"How does one improve observation skills?"

 

...about what you want to observe.

 

Better observation takes two things, the effort to observe what you want to know.  The second is to have more knowlege about what you are observing.

 

The first part takes patience and practice.  The human mind is a reprogrammable computing device.  Your mind forms new neural pathways and optimizes existing pathways with practice and repetition.  Any task can be subject to this effect from driving to playing sports.  Consider the example of learning a card game.  I find that with a few weeks of playing I get far better and faster at a game.  My mind has formed some neural connections that allow me to process the needed problem solving skills more quickly.  these connections are improved and optimized through repetion and practice.  If you make a point to get out and regularly practice the skill you desire it will get easier.

 

The knowlege part is important as the better you know about what it is you are observing the more you will know what to look for and when to look for it.  Understanding the what and the why is critical here, even if you do not know what they are to start with.  If there is nothing you can read about your subject, no source of ready knowlege you are forced to create it yourself.  Keep some notes!  This will allow you to go back and check, our human brain can be very bad at remembering critical details correctly, (ask any police detective that interviews witnesses) we color all we see and how we remember it with a very subjective point of view.  Keeping notes is a great tool to help you remove the observer bias that will creep in.

 

Just a couple hints.

 

Andrew

After two or three art lessons...I suddenly started SEEING instead of just LOOKING.

 

It was so strange...It happened to three of us at the same time...all art students.  We were being trained on all the basics of shading and highlighting, using only charcoal...

 

Suddenly our awareness became heightened.  Anything we looked at became more vivid....clouds, a tree...a persons' facial expressions...the twinkle in an eye.

 

It was quite an awakening of our observation skills.

 

It was like I had always just looked at the 'forest' and had never really seen the individual trees.

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?