The Power of Observation explores the vital connection between observing and effective teaching. Much more than just a set of skills, observation is a mind-set of openness and wonder that helps teachers and caregivers get to know more about each child in their care. The link between observation and building relationships is an important theme of this book. The authors share their own experiences and those of many others to illustrate how observation helps teachers and caregivers become more effective in the child care center, preschool, family child care home, or elementary classroom. It offers guidelines for effective observation and specific strategies to help you refine your observation skills and transform observing into an integral part of your teaching. This second edition includes expanded guidance on applying what you learn from observation into your daily practices and a new study guide. This study guide was developed based on recommendations from numerous university and community college professors who use the book as the textbook for their courses. We are pleased that NAEYC has chosen to make this book a 2007 Comprehensive Member Benefit.

The need to understand and address large-scale environmental problems that are difficult to study in controlled environments—issues ranging from climate change to overfishing to invasive species—is driving the field of ecology in new and important directions. Observation and Ecology documents that transformation, exploring how scientists and researchers are expanding their methodological toolbox to incorporate an array of new and reexamined observational approaches—from traditional ecological knowledge to animal-borne sensors to genomic and remote-sensing technologies—to track, study, and understand current environmental problems and their implications. The authors paint a clear picture of what observational approaches to ecology are and where they fit in the context of ecological science. They consider the full range of observational abilities we have available to us and explore the challenges and practical difficulties of using a primarily observational approach to achieve scientific understanding. They also show how observations can be a bridge from ecological science to education, environmental policy, and resource management. Observations in ecology can play a key role in understanding our changing planet and the consequences of human activities on ecological processes. This book will serve as an important resource for future scientists and conservation leaders who are seeking a more holistic and applicable approach to ecological science.

Have you ever wished that you had Sherlock Holmes-like observational skills? Would you like to be able to learn how to concentrate better and be more productive in a shorter amount of time? Many people believe that skills like that of observation and concentration are something that a person is born with, that you either have it or you don't and that's it. But, fortunately, this is not the case. Like any other skill, mindfulness can be taught, though some will obviously take to it faster than others. In this book, author Stefan Cain teaches you how to train your brain to work more effectively in a variety of ways using several different exercises and methods. Stefan Cain has studied the human brain for years, particularly in regards to its functionality. His research and experiments have shown him that the brain, like other parts of the body, can be shaped, sculpted, and, eventually, trained in such a way as to promote increased mindfulness. By following the methods outlined in this book, and by coming to understand how the brain works, you will learn how to: -Improve your observational skills-you could be the next Sherlock Holmes! -Improve your memory -Increase your awareness -Become more creative -Make solid deductions -Use critical thinking -Use your intuition By reading, understanding, and then implementing the techniques described in this book, you can be a better, more productive, and less stressed you in no time at all.

This book is an in-depth examination of the much needed process of “self” study known as self observation. We live in an age where the “attention function” in the brain has been badly damaged by TV and computers-up to 90 percent of the public under age 35 suffers from attention-deficit disorder! This book offers the most direct, non-pharmaceutical means of healing attention dysfunction. The methods presented here are capable of restoring attention to a fully functional and powerful tool for success in life and relationships. This is also an age when humanity has lost its connection with conscience. When humanity has poisoned the Earth’s atmosphere, water, air and soil, when cancer is in epidemic proportions and is mainly an environmental illness, the author asks: What is the root cause? And he boldly answers: Failure to develop conscience! Selfobservation, he asserts, is the most ancient, scientific, and proven means to develop this crucial inner guide to awakening and a moral life. This book is for the lay-reader, both the beginner and the advanced student of self observation. No other book on the market examines this practice in such detail. There are hundreds of books on self-help and meditation, but almost none on self-study via self-observation, and none with the depth of analysis, wealth of explication, and richness of experience which this book offers. Red Hawk, author of 5 collections of poetry, was the Hodder Fellow at Princeton University (1992-93) and is currently a full professor at the University of Arkansas, Monticello. He has practiced self-observation for over 30 years, under the guidance of the Gurdjieff Society of Arkansas, meditation master Osho Rajneesh, and spiritual teacher, Lee Lozowick.

In her first week in fourth grade (exiled to a new school because of redistricting) Curious decides that she wants to be a scientist, and her first task is to sharpen her powers of observation by observing her large family, three older sisters and three younger brothers--and try and become effectively invisible in her new class.

Child Observation for Learning and Research is an exciting new text, providing a thorough grounding in the methodology, practice and interpretation of observing children. The authors draw on their experience and expertise in childcare, education, social work and research to introduce the fundamental principles and process of observation, preparing you for your first observation and building knowledge and confidence through a wide range of scenarios and activities. The book takes the unique approach of demonstrating how acquiring observational skills can serve as a key learning tool, not only helping you to understand children, but also to recognise, analyse and question theory, helping you make sense of your own learning.