When I Think of Research

Another semester is coming to close. I can almost feel graduation on my face! This semester turned out to be quite a joy. From sitting my top on my lap in airports, hotels and even Uber, I have successfully completed another course in my master journey. As my last blog assignment for EDUC 6163, I have some questions that I am going to reply to!

1. What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?
Answer: I really don't know where to start. I know when I first started this course, I remember a streak of fear coursing through my body, that even the word "Research" scared me. I believe what saved me was the awesome handouts, textbook and of course Dr. Parrish. I learned that research is a process, but it can be done, and you have a choice on the path you can take to get it there.

2. In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?
Answer: Research is not a bad thing. Actually after planning out a research design, I actually understand research and the process a lot more, and feel that research might play a part in my future with early childhood.

3.What lessons about planning, designing and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?
Answer: The real questions is what did I not learn? I entered this course not knowing a thing about research, except that it gave answers to our questions. Now I know how to select a topic, write a hypothesis, design a study, select participants and even determine dependent and independent variables.

4. What were some of the challenges you encountered-and in what ways did you meet them?
Answer: I hated the week when we had to turn our research topics into quantitative designs. I repeat, I hated that week, and believe I even cried the Sunday it was due. (Yes I am a dramatic person!) I wanted my assignment to be perfect, but I had no idea how to turn my research topic into a quantitative design because I had selected the topic to be a qualitative design in my head. I was so frustrated that week. But I learn so much from the comments Dr. Parrish left me and I now feel more confident in the quantitative design, just please don't ask me to complete another one.

5. What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?
Answer: Not much! I never really considered myself a researcher, and still don't, but I know that is something that I am capable of doing. Humans in the early childhood profession wear many hats and have magical powers. I remember when I was a Director, and the Account specialist asked me to write down a list of things I did at work daily, so that they could try to match my pay to my worth. Well I remember the page was two and half pages long. The Account specialist came back to me and said, "Oh my, I would have never guess that you did this much? We can never pay you what your worth, but we do appreciate you and will buy you breakfast every Friday." So I guess it's safe to say that I can add "design a research study" to my list of things I can do!

I enjoyed reading all of your post and discussions, see you in our next course!

Cierra

Research Around the World

The website I choose to explore was Early Childhood Australia, there at two reasons why I chose Early Childhood Australia, the first reason is because it's the Australian equivalent to the U.S. based NAEYC and second, my job is talking about sending me there to train teachers, so I wanted to have a strong foundation before I go.

Some of the current international research topics included, The role of research in professionalizing early childhood, why play-based learning, the ethics of early childhood research and my favorite Leveling the Playing field for Kindergarten entry: Research implications for preschool early literacy instruction.

What made this explorations so amazing was how much information I learned about Australia and the different things they are doing with early childhood, for example, the program Kids Matter, which works with early childhood education and other services, to support the mental health and well-being of young children (Early Childhood Australia, n.d.). Another thing that I found that was insightful was about the importance of talking to children and using language everyday. What I learned is that by helping children talk, and by listening and responding to them,  is a critical occurrence that must happened daily both in the present and the future (Early Childhood Australia, n.d.). Children learn from us, so it's important that we set an example, and we provide opportunities for children to use language.

I really enjoyed exploring and learning from this website. Something else that I found valuable is that the website provides a lot of resources, and one of the resources was different modules, some of the modules that are available is outdoor learning, duty care for workers and the role of certified supervisor. I thought this information would be useful to me because there were topics to that interest me.

Reference:
Early Childhood Australia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 3, 2015, from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/