When I think of Research

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