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.

Research Around The World

The website that I chose to explore is http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/. The Early Childhood Australia website focuses on social justice, quality and equity for children ages birth to 8years of age.

Through exploring this website, I found many research topics in the early childhood education field. Research shows children who parents who talk less, means that through encouragement the child will talk more. A University of Sydney study has found children with well below average language skills performed almost as well as their normally developing peers just four months after their parents made a few simple changes in the way they interacted with them. (http://sydney.edu.)  I was very surprised on this research, because I thought that the more the parent talked the more the child language skills and speech will increase.

From reading the focal points of the articles, they have issues related to the budget; and how the government is dedicated to the educational sector of early child care and education.  The website also discussed research topics that include:

1. Learning and teaching through play

2. Respecting diversity: Articulating early childhood practice

3. Children’s Resilience:  Working with the Early Years Framework

4. Discovering letters and sounds

5. Aggression and young children

6. Babies: Good beginners last forever

Basically from browsing some of the research articles, it seems that this country is also dedicated to early care and education.  They are also dedicated to meeting the developmental needs of the child by doing research and observations on how to better meet the individual needs of the child.  ECA like many organizations is also focused on maintaining a budget that reflects early care and education.

I was not surprised of the issues that affect Australia, because it seems that the entire world has child development and well being of the child as a high priority.

Resources

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=4447

Research that Benefits Children and Families

Option 1

I found an article that discusses the benefits of research toward Head start and Early Head Start programs.  Many people view these programs as baby sitting jobs, but research shows a different perspective.  National Family and Child Experiences Survey data shows that HS graduates, by the spring of their kindergarten year, were essentially at national norms in early reading and early writing and were close to meeting national norms in early math and vocabulary knowledge (National Head Start Association).  Head Start and Early Head Start are programs that provide young children educational and health benefits.  Many of the children who attend these programs reap high quality benefits. EHS children had a higher cognitive, social, and emotional score than the children in the control group.  They also had children who were good health care compared to the children who were not enrolled in the Head Start Program.   There was also research that showed that Head Start programs were credited for lowering childhood obesity.  The children in EHS programs were more likely to have had their immunizations. Research shows that HS is a wise investment for society (National Head Start Association). Children in Early Head Start and Head Start also benefits from economic and law enforcement benefits.  Along with improving the health of its children and families, HS benefits its children and society-at-large by reducing crime and its costs to crime victims (National Head Start Association).

Many of us aware of the Head Start and Early Head Start programs in our state and community, but sometimes we are unaware of the benefits of these programs.

Reference

National Head Start Association (NHSA)(n.d.).Benefits of Head Start and Early head Start Programs. Retrieved from http://www.nhsa.org/files/static_page_files/399E0881-1D09-3519-AD56452FC44941C3/BenefitsofHSandEHS.pdf

Your Personal Research Journey

The three subtopics that I choose all consisted of issues that were related to the early childhood field.  However, I felt that after reviewing the literature and research simulation that the topic that I chose would be more beneficial to my research process. The topic that I chose is---Is poverty related to the outcome of a child’s social and emotional skills?

I chose this topic because I am interesting in expanding my knowledge on how poverty adversely affects a child’s social and emotional development of a child.  I feel that this topic is relevant because of the community that I live in consist of children and families that are below the poverty level. Therefore, I can continue to guide children and families in the appropriate direction when it comes to the developmental issues that affect children because of poverty. The research stimulation gave me insight on how to effective choose and research a topic.  However, I am still a little nervous on my topic.  I hope that I find success in finding effective and credible resources on the topic.

If anyone would like to share any comments or suggestions on this topic, please feel free to give your advice and comments. I am open to any new ideas that are related to this topic.

Thanks!

ISSUES AND TRENDS

Over the past weeks, we have had the opportunity to explore the early childhood field from the views of other organizations in the United States and across the world.  In the beginning of the class, I tried to contact several individuals who are in the early childhood field that are internationally abroad.  Unfortunately, none of the individuals responded to my request of personal contact so that I could learn about early childhood education from their own country and personal knowledge.  However, I did experience a wide variety of knowledge from websites that focus internationally on the early childhood field.These websites have been so beneficial for me in learning about other countries and how important early childhood education is in their country.  The website that I focused on was NAEYC which is the acronym for National Association for the Education of Young Children and the UNESCO.

The three consequences of learning about the international childhood field for my personal and professional development are:

1.   I had the opportunity to learn about poverty across the world, but it had an impact on me when I realized how many people in my own community who were struggling with the issues of poverty.  It also was a major reality check for me because these people were my neighbors and I never knew how they were being affected physically, emotionally, socially, and mentally with the stressor of poverty.

2.   I also learned that many people across the world do not have access to education.  The lack of access can be directed to diversity in language or families needing their children to work, rather that have a good education.

3.   I also learned that equity and excellence plays a role in the education that a child receives.  The UNESCO believes that all children should receive education across the world. 

