Which of the following best describes the observation technique used in…

Concept — what observation means in assessment: Observation is a systematic, purposive and pre-planned procedure in which a teacher watches a learner’s behaviour or performance in its natural setting and records it by a method decided in advance — a checklist, a rating scale or an anecdotal record. Deciding beforehand what to look for, judging it against defined criteria and keeping a deliberate record are the three marks that separate it from simply looking at a class.

Applying the concept to this item: The stem asks for the description that best fits that technique, so each description is tested against those three marks — planned in advance, systematic in procedure, and deliberately recorded. The description of a systematic, pre-planned recording of students’ behaviour carries all three, so it is the accepted answer.

Contrast with the remaining descriptions:

• Relying only on written responses describes paper-pencil testing. Observation gathers evidence from conduct, participation, habits and skill performance, which a written script cannot capture.

• Unplanned, casual watching is incidental noticing. Because the focus, the criteria and the recording method are not settled beforehand, what is noticed depends on whatever catches the teacher’s attention, and it is not gathered systematically enough to be compared across learners or over time.

• A restriction to settings outside the classroom forms no part of the definition. Group work, oral presentation, laboratory work and project work are observed inside the classroom, and the same technique is used on the playground and on a field trip.

Cross-check: The standard classification places observation among the non-testing (qualitative) techniques of evaluation, together with the interview, the sociometric technique and the case study, while its findings are entered on recording tools such as the checklist, the rating scale, the anecdotal record and the cumulative record. Both halves of that classification — a technique defined by planned watching and a tool that fixes the record — confirm that planning and recording, rather than casual watching, are what make observation an assessment procedure.