When I Think of Research . . .

I have gained many insights from taking this course.  “Research is about uncovering and enabling the emergence of new understandings, insights and knowledge” (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010, p. 3).  Questions can be answered and new questions can arise from quality research.  I have learned that quality research is research that is reliable and valid.  I learned that when you conduct research it is important to look at the risk/benefit equation.  This refers to the greater the benefit to be gained from a piece of research; the more risks are acceptable (Mac Naughton et al., 2010).  I have also learned that consent to be a research participant is essential.  It was also interesting to me to look at the guidelines for quality online research.  The importance of the guidelines and checking my online resources will be something I will remember in the future. 

In regards to planning, designing and conducting research data triangulation was a new concept for me.  It was also a concept that I found beneficial to research.  “Data triangulation involves using different sources of information in order to increase the validity of a study” (Guion, Diehl, & McDonald, 2011, p. 1).  I also learned important information regarding interviewing children in a research study.  Spending time in their classroom and having informal conversations with children are important before you try and do any formal interviews.  “It is important to take advantage of informal opportunities to elicit responses from children in unplanned conversations as well as formal interviews” (Mac Naughton et al., 2010, p. 246).  The researcher also needs to give children multiple opportunities to express their thinking through formal and informal conversations.  “The researcher who wants to interview children effectively will structure those interviews to provide multiple opportunities for children to say what they know and what they think” (Mac Naughton et al., 2010, p. 246).

One of the challenges in this course was the terminology.  I felt like the understanding research charts were helpful to really focus on different terminology and start to understand the meaning of the different words.  This course was challenging to me because there was so much new information and information that was hard for me to really wrap my mind around and fully understand.  I have a lot more respect for researchers after this course.  In my opinion there is an unlimited amount of research that can be done in the early childhood field.  It must be acknowledged that history has shown that research benefits children (Mac Naughton et al., 2010). 

References

Guion, L., Diehl, D., & McDonald, D. (2011). Triangulation:  Establishing the validity of qualitative studies.  Retrieved from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FY/FY39400.pdf.

                                  

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. 

Research Around the World

I chose to look at the Early Childhood Australia website.  “Early Childhood Australia advocates to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years” (Early Childhood Australia, 2014).  This website contained a lot of information about early childhood education for both parents and educators.  This website also contained many publications. One publication called Research in Practice Series provides practical, easy to read resources for those involved in the early childhood field.  This is a publication that you do have to subscribe to for $70.00 a year.  The topics for the 2014 issues are the following: 

·      Ways of thinking, acting and relating about sustainability

·      Pedagogy:  Programs and relationships in practice

·      Professional partnerships in children’s services:  Working together for children.

This website also had a lot of great information for parents.  Under parent resources there were three headlines:  Children’s health and nutrition, Separation anxiety and Transitions to school.  Each of these headlines contained information concerning these topics.  I did notice that when I found something I was interested in learning more about many times it took you to an article you had to subscribe to or a book you had to buy.   

Reference

                                  

Early Childhood Australia. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children and Families

As I was looking at articles concerning the effects of research on children or families I came across the article titled Factors influencing parental consent for participation in clinical research involving their children in Egypt.  After reading the title I thought it definitely related to what we were learning about this week and would be interesting to find out the results.  The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of parents’ consent to participation in clinical research involving their child and to evaluate factors that influenced parents’ consent (Nasef, Shabaan, Mohammed, Kandel, Settin, Zedan, & Fouda, 2014).  In this study only 27.5% of parents consented to involving their child in research.  The most important factors increasing the chances of parental consent were if the research was a clear benefit to the child, if the parents received enough explanation of the research concept from the staff and to learn more about the disease.  One huge limitation of this study was that they “did not propose a specific type of research design to the parents or a specific pattern of patient disease, and this may have made our results more of a subjective parental opinion rather than an actual decision about consent or refusal” (Nasef, et al., 2014, p. 168).  I definitely believe if the parents had a specific type of research that was going to be done or if they truly had a child that would benefit from the research than more parents would consent to their child participating in the research.

In this article they also talked about children participating in a clinical asthma research in the United States.  The parents in this study identified the most important factors in favor of parental consent were learning more about the disease, helping medical knowledge, trials using new drugs, relationships with staff, financial benefits, free medication, encouragement by physician and free visits (Nasef, et al, 2014).  In contrast to the study in Egypt the use of new drugs or vaccines and research using invasive procedure were the main reasons for refusal by parents.  I thought it was interesting to see the differences and similarities in the two countries regarding what was important to the parents.

Reference

                                  

Nasef, N., Shabaan, A., Mohammed, S., Kandel, S., Settin, A., Zedan, M., & Fouda, A. (2014). Factors influencing parental consent for participation in clinical research involving their children in Egypt. Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, 20(3), 162-168.

