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.
