Building Research Competencies Week 8

I have to say that I just dreaded this class. I am not a ‘facts and figures’ kind of person, hate dry reading, not a fan of research...

In some ways, it was every bit as horrible challenging as I thought it might be. I hated the endless reading, forgot the meanings of terms, mixed up the answers on worksheets, panicked about the applications, and resigned myself to getting a lousy grade. In the end, though, it all came together and I did well. Yay!  I am very grateful to the awesome (and patient!) Dr. Ferrari. She really helped to guide me and relieved a lot of my anxiety with her explanations and good humor!  :  )

One of the big lessons I learned is how important it is to carefully follow all of the steps necessary to ensure equity and validity in your research. This includes recognizing and addressing our own personal biases. You can’t achieve accurate, unbiased results without a lot of effort and skill. Also, I learned that when conducting research on children, it is vitally important to make sure parents are in agreement with their child’s involvement – and that children are not coerced into doing anything that may be physically or emotionally harmful to them.

Before this class, I didn’t really give research much thought, and didn’t consider it to have much to do with my own job. However,

I have learned that research is extremely important in the early childhood field, partly because research results are the basis for most, if not all, policy-making and program funding.

I’m pretty sure the end of this class means we are halfway thru our MSECS degree. Hooray for that and thanks to all of you who are on this path with me. Your comments and advice, here and on the DB, have been great!

Research Around The World

The website that I visited was early Childhood Australia. There is an extensive research section (Research Practice Series) in the RIPS listing. There were over 25 resources listed, covering a wide variety of current international research topics, such as child development, literacy, and diversity. The information was easy to locate and read – a helpful resource for child care professionals.

I was surprised to find that many of the issues discussed on the website are also issues that we deal with here in the US. One of the more noteworthy topics was about early childhood reforms, and how different states rate in the implementation of them. Another focused on how teachers in the US teach math; it was very interesting to read some opinions about US teachers that were a little less than stellar!

 I was surprised to read an article about how to minimize stress in young schoolchildren. Once the novelty of being in ‘real school’ wears off, the first year of school can be exhausting and difficult for young children!

Overall, I found this website to be well-organized and full of useful information for early childhood professionals.
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/