When I think of research....

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

The insights that I have gained about research from taking this course are that I have learned how to read research articles. For instance I have learned to pick out the very important parts and not concentrate so much on the statistical piece. I’ve learned the difference between research questions and hypothesis. I’ve learned a lot about the research designs qualitative, quantitative, and mixed method.

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

When I first started this class as soon as I saw the words research I was a little unhappy. To me I felt research was boring and that all I ever was concerned about were the results that came out of it. I can say that after going through the course research has become more interesting to me. Especially when we learned about validity, and dependent and independent variables.

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

 I learned that planning prevents problems and that research design is a matter of planning. Designing was interesting because I did not know that there were so many different ways that you could design your research.

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

The only challenges that I encountered were having to read parts of chapters over and over to get a clearer understanding. Research at times is so high leveled, and big worded (if that’s a word) I had to really focus to understand specific concepts.

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

 I learned that as an early childhood professional it is more than just taking care of kids. Through research we find out what works best for children.

I would like to take this time to thank my colleagues for their support throughout this course… till we meet again!!

Research Around the World

The International website that I took a look at was http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ which is the australian early childhood website.  Some of the current international research topics that I noticed were the inclusion of children with disabilities, neurobiology and child develeopment, social inclusion and physical activity or sun protection.
 A surprising idea was the childcare rebate information for parents. This information reminded me of our Purchase of Care system. Purchase of Care helps parents who have specific incomes with the cost of childcare. The Australian childcare rebate seemed to offer parents rebates on childcare if they qualified.
Some noteworthy information that I found on the site was school readiness information. The school system that I work for is really big on school readiness and because we have early pre-k and pre-k children it is our job to make sure students are school ready!! It was good to see that this is the focus of those in Australia also. There was a lot of information on the website to help parents prepare their children. I also liked a section that talked about baby and toddler sleep problems. I needed to read that information for myself with transitioning my son from waking in the middle of the night for a bottle.
This website was informative it kind of reminded me of the Zero to three website, full of information.