Sunday, June 26, 2016

When I think of research.....

  • What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?
I have gained a lot of knowledge and insight about research from taking this course.  I got to learn the insides of research and what elements are included in research such as the dependent and independent variables and what each part of the research represents.  I now know how to actually look for research and how to start my own research in an effective way, that I did not know before.

  • In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?
My ideas about doing research have changed in that now I know how to properly do research if that makes sense.  Effective research, before I didn't know where to begin because I had never really been good at research or taken any course on doing research.  I know how important research is by seeing a breakdown of everything that is included in it and what I can and cannot do to make research work for me and whatever I may be researching. 

  • What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?
The lessons I have learned about conducting research is that you must have great communication and consent from the parties involved in the research and if with children you must have their parents or guardians consent.  planning takes many steps and outlining before you can actually conduct the research, you have to make sure you have all of you elements together.  As far as the design of the research this was very new to me.  The quantitative and qualitative approach was something that i had never knew before and something I learned in the class. You just needed to find out what design worked best for your particular study if either of them worked.  
  • What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?
Some challenges for me were the technical aspects of research and that it contains so many steps that I was pretty unfamiliar with because a lot of the terms that I did not know so in order for me to really understand I had to first learn the terms used for the research and that allowed me to understand more of how to go step by step while using my own research example.  Actually reading and learning was the only thing that helped me and going through the assignments each week got me to learning more and more.

  • What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?
Some ways that my perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified is that I now understand and see how important the job is and how much work is included in it. Research is an important part of the profession because it helps to advance in the field and with the growth and development of the children as a priority it makes my job that much more important.  It really makes me want to continue to push forward in this field and learn as much as I can because someday I will be a very important factor in a child's life and their growth.  

Reference:
MacNaughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Research around the world

The website that I chose to explore is http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.


"EECERA is an independent, self-governing, international association which promotes and disseminates multi-disciplinary research on early childhood and its applications to policy and practice" 

They support cross national collaborations and themed publications through special interest groups. They provide a great forum for policy makers, scholars, researchers etc.

One surprising thing I learned about the site is that they largely support researchers in Europe. They have a lot of support groups and behemoths to the researchers and policy makers. 

One noteworthy thing about the site is the EECERA is one of the most prestigious Journals in the world. It is only one of 4 early years journals indexed by the institute for scientific information.


I definitely did learn great things from the site as far as research and their journal and how much support and effort is put into the Europeans research. It is great to read in it and compare and see similarities and differences from the ones in the United States.