Teaching Tip: Observing Behavior
Observation of student behavior should be consistent and take place in a variety of times and settings. The key is to provide a clear picture of the behavior that you target.You can use any of the following to accomplish this:
- Time or interval sampling in which you record whether a specific behavior occurs at a particular time or how many times it occurs within a predetermined interval such as thirty minutes.
- Narrative recording in which you write down what the student does at a particular time or in a particular setting.
- Event sampling in which you wait for a specific behavior to occur and then record its frequency and duration.
