The paper analyzes the YouTube video, “kids learning through play.” The video posted on YouTube on March 12, 2016, has a total of 2292693 views. It is a 2:30 minute video illustrating the process of teaching children through play. Through the video, there is the interaction of leaners and their instructors (Preschool Kids, 2016). The choice of the video rose because it efficiently shows the interaction of children in a natural environment. While the children are confined into a classroom, and their movement limited within the environment, they have the liberty of moving around within the confinement of the class with minimum restrictions. The video, therefore, acts as an adequate source for the study of interaction patterns as it presents the element of interaction from a healthy and natural perspective.
My observations on the video include that the interaction that takes place through the video, to a large extent, is significantly free. The footage involves elementary children and two care providers who are also their instructors. It elaborates on freedom and naturality in the structuring of the conduct of interaction between learners and their instructors. The freedom and naturality are present despite the instances of moderation of the interactions. It is highly free as there no forced and pre-determined ways in which the various participants are expected to act.
Interaction patterns entail the different possible methods through which individuals socialize with one another. Thinking about patterns of interaction, and determining patterns of interactions is essential as is facilitates the understating of human behavior. Following the provision of free space for interactions, individuals are likely to interact with one another in ways promoted and facilitated by the natural behaviors of human beings in a natural environment.
During the interaction, patterns present in the video include the whole group interaction. At the beginning of the video, the learning experience entailed the learners and care providers engaging in an interactive activity that involved the entire group. It entailed teachers and students participating in the same interactive activity at the same time. Even though there are two teachers being involved, the learning exercise was led by one teacher while the other one performed similar activities as the children. Through this interaction, the children channeled their concentration to a central point, an aspect which facilitate uniformity and a sense of coordination. Following the interaction that the instructor had with the learners at over the period, there were more improved chances and ability of the teacher to collect the necessary feedback from the students at the same time. The instructors also can give instructions to the entire group at the same time. Similar to the group learning exercise, the interaction that involves a whole group is essential as it facilitates the passing of information to a large group of individuals at the same time. It is also a fundamental way to promote the collection of feedback from the group simultaneously and effectively. The importance of this aspect is necessary and essential as it ensures that the entire group gets the same information required and is passed to them in a manner that eliminates bias.
Another form of interaction presented in the video involves the pair and small group interactions. It is presented by the interaction of the instructors and either individual students or small groups of learners. The effect of this nature of communication is that it is essential in facilitating communication within small groups. The message passed is more specific to the individual or groups, and is critical to the generation of specific results. Similar to the classroom setting, interactions involving small groups of individuals are essential when the intended communication is private and does not require the audience of a larger group. It is specifically used in the communication of specific messages directed to specific individuals.
The behaviors that stand out from the video include that, through the use of the whole group interaction patterns, there is an advantage of increased speed in communicating to large groups of individuals. There are also disadvantages associated with it. Among these include concerning human behavior. Notably, since the mode of communication is not directed to specific individuals, the audience is likely to lose interest after a short time. As presented in the video, some of the children involved in group interaction quickly lost interest and wandered from the group.
Another observed behavior is that individuals pay increased attention and observe instructions in a better way if they are directly addressed. Through the video, one can observe that the learners who strayed from the group interactive learning seemed to take in instructions more intensively when they were individually addressed. The video illustrates the instructors attempting to address the learners who move from the group at individual levels. As identified from the video, the learners seem to take on the information delivered at individual levels in a better way.
