Parents and researchers can see children’s true colors at the College of Education’s Human Development Laboratory School.
Like many childcare centers, the school allows local parents to drop off their children for daytime supervision. It is the only center on campus with two-way mirrors installed in three children’s classrooms.
‘Parents can see (through the mirror) the children’s true peer relationships and authentic learning styles,’ Jeanette Doina, director of the HDLS, said.
Doina said parents are often surprised to see their children working together with minimal direction from teachers.
‘The kids will always say, ‘We need rules.’ If you invite them to participate in the matter, they’ll be a lot more compliant,’ Doina said.
There are four classrooms in the school, three of which have two-way mirrors. The rooms are also monitored with a surveillance camera.
Researchers monitor children using different objectives. Some people may be interested in studying the effectiveness of different teaching strategies and activities, while others may watch how children solve problems with toys and each other.
Isabel Martinez, a child-development student from Houston Community College, studied a classroom of pre-school students from behind a mirror to gain a new understanding of teaching techniques and child behavior.
‘I was seeing that teacher was working one-on-one,’ Martinez said. ‘There’s some stuff here that I didn’t even think of before.’
A research program at Iowa State University gives miniature wooden model slides and marbles to the children to study how they learned scientific principles such as potential energy and kinetic energy.
Students also enjoy observing the different methods children use to knock down a tower of blocks with a pendulum suspended from the ceiling.
Doina said that young children do not understand the physics behind the swing, which becomes apparent after supervision.
‘Very young children race with the pendulum, because they think that they are the force that pushes it,’ Doina said. ‘They finally get that they can release it and get the same reaction.’
HDLS activities include card games, paints and weekly walks around campus. Teachers pull young children around campus on a giant wooden and metal cart.
‘We’re really considered one of the best kept secrets in town,’ Doina said.
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