Saturday, June 23, 2012

Blog Assignment: When I Think of Research...


I have gained insights on how to design a research.  I have learned that research takes time.  It has to be prepared and cannot be thrown together.  The whole research process takes a considerate amount of time and patience.  When I first began this class, my concept of this class was that we would be doing a research paper.  I had the wrong conception of this class.  I have gained insight on qualitative and quantitative research design. I gained insights on mixed methods designs, direct observation, equity, which has power doing the research, making sure ethics are in the early childhood research process. I also gained insights on case study, interviews, and anecdotal record as I implement research in this field. I also gained insights on consent in the research process in regards to young children. From this, I gained a better concept of research and I feel that this class was a starting point for me as I pursue my educational and professional goals.

My nature of research has changed, because now I am more prepared to plan, design, and conduct research.  I understand now that it is a process that involves professionalism and respect.  I understand that there are four major paradigms which include positivism, interpretivism, structuralism, and poststructuralism.  I believe that I can better relate to interpretivism.

It is important to understand that research is a tool and, as with all tools, it is simply a matter of learning how to use it (Naughton, Rolfe, & Blatchford- Siraj, 2010).  I learned that you have to plan a research before you can just do research on a topic. I learned that you have to be knowledgeable about an issue before you can begin planning.  The design of the research should be ‘what’ and ‘how ‘of research, deciding whether the research will be experimental or non-experimental, the time, place, and persons of the research, the sampling process, and choosing methods of data collection and analysis.  In conducting research you have to be ethical and be prepared for the challenges that you may face. You must also make sure that the data collected is honest a will be beneficial to the early childhood field.

A challenge for me was the understanding of independent and dependent variables, as well as many of the terms that were outlined in the text.  I met those challenges by looking deeper in the text, by breaking the definitions down to basics.  I also encounter challenges with my research question.  I met this challenge by reading the text and gaining a better understanding of formulating a research question and revised my research question.  I also met challenges with the support and guidance of Dr. Davis through his evaluations and comments and by listening to the comments and suggestion of my colleagues.

My perceptions of an early childhood professional has modified because when I began this class I was not unaware of the planning, designing, and conducting research.  Now, I have a better understanding of research which has increased my knowledge in this field of study.  The fore, through this class and understanding of research I have enhance my professional growth over the past weeks.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement in this class. I wish you all success as you continue to climb the ladder toward your educational goals.

Reference

Naughton, G. M., Rolfe, S. A., & Blatchford- Siraj, I. (2010). Doing Early Childhood

Research: International Perspectives on Theory and Practice 2nd Edition. New York:

The McGraw Hill.












1 comment:

  1. I too thought we would be doing and actual research paper and I was so nervous and didn’t think I would enjoy the class, but I was pleasantly surprised. I really liked the course and the way it was set up. I learned a lot!

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