When I Think of Research...

When I saw the title of this course I thought I was doomed.  I thought I was doomed because of my past experience in researching and writing research papers.  As I started this course I thought I knew a lot about research and how to conduct and construct a research paper.  I also thought about how much I did not like researching, having to read so many different resources, or having to construct a working paper that would fit what the instructor was looking for, expected, and showed my full understanding. 

As this course started I must admit that my anxiety got the best of me and cause me to not do too well in the beginning.  I reached out to a couple of classmates for help for understanding as well as the instructor.  And I thank you all for that.  As well as all my fellow classmates for your input, words of encouragement and thoughts on all subject matters throughout this course.  As the weeks went on I began to take more time to understand by reading one day, thinking another day and writing the third.  While I am a good writer under pressure, clearly that did not work in this course and I had to put in a time management plan in order to get through this course successfully.

I must say that I am glad I stayed the course and completed this class and am empowered with more knowledge about research then I had when I first started this class.  Had no ideas that a good research study is comprised of so many different components.  I also learned about the different strategies used in recording and conducting research in an effort to get the best results.   Most importantly I learned about quantitative and qualitative research designs.    

As a result of completing this course and all assignments I have to say that as a early childhood professional I have a new outlook when it comes to looking at studies.  While I still do not care to conduct research I do have a respect for researchers because of the time and work they put in to have a study that is well-rounded and informative.  I will read research studies and take from them the idea of gaining insight into how the information can suit my area of work.

Research Around the World

In looking through all of the international early childhood websites, the one that I found quite interesting was European Early Childhood Education Research Association or EECERA for short.   This website contained a lot of information in reference to the early childhood world in European states that could influence or by utilized in United States early childhood programs. 

This website is divided into several sub-categories which provide information about membership, conferences, links & partners, county coordinators, Special Interest Groups, officers of the Association, new events, and journals.  What I found to be the most interesting to me was the Special Interest Group section of the website.  This was of interest to me because it is a cross-national venture of individuals that come together with a common experience, knowledge, or education of a topic or issue. “These collaborations can be simply for dialogue and deliberation or have a particular focus such as a research bid or an intended publication.” (EECERA, 2012)  

As I explored the journal section of the website there were some research topics that were informative and useful for any educator.  Some articles within the journal talked about things that could affect a child’s phonological awareness, views transitioning disadvantaged children from preschool to primary school, comparison of two townships of how South African children transition to 1^st grade,  a cultural variations comparison between teachers in Budapest, Hungary and American teachers, a doctoral study conducted in western Sydney on three playgroups supporting a diverse group of parents, and the use of Wenger’s situated theory of learning on 35 early childhood professionals in 15 early childhood setting to get their perspective on early childhood professionalization.

A few things that I considered to be noteworthy would be that fact that the new events section was not available for review.  I think that does the website a dis-service because educators, advocates, parents, and other professionals interesting in the websites activities are not going to be able to access the information.  Another thing that one should know about is that the Journal of EECERA is publicized only four times a year, is currently in its 18^th year of publication and considered a leader in the field worldwide.  And the final thing that I thing everyone should know about the articles in the Journal is that they are in translated into three languages: English, French, German, and Spanish.

 

 

Reference

European Early Childhood Education Research Association. (2012). European Early Childhood Education Research Journal.  Retreived from www.eecera.org/

European Early Childhood Education Research Association. (2013). European Early Childhood Education Research Journal,  21(1). Retreived from www.tandfonline.com/toc/recr20/21/1