When I Think of Research.....

 

What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?

Well when I first started this course. I will be honest had no clue was I was going to be doing. I thought what does research have to do with my studies. From going through this course I have learned a lot about the different words that are used in the research process. When I found out I would be designing my own research project on something I wanted to know more about it really scared me to death. I had no clue where to even start.

In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?

From learning as much as I have I feel I have more knowledge of how to start the research process and to put it in works now. I do realize how much time and knowledge you need to make sure the process comes together in the end. I do feel there is a lot more to learn about the research process, but I think it is something that will not scare me anymore.

What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?

Everything in this course was all new to me. I have done research but not in this manner. It was more of picking a topic read about it and write what you learned. This was a more in-depth research.  I learned how to start the process, who should be in my research, and which data should be collected to make sure the research turns out the right way. I learned a lot through this course and sure there is more to learn.

What were some of the challenges you encountered - and in what ways did you meet them?

One challenge I had was coming up with a topic that was not too broad. The research question was another one that was very challenging to me. Was for me to have enough time to get the assignments done the way they was suppose to. I just had to work through each week with a positive attitude to succeed and get the plan done. I was able to get some feedback from our discussions, and comments from the papers we wrote.

What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?

I think I have learned a lot about the research and how each part of my learning will help me to better understand what some of these children go through on a daily basis. Before starting this class i had no clue of what research was about in the early childhood field. i do believe it plays a big part of our education field.

Research Around The World

From exploring the website: The European Early Childhood Educators Researcher Association (EECHERA) has a group called the SIGS Group (Special Interest Group) which has a lot of research topics for you to explore and learn new things about the Early Childhood Field. After exploring through the whole site there are a lot of different topics that educators can learn from. There are 11 different groups that deal with the Early Childhood. There is an area telling you the Young Children s Perspectives the following are a list of perspectives:

“To generate critical reflection on children's perspectives and children's rights

To support and encourage cross-national perspectives on seeking children's perspectives

To support SIG members' research in a collaborative and cooperative manner

To share innovative and reflexive research on children's perspectives and children's rights” (http://www.eecera.org/documents/pdf/sigs/sigFaqs.pdf).

After exploring the different areas of the site I do not see how
anyone could not learn some new insight to share with co-workers
or even other people that are in the education field. Working With
Parents and Families article has a lot of different purposes they are
 as follows: “To share international research, experiences and
understandings of the role of the family in early childhood
 education To discuss, reflect and challenge the power relationships
 between families and workers in research studies and work with
parents and families. To provide a forum for the voice of parents
and families in educational research To support the development
of appropriate methodologies for research with parents and families
 to investigate how families support their children's growth and development.

To explore workforce issues that arise through the development of different
waysof working with parents and families across a number of disciplines e.g.
early childhood education and family work”
(http://www.eecera.org/documents/pdf/sigs/sigFaqs.pdf).
When you are in the education field the parents and children
 should have some kind of purpose intheir education.
This was an area that was good insight to explore the
 whole web site is one I will enjoy going back to find out more
 information.

Some of the other noteworthy information that I found to be of good information was being able to explore some of the back journals. I did notice that some of the current journals you had to pay for where the older journals were free to download. This is one part that I am not sure why they chose to do the journals that way. I looked at a couple of the journals and they all said that the Conference is the largest early childhood research conference in Europe”. This is something I had no clue about. There is so much on this site that you could spend a couple of days and still learn new things.

References

http://www.eecera.org/documents/pdf/sigs/sigFaqs.pdf