My goal is to continue to establish international contact from an international professional so that I can obtain knowledge about the poverty issue in that particular country.  I believe that as an early childhood professional, it is my goal to advocate against the issue of poverty, therefore I want to be supportive and productive in declining poverty for young children and their families across the world.  I believe that by having collegial relations I will be able to gain more insights about poverty from other individuals in the early childhood field.

Furthermore, I have really enjoyed reading all of your blogs, insights, and comments over the past several weeks.  I wish all of you success as you journey toward your educational goals.

Best of Luck!

SHARING WEB RESOURCES: INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS, PART 3

The three insights that I gained from this website is:

1.       There is a major push for promoting literacy in Nigeria.  "Reading materials which promote local knowledge and values as well as cultures and traditions should be developed to promote a multilingual literate environment at home, community, learning centres and work places," stated by the  Representative of the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Bergudo (UNESCO, 2011) . Literacy needs to be established to help meet the developmental and educational goals of the children and their families.

2.       On the week of April 22-28 it will be Global Action Week.  This organization promotes education for all children.  There are six goals that the organization has established.  These goals include (UNESCO):

Goal 1
Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children

Goal 2
Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.

Goal 3
Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes.

Goal 4
Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.

Goal 5
Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.

Goal 6
Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills (2011).

3.      In the article, Education of Roma children among the subjects of World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education, it focuses on the educational and learning benefits that the Roma children receive. Despite the efforts to expand and improve education for Roma children, as many as 50 per cent of those in Europe fail to complete primary education (UNESCO, 2011).

Resources: 

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/education_of_roma_children_among_the_subjects_of_world_conference_on_early_childhood_care_and_education/

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/world-conference-on-ecce/single-view/news/get_ready_for_global_action_week_23_29_april_2012/

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/dakar/about-this-office/single-view/news/major_push_for_adult_and_youth_literacy_in_nigeria/

SHARING WEB RESOURCES

Equity and Excellence is an important ingredient for the success of the NAEYC.  The NAEYC focuses on the well-being of the child.  NAEYC promotes quality and care for all children. The NAEYC states:

Several decades of research clearly demonstrate that high-quality; developmentally appropriate early childhood programs produce short- and long-term positive effects on children's cognitive and social development. NAEYC believes that our nation is at a crossroads. We must develop an integrated system of early childhood care and education that includes comprehensive approaches that directly involve families and communities in program design, implementation, and evaluation. We can invest now in our children and families and enjoy long-term savings, with a more vibrant nation of healthy, achieving children and more stable families. Or, we can fail to make the investment and pay the price: increased delinquency, greater educational failures, lowered productivity, less economic competitiveness, and fewer adults prepared to be effective, loving parents to the next generation of children. Federal, state and local government, communities, parents, and the private sector must share in the responsibility of ensuring the well-being of children and families (2006).

The NAEYC believes that all children should have access to educational programs.  Furthermore, teachers and professionals must have continuous trainings to help meet the needs of the children and their families.  The NAEYC also believes that in order to achieve these goals at the national, state, and local levels, policies and decisions must be guided of principles of Excellence, Access, Equity, Diversity, and Accountability. If all of these principles are implemented, then the future of all children will be promising.

On the National Association for the Education of Young Children website, it discusses how next month the NAEYC is focusing on mental health for young children.  This is an issue that has been gain momentum over the past years. As early childhood professionals, we have to become educated on the types and treatments of mental health that affect our children, as well as their families.  Activities will raise awareness of effective programs for children’s mental health needs; demonstrate how children’s mental health initiatives promote positive youth development, recovery, and resilience; and show how children with mental health needs can thrive in their communities (NAEYC, 2012). In our Early Head Start program, we have a mental health specialist that focuses on behavioral issues that affect young children.  If a problem is diagnosed then the mental health specialist will make a referral to an outside agency.  As a teacher, we have to be prepared to deal with any issue that may affect a child’s educational process.  Children need to be treated with respect, regardless of what kind of issue they may incur. I am very passionate about mental health awareness in my community, because I have seen from experience, what happens when a person does not receive the appropriate treatment from the educational system when they are suffering from a mental health issue.  Therefore, I believe that teachers should attend workshops or trainings that reflect mental health.

Also, this week on the NAEYC website it focuses on Earth Day, which is Sunday, April 22, 2012.  The website has articles that give teachers or parent’s ideas on projects and activities that they can do with young children.  In the article, “Ensuring that all Children Can Spend Quality Time Outdoors” discusses the importance of children experiencing nature.  One of Children Nature Network goals is to reduce the disparities in children’s outdoor play and the health and mental health outcomes associated with a lack of outdoor experience (Erickson, 2008).  Young children need to engage in outdoor play because it increases their knowledge about nature.

While reviewing the NAEYC website this week, I increased my knowledge on the well-being and development, equity and excellence, and quality education for young children.

References:

Erickson, M. 2008. The Children Nature Network. Ensuring that all Children Can Spend Quality Time Outdoors”. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200801/BTJNatureErickson.pdf.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). 2008. A Call for Excellence in Early Childhood Education.  Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/policy/excellence

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). 2012.  National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/children-mental-health