NARRATOR：

Listen to a conversation between a student and his psychology professor

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Good afternoon, Alex, can I help you with something?

MALE STUDENT：

Well, I want to talk with you about the research project you assigned today.

I um... I hope you could clarify a few things for me.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

I'll certainly try.

MALE STUDENT：

Ok, all we have to do is do two observations and take notes on them, right?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

[Hesitant—assignment involves more than this] That’s a start —but you need to do some research, too.

Then you will write a paper that is not so much about the observations, but a synthesis of what you have observed and read.

MALE STUDENT：

[Doesn’t quite understand] OK…and what about the children I am supposed to observe?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Not ‘children’—a single child, observed twice.

MALE STUDENT：

[With recognition] Oh! OK. So I should choose a child—with a permission of a child's parent, of course—and then observe that child a couple of times and take good notes, then?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Actually, after your first observation, you’ll go back and look through your textbook or go to the library and find a few sources concerning the stage of development this particular child is in.

And then with that knowledge, you will make a second observation of the same child to see if these expected developmental behaviors are exhibited.

MALE STUDENT：

Can you give me an example?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Well, um, if you observed a 4 year-old child, for example, my daughter is 4 years old; you might read up on Piaget's stages of cognitive development we covered those in class.

MALE STUDENT：

Uh-huh...

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Uh, most likely, what stage would a child of that age be in?

MALE STUDENT：

Um... the pre-operational stage?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Exactly, if that's the case, her languages use would be maturing and her memory and imagination would be developed [interrupted]

MALE STUDENT：

So she might play pretend like she can pretend when driving her toy car across a couch that the couch is actually a bridge or something.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

That is right. In addition, her thinking would be primarily egocentric.

MALE STUDENT：

So she would be thinking mostly about herself and her own needs, and might not be able to see things from anyone else's perspective.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

[Affırmative] En hums...

MALE STUDENT：

But…what if she doesn’t? I mean, what if she doesn't demonstrate those behaviors?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

That's fine. You'll note that in your paper.

See, your paper should compare what is expected of children at certain stages of development with what you actually observed.

MALE STUDENT：

Ok, I have one more question now.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

And what's that?

MALE STUDENT：

Where can I find a child to observe?

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

Er, I’d suggest you contact the education department secretary.

She has a list of contacts at various schools and with certain families who are somehow connected to the university.

Sometimes they are willing to help out students with projects like yours.

MALE STUDENT：

Ok, I'll stop by the education department office this afternoon.

FEMALE PROFESSOR：

And if you have any trouble or any more questions, feel free to come by during my office hours.