My Personal Research Journey

As I was thinking of a topic to research the first one that came to mind was social and emotional development.  I knew I wanted to research something concerning this topic because I feel that social and emotional development is extremely important and can be challenging to teach.  This is my fifth year of teaching preschool but it is already my hardest year when it comes to children with low or few social and emotional skills.  Many of my preschoolers have very strong emotions and they do not know how to handle them.  I have chosen to look at what are the best ways to teach and encourage healthy social and emotional development in preschoolers.  I am hoping the information I learn from this research will give me the skills I need to be a more effective teacher.

Constructing the research chart has been informational but I still definitely feel like I am out of my comfort zone.  The research chart does help me to focus more on what I am reading and to really stop and make sure I understand what I am reading.  At times trying to find research that really pertains to my topic feels time consuming and discouraging.  I am definitely looking forward to all that I am learning but it can be overwhelming.  One article I enjoyed reading this week was called Practices for Enhancing Children’s Social-Emotional Development and Preventing Challenging Behavior. 

Reference

Corso, R. M. (2007). Practices for Enhancing Children’s Social-Emotional Development and Preventing Challenging Behavior. Gifted Child Today, 30(3), 51-56.

Final Blog Assignment

Three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field:

1.     It opened by eyes and mind to early childhood education in other parts of the world.  I really enjoyed watching videos of programs throughout the world and what those programs are doing to reach their children.    

2.     It provided me with an abundance of new resources concerning early childhood education throughout the world. 

3.     It also educated me on poverty throughout the world and how poverty in other parts of the world affects the education of their young children. 

My professional goal related to international awareness of issue and trends is to continue to visit these website and stay up to date on this information.  Many times I learn about great resources but I never seem to have the time to go back to these sources.  I want to continue to go back to these resources and gain more information from them. 

Getting To Know The UNESCO Early Childhood Care and Education Webpage

The UNESCO Early Childhood Care and Education website is a great resource for learning about early childhood education internationally.  One of my professional goals includes having helpful resources and this is a helpful resource for early childhood education in other countries.  Another one of my professional goals includes always being able to reflect on my teaching and experiences so that I can learn and grow from them.  On this website they have a section labeled Policy Reviews.  “The aim of ECCE policy reviews is to provide countries with an opportunity to review their early childhood policies, to highlight good practices and challenges and to identify concrete measures to improve their policies” (UNESCO, 2014).  I liked how they are encourages countries to do their own reflecting to improve their policies. 

This website also contained great videos that allowed you to look inside a few other early childhood programs around the world.  These videos are interesting because you can actually see what is available and what is not available in other countries. You can also see the great work they are accomplishing in other countries.  Watching the video about the early childhood program in Northern Kenya reminded me of how privileged we are here in the United States.  We need to be reminded that we do have a lot to be thankful for and that we are doing some really great things.  Then we can focus on continuing to improve the areas that need improvement.  I also enjoyed looking at the News section and reading about different information concerning early childhood education around the world.   

Reference

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2014).  Early Childhood Care and Education.  Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Sharing Web Resources

This week I explored an outside link that lead me to learn more about Harlem Children’s Zone.  Harlem Children’s Zone is doing some amazing things for children and families.  Their main goal is to give children the individual support they need to get to and through college and become productive, self-sustaining adults.  They do this by supporting the children and the families.  They have a pipeline of education that children go through.  “Our pipeline begins at birth and helps kids every step of the way until college graduation through exceptional education, social services, family support, health, and community-building programs” (Harlem Children’s Zone, 2014).

The first program they have is called Baby College and it is available so that from the time of birth babies can be immersed in a healthy and supportive environment.  “The Baby College gives expectant parents and parents of children ages 0-3 a strong understanding of child development and the skills to raise happy, healthy babies” (Harlem Children’s Zone, 2014).  To continue the parenting skills training from Baby College the Harlem Children’s Zone created the Three-Year-Old Journey Program.  “This 18-week program meets on Saturday mornings at a local public school. Parents participate in workshops, where they discuss discipline, developmental milestones, and age-appropriate activities to foster early literacy. Meanwhile, their three-year-olds play together in small and large groups under the guidance of trained staff, learning socialization skills and having fun singing, doing arts and crafts, and listening to stories” (Harlem Children’s Zone, 2014).  

Their pre-kindergarten program is called the Harlem Gems.  “Harlem Gems is the final step in our early childhood pipeline.  A top-notch, year-round, full-day pre-kindergarten program, Gems works with 240 children across four sites to ensure that each and every one enters kindergarten school-ready.  With five staff in each classroom, classes have a 4:1 child-to-adult ratio, allowing for more one-on-one work and ensuring that students receive the individualized attention they need.  Gems staff also encourage strong family involvement, engaging parents and caregivers in classroom activities and creating consistency between home and school” (Harlem Children’s Zone, 2014).  They continue to have programs all the way through college.  

It was amazing to read about and watch video on all the wonderful things this organization is doing for children, families and the Harlem community.  There is no way I could write in here all that they are doing.  You definitely should check out their website http://hcz.org/.

Reference

Harlem Children’s Zone (2014).  Retrieved from http://hcz.org/.