When I think of research......

First, I would like to thank everyone in this course for all of your words of encouragement, ideas, and help along the way.  I would also like to say thank you to the professor for your helpful insight and knowledge that helped me throughout this class.

I have learned that research is more than just reading and deciphering through literature reviews, articles, and books.  When I first started this class, I thought that it wouldn’t be different from constructing a well written research paper based off of the things you learned.  Looking back, I can see that my prior understanding of research was very vague.  With that being sad, I can honestly say that I have learned that in order to plan, design, and conduct great research, the researcher must first have an understanding of the concepts behind researching.  I have also learned that the passion for a researcher’s topic must take on its own planning and designing.  The hardest part of researching for me was the planning and designing.  I think once those obstacles are tackled, then conducting the research should go smoothly with the exceptions of a few small obstacles.  The challenges I met in my research simulation were narrowing the research question to reflect the independent and dependent variables I wanted to discover in the simulation.  For me, I knew what my goal of the study was but had a hard time narrowing them all down.  I met them by writing down all of my ideas, taking the advice of my instructor, and deciding on the factors that were of greatest importance to me. I feel that early childhood professionals are challenged to teach, learn, and uncover new discovering’s within the field to accomplish what is needed of us.  I have a more in depth respect for the early childhood professionals that have come before me as well as now because the job is never complete.  With some careers, professionals can retire after a certain amount of years.  For early childhood professionals, the passion for children and dedication to their success keeps them striving to advocate and research on behalf of children forever.   

Week 5-Research Around the World

Langu

• What are some of the current international research topics?

I chose to research early childhood in Australia.  This site is equivalent to the NAEYC as it informs people of the issues and trends related to the children in Australia.  Upon surfing the site, I saw that their current research topics aren’t too far from the issues that we in the U.S. are researching.  They are reforming their educational system because they have discovered that education and childcare go hand and hand. According to their most recent article, “we now have research-based evidence that care and learning are fundamentally entwined and a much better understanding of the importance of qualifications for early childhood teachers and other staff.  Australia’s early childhood education and care sector is at the beginning of a vital reform process.”(www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org) Language is another issue that is being researched in Australia.  “Language is important – it shapes the way we understand things; old terms are discarded and new terms open new possibilities. For example a change as subtle as ‘disabled’ to ‘people living with disabilities’ opens up huge potential and empowers people to look at themselves – and others – differently.”(www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org)

• What surprising facts/insights/new ideas about early childhood did you gain from exploring this international early childhood website?

I have learned that other areas in the world are also standing up for the rights and their beliefs concerning early childhood issues.  I have also learned that many of the issues have been discovered through researched based experiments.  What I found most remarkable about the issues and researches is that although early childhood educators are all over the world, many of the same issues, concerns, and trends are found to hold true across the world.

• What other noteworthy information did you find on this website?

I found this website to include a ton of information related to the early childhood field.  The website had topics on inclusion, diversity, children’s rights, a Code of Ethics, journals, articles, and a magazine.  I think it is great to know that many topics can be found and addressed in some form here on their site. 

 Reference:

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org-earlychildhoodnews-earlychildhoodewsarchives%20.april/, 2011

Rage is important – it shapes the way we understand

things; old terms are discarded and new terms open new

possibilities. For example a change as subtle as ‘disabled’ to

‘people living with disabilities’ opens up huge potential and

Language is important – it shapes the way we understand

things; old terms are discarded and new terms open new

possibilities. For example a change as subtle as ‘disabled’ to

‘people living with disabilities’ opens up huge potential and

empowers people to look at themselves – and others – differently.

empowers people to look at themselves – and others – differently.