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Developing Your Observation Skills
Learning how to "read" your community organization placement and the
experiences you have while doing your community work is extremely
important to the effectiveness academic community-based learning.
"Reading" your community site means uncovering details about the
organization you are working at to help make sense of that
organization. By developing observations skills you will be able to
make more sense of the theories learned from class. Often students try
to take the theories learned from class and try to directly apply them
to the organization, however, it is best to take your observations from
the organization and see what you are able to apply to your class. The
best service-learning experiences come when you work, critically and
objectively observe and then reflect on your experiences. Using all of
these stages through out your service-learning experience will increase
the amount of information you learn and improve your class and
community experience.
How to Observe:
- Increase your patience in order to slow down and watch;
- Pay close attention to your physical surroundings: who, what when, where & how;
- Be aware of people's reactions, emotions, & motivations;
- Ask questions that can be answered through observing;
- Be yourself;
- Observe with an optimistic curiosity; and
- Be ethical.
Sample Observation Questions:
What is the mission of the organization (e.g. the agency's purpose)?
How does the organization fulfill its mission? Does it do what it attests to do?
Who make up the population the organization works with?
What are the characteristics of the client population?
Where is the organization located?
What does the neighborhood look like? Smell like? Sound like?
How does the organization interact with the surrounding community?
What resources are in the community?
What is the proportion of paid staff to volunteers in the organization?
What is the structure of the organization?
How is the organization funded?
How dynamic and innovative is the organization? What evidence do you have to justify this statement?
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