How to take field notes

"Field notes" are the notes that we take while we are doing classroom observations.  The purpose of field notes is to enable you or another researcher to find good stuff in the video record.  (There are other possible uses of field notes: for example, some observers use field notes to record the complete sequence of activities that they observe, or to note every time a participant does a certain kind of thing.  This isn't our main purpose and also, I think it's boring.  Don't feel an obligation to do that.)


Q. What is "good stuff"?
A. I'm not going to tell you, or not entirely.  "Good stuff" is stuff that when you see it, you say, "Wow, would you look at that!"  Could be good, could be bad, could be expected, could be unexpected.  The project already has some categories of interest (below) which we will be grateful for you to keep your eyes out for.  However, a major benefit of your working with us is for you to turn us on to your areas of interest and expertise.  So please, whatever you see that you get excited about, we want to see too.  Engaging with data in this way involves a particular leap of faith, which is to trust that whatever is genuinely interesting to you, is genuinely interesting.


Some of our areas of interest (this is an off-the-cuff list):

• Conceptual understanding of energy/metaphors for energy
• People's use of their bodies for learning
• People taking the perspective of physics entities, especially hypothetical entities like energy
• People valuing the development of rich content knowledge for themselves
• People showing that they understand themselves/each other to be intelligent agents whose ideas merit careful attention and who can figure things out

Q. How should we take field notes?
A. Sit somewhere in the classroom where you can see the group that you're observing and can also be out of the way.  Use headphones to listen to what they're saying.  Take notes in an online spreadsheet that is shared among the people observing the course - that is, on a laptop.  (You can either bring one or we'll provide one for you.)  There will often be another videographer in the room with you: consider establishing a text chat with the other person so that you can discuss what you're observing.  You will also be able to see each other's notes.  

This kind of observation is very engrossing and also tiring, at least for me.  Take restorative breaks as needed.  You can't record everything.

Q. What should we record in order to be able to find the good stuff later?
A. There's a template of basic information that we will always record:  the date, the day and approximate time (e.g., Tuesday morning), your name, which teacher is wearing the microphone, who else is on camera, and the basic activity they're doing.  Then there is a place just called "Notes."  What you put in the "notes" area is ... whatever you think will be helpful to you and to others.  This is tricky because you can't entirely tell now what you're going to be interested in later (much less what someone else is going to be interested in).  So just do your best.  Strike some kind of balance between including plenty of detail so that you have lots to look back on, and being concise so that you don't overwhelm the reader and exhaust yourself.  Be as colorful as you like; these are private documents, and the more vividly your notes call the scene to mind, the better.  Frequent time stamps are your friend, as you will find when you start trying to locate episodes.