The insights that I have gained about research is the whole process of how to do research. Since I have been out of school for almost 30 years, I needed a refresher course on the research process. During this course the first thing that helped me was to get the information on how to read research articles and to learn the legitmate articles from the ones that are not. By knowing what sites to go to and what articles that are credible will help a researcher to develop ethics in their work. Ethics was another insight that I gained in this course also. I believe that when you involve children in research, ethics should be of high importance. With all that I have gained on research, I still am not as confident doing research but I know as I continue to proceed in this field of early childhood, I will be doing research and my confidence will build each time I do so.
In regards to planning, designing, and conducting research, I was reminded about what a hypothesis is and how to formulate it to my research question. Also with validity, I got an understanding of triangulations and how the four types are used in research. I think the use of methodological triangulations would be used most often in research with children because the different ways that the researcher will use to get valide data. In our textbook the chapter on "Interviewing young children" was very helpful in knowing the challenges when conducting an interview. How to setup the setting, how to engage the children in dialogue, and how to build a relationship with children in the process. But the main point is to be respectful to the children and their family.
The challenge that I encounter in this research course is the research question that I chose. Although it may seem to some people that it should not be a question to research, I feel that it is of great importance to children that the adults that care for them, understand them and not categorize them. Their are a lot of myths and terminology that are in early childhood and as caregivers move to become educators of early childhood, they need to understand the emotional needs of infants. So, I will continue my pursuit to the question, "can infants be spoiled". I am a early childhood professional who is in the field working daily with teachers and I hear the terms that are used and just giving them my opinion is not enough, they need tangible proof and understanding. I think that is what research is all about - a tool to find out about things.
Resource:
Naughton, G.M., Rolfe, S.A., Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing Early Childhood Research: International Perspectives on Theory & Practice. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Co.
Lepuschitz, J.K. (2011). A practical guide to reading research articles. Laureate Education Inc., Baltimore, MD
Ormondroyd, J., Engle, E., & Cosgrave, T. (2009) Critically analyzing information sources. Cornell University Library
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Research Around the World
I chose to look at the website from the Early Childhood Development Virtual University Sub-Sahara Africa because I wanted to find out about early childhood in Africa. During my last course the students were to get in contact with a professional from another country to get information on early childhood but I never received a response from anyone but I am always curious about Africa.
On this particular website there were several research papers written by early childhood students in a master's program who had done research in various countries in Africa. A paper from Susan Sabaa was written about "Development of a Model Framework for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in their Early Years in Ghana" (2004). The paper researched on infants and how secure they are in the bonding process and how they develop while in institutional care - orphanage. She stated that some do well who have the survival resilence and most are in an orphanage because of HIV/AIDS. Her work gave me insight in the plight of children in Ghana and those who are in any type of instituition where bonding between infants and adults is limited. Infants need to be able to have consistant caring and attachment support to develope.
Another research paper that I looked at was by Asha Mohammed Ahmed who wrote "Building Community Leadership for Quality Sustainability in Madrasa Preschools: The Case of Madras Preschools Post Graduation Support" (2003) in Tanzania. The paper was on how Community Resource Teams (CRT) help support capacity building in poor communities to establish quality preschools. The paper's objective was to show how the training and monitoring of the CRT's helped in getting supplies to the community in the building project of the Madras Preschools and helping the communities take ownership of the projects and the completion of the preschools. In America it is easy to build a preschool but in countries like Tanzania, quality preschool is not found and I am glad to know that the Madras Preschools are building schools in the areas that have limited early childhood access.
This website had research papers that were done in Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria, Uganda, and Eritrea. I did not look at all of these research papers but I do plan to go back and review them in the future.
Resource:
http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php
On this particular website there were several research papers written by early childhood students in a master's program who had done research in various countries in Africa. A paper from Susan Sabaa was written about "Development of a Model Framework for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in their Early Years in Ghana" (2004). The paper researched on infants and how secure they are in the bonding process and how they develop while in institutional care - orphanage. She stated that some do well who have the survival resilence and most are in an orphanage because of HIV/AIDS. Her work gave me insight in the plight of children in Ghana and those who are in any type of instituition where bonding between infants and adults is limited. Infants need to be able to have consistant caring and attachment support to develope.
Another research paper that I looked at was by Asha Mohammed Ahmed who wrote "Building Community Leadership for Quality Sustainability in Madrasa Preschools: The Case of Madras Preschools Post Graduation Support" (2003) in Tanzania. The paper was on how Community Resource Teams (CRT) help support capacity building in poor communities to establish quality preschools. The paper's objective was to show how the training and monitoring of the CRT's helped in getting supplies to the community in the building project of the Madras Preschools and helping the communities take ownership of the projects and the completion of the preschools. In America it is easy to build a preschool but in countries like Tanzania, quality preschool is not found and I am glad to know that the Madras Preschools are building schools in the areas that have limited early childhood access.
This website had research papers that were done in Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria, Uganda, and Eritrea. I did not look at all of these research papers but I do plan to go back and review them in the future.
Resource:
http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php
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