- I have gained a lot of insight from taking this course. I have a better understanding of what research is and what steps to take to conduct a research study. I understand that every question may not be compatible for a research study. Some questions may be to broad and cannot be condensed into a hypothesis. I have learned that there are more than one method to conduct a research. For instance, there is quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. I learned how to turn my research question into a hypothesis. I learned the meaning of several words I was unfamiliar with. There is a lot of insight I have gained about research through this course.
- I was terrified of research before this course. I did not know the extent of doing a research study. I am more comfortable about doing research. I use to think that research was boring and I have found out through this course that research can be exciting and it takes a lot of hard work and dedication.
- I learned that planning is very important. You must have a plan about your research before you can even start. I believe planning is important with everything you do in life. I cannot just up and go on vacation without planning the vacation because I would need to book the hotel, air flight, save money, put in for days off of work. The same goes for research; I would have to develop a research question, find material on my research question, decide on who I will use for my research, where I will do my research, and how I will do my research. Planning, designing, and conducting the research takes a lot of time and effort.
- A challenge that I encountered in the beginning of the class was my research question. My original research question was too broad and could not be condensed into a hypothesis, so I had to change my research question. Another challenge I encountered was understanding some of the terminology used during certain projects. It took me a minute to grasp the understanding and get a better understanding of what was being asked of me to do. Some of the feedback from my colleagues and instructor helped me better understand the terminology.
- An early childhood professional has a lot of work to do. It is not as easy as most people may perceive this profession. Teaching, protecting, guiding, and developing young minds is a challenge. Working directly with children ages 0 to 8 years old can be very stressful and rewarding. Watching children grow and their families grow is very rewarding. Research in early childhood is very important because it helps protect the children and their families along with correcting any challenges that may occur in this field. Finding out why a child is so aggressive or why the child cries most of the day is very important to research in early childhood. With the knowledge of know what is going on with the child and the family can help both the child and family succeed in life. A child in poverty does not have to become an adult in poverty. Early childhood can make a difference in every community, nationality, and social background!
For this weeks blog I have decided to view the website for Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) retrieved from http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php.
- A current international research topic is early childhood development in the 21st century: children's rights to live, play, explore and understand the world. This research topic was chosen because of new and positive early childhood initiatives are being implemented in Liberia. According to ECDVU (2013), Liberia has made and developed high quality early childhood system.
- Another current international research topic is the difficulty to locate African based and African led research. According to ECDVU (2013), the issue has long concerned ECDVU as it has sought to locate such materials for incorporation into its courses.
A surprising fact that I learned from ECDVU website is generative curriculum. Generative curriculum is an interactive process that links three main strands of knowledge about child and family development: students' and elders' knowledge from their cultures, text usually prepared by specialist on local and regional cultures, and Western and international research and practice (ECDVU, 2013). Generative curriculum shows that the community is strongly committed to their children's development.
I found it very interesting that there is little no research topics based on Africa. I think that it is important for each country to have research conducted on early childhood. Research provides organizations to locate their weak areas and improve those weak areas. Research is good in early childhood because it allows agencies to know if the children are developing and if there are changes that need to occur.
http;//www.waldenu.edu
