interactions in family, educational and peer contexts, also
examined across different cultures. The second module deepens, within a situated and
interactionist framework, forms of participation and the relationship between these forms and
results in learning and socialization to sociocultural competence in different intercultural contexts:
processes of socialization and inclusion of unaccompanied foreign minors will be examined,
together with their close interrelation with organizational dimension of the different hosting
contexts. Both modules provide students with research methodology including observational and
analytical methodology for the study of interactions in socialization in family and educational
contexts. Interview data, texts, video and transcripts of family interaction , interaction in
educational contexts and peer interaction will be examied, in order to identify different participant
structures, beneficial for the inclusion.
Both modules aim at fostering students’ skills in applying methodological research tools (such as,
interviews, observation and analysis of video and transcriptions of conversations) to design and
assess socialization practices in different domains. The expected learning outcome would be: to
know the main theoretical perspectives, and main research interdisciplinary areas, dealing with
socialization practices of children and adults; to know methodological research tools including
ethnographic observation and the analysis of discursive interaction for the study, the observation
and the assessment of socialization practices; to know how to analyze, within a cultural and
interactionist perspective, the socialization processes in different educational contexts, both
formal and informal; to learn about the main epistemological frameworks in socio-psychological
research and to learn how to apply methods and tools of situated, qualitative research to the
analysis, the design and the assessment of practices of socialization that may enrich the novices’
participation in specific educational contexts.
Specific aims. For the students, passing the exam would imply being capable of: 1) Knowing the
most relevant theories in language socialization and the relationship between socialization
processes, culture and discourse; knowing and understanding the methodological qualitative tools
to observe, analyze, design and assess the characteristics and effectiveness of a socialization
context (Descriptor 1 : Knowledge and understanding); 2) to apply the knowledge of the
epistemological frameworks relevant in a cultural and interactionist perspective to the analysis of
the main dimensions implied in socialization processes in different educational contexts; to
develop reflexive skills in applying methods and tools of situated and qualitative research (e.g.,
ethnographic observation, narrative interviews, discourse and conversation analysis) in order to
analyze, design and assess socialization practices in different educational settings and to
understand their relationship with personal and social identity, in an inclusive perspective; to
develop analytical and planning skills to design different discursive participation structures
relevant for different educational (such as, inclusive ) aims and contexts and to reinforce one
own's sociocultural competence (II Descriptor: Applying knowledge and understanding); 3) to
develop critical judgment and interpretive skills to analyze video data and transcriptions of
interactions in different activities and socialization contexts, by means of: research (individual and
group) activities that will include the collection and the analysis of research data, and the writing
of research reports and their collective discussion in the classroom; to develop reflexive skills with
regards the ethical implications of the research about the socialization in different contexts, by
means of the consideration of ethical and relational aspects implied in the observer’s access to the
field of observation (III Descriptor: Making judgments); 4) to develop skills as regards the
communication of empirical results of observation and analytical interpretation of data collected
in socialization contexts, to both expert and non expert audiences, by means of: public
presentations of data and observations in the classroom, collective classroom discussions of data
and analyses , and the writing of analytical reports regarding collected data, which will be assessed
at the end of the (IV Descriptor: Communication skills); 5) to develop skills in autonomous learning
and the detailed study of theoretical methodological and applied knowledge usable to the study
and the design of effective socialization practices in different
educational contexts (V Descriptor: Lifelong learning skills)
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