When I think of research...

The insight I have gained from the Building Research Competencies course is to be much more aware of the source of the research I am considering. Having gained the understanding that research is influenced by the researcher’s ontology and epistemology will greatly inform how I consider research in the future. I now understand various research methods and have knowledge that allows me to check for bias in a study.

I have a deeper respect for researchers. I have always been fascinated by research and how we learn about human behavior. This course has allowed me to see the many circumstances and situations a researcher must consider in order to conduct equitable research.

 Planning, designing and conducting research with young children involves many considerations. Research involving children has specific ethical guidelines that provide special protections. [See link below.] Designing a study that will allow children to participate and show what they know and feel about their world is complicated. All of this can be accomplished with a well thought out plan and literature review so that when the study is started the researcher is well prepared.

The challenges that I encountered during this course were understanding the differences in some of the closely related research methods and the unfamiliar vocabulary. Looking to other resources for their definitions of terms and reading fellow students discussion board postings helped to clarify my understanding.

My perception of EC professionals has been modified as a result of this course because now I see us as invaluable to the research field. Many of us are quite capable of conducting research with the correct support system (I know we still have much to learn). Additionally, EC professionals can provide researchers with topics we wish we had more information about as we work with our students and families.

Thank you

Thank you to all of my fellow students; it has been a pleasure learning with you and your support and encouragement was invaluable, especially as we all started this course with trepidation. I gained great insight and deeper understanding from each discussion board. I learned valuable information from your blogs. I wish you all success as we continue or educational journey!

Resource

 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP). (n.d.) Special protections for children as research subjects. HHS.gov. Retrieved on from http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/populations/children.html

Research Around the World

I chose to look into research on the Early Childhood Australia website. This year I have a girl in my class whose father is Australian and we spent several days in class learning about that country. The family was kind enough to share cultural books, as well as Australian children books. The class favorite was a book of photos of their classmate and her family in Australia, the photo of her petting a kangaroo was astonishing to them.

Early Childhood Australia publishes the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood (AJEC) it is the longest-running major journal in the early childhood field. (Australasian refers to Australia, New Zealand and the neighboring islands in the South Pacific Ocean).

You need to subscribe to have full access to the journal articles but I was able to access the index and abstracts for the most current issue, Volume 36, published on December 4, 2011. Several of the research studies were topics that are of interest in the United States such as parental views of the influence of television on the development of young children. The Australian study by Garvis & Pendegast found that very often if a TV program is rated educational parents do no further investigating on their own.

Another study by Colmer, Rutherford & Murphy looked at attachment theory and primary caregiving in early childhood settings. Utilizing the primary caregiver as a partner to intervene with families where there are disruptions to the parent – child attachment. I found this idea very interesting and a new way to look at the importance of primary caregiving and I wonder if it would work in child care settings here in the US.

Play is the focus of much research in the US and a comparison study conducted by Reynolds, Stagnitti, & Kidd conducted in Victoria, Australia found that children from low socioeconomic areas that attended school with a play-based curriculum gained more social and language skills than the children that attended a traditional school.

Noteworthy information that I found is that there are a lot of changes happening in early childhood education in Australia this year. As of January 1 of this year, the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) is working to implement high –quality early childhood education and care for all children. Australia as a nation has recognized the importance of rich preschool experiences and veiws it as a way to close the widening gap between children who are doing well academically and those that are not. The Education and Care Services National Law Act 2010 was passed with an understanding that a strong cognitive and language base leads to later educational success. May we in the US get our policy makers to develop this understanding!

References

Colmer, K., Rutherford, L., & Murphy, P. (2011). Attachment theory and primary caregiving [Abstract]. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. 36.

Early Childhood Australia website http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/  

Garvis, S., & Pendergast, D., (2011). Warning-Television viewing may harm your child’s health: Parent perceptions of early Childhood viewing habits [Abstract]. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. 36.

Reynolds, E., Stagnitti, K. & Kidd, E., (2011). Play, Language and social skills of children attending a play-based curriculum school and a traditionally structured classroom curriculum school in low socioeconomic areas [Abstract]. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. 36.

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

 In 2001 the U.S. Department of Justice implement a project called the Safe Start Initiative. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention started the initiative in the hope of mitigating some of the effects on children exposed to violence. Current estimates indicate that in the United States as many as 10 million children have witnessed or been victims of violence in their homes or communities.  Children’s exposure to violence has been linked to lower academic achievement, as well as, increased anxiety, depression, and anger. Increased alcohol and drug abuse is also a result. The project was divided into several phases.

 In 2011, The RAND Corporation researched the effectiveness of phase two of the project and found positive results. Phase two involved the implementation and evaluation of a range of interventions to help children and families cope with the effects of children’s exposure to violence at 15 sites throughout the country.

Because of many obstacles in collecting data, forming strong conclusions was not possible. What was learned for future implementation, is the type of obstacles practitioners using these types of interventions will face and how to modify their approaches.

Despite difficulty in data collection researchers were able to identify that many of the programs were successful in establishing their individual program goals. The programs were able to develop procedures to increase identification of children exposed to violence. Also, communication and coordination among service providers was established. Services gaps for children and their families were addressed through interagency and communitywide partnerships. Overall awareness of the effects on children who are exposed to violence was increased, as well as, the need to respond to it with effective interventions.

As we are continuously reminded of the violence in our communities and schools by daily news reports this is an example of research providing effective techniques and increasing community resources to help reduce some of the consequences for the children and families exposed to the violence. May we someday be able to stop all the violence!

As a student learning about research and feeling slightly overwhelmed by the prospect of creating a research simulation, I was reassured to find out that this project was still considered successful and useful information was gathered despite the researchers having difficulty with data collection.

References

Jaycox, L. H., Hickman, L. J., Schultz, D., Barnes-Proby, D., Setodji, C.M., Harris, R., Acosta, J.D., & Francois, T. (2011). National evaluation of safe start promising approaches: Assessing program outcomes. Retrieved from The RAND Corporation website: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/technical_reports/2011/RAND_TR991-1.sum.pdf

U.S. Department of Justice: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. (2001, April). Children’s exposure to violence: The safe start initiative. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/fs200113.pdf

My Personal Research Journey

The topic for the research simulation I have chosen is shyness in preschool age children. Throughout my teaching career I have often had shy children in my class and done my best to help them develop skills that allow them to feel more comfortable interacting with their peers and the other adults at school. Through my studies I have been learning about the importance of social/emotional development and its connections to all other areas of development. More importantly the effects of not having appropriate social awareness skills can have on emotion health in middle childhood and beyond (Berger, 2009).

This topic is of particular interest to me this year because of a child I have in my class. She joined our class in September two mornings a week and has just begun to answer my direct questions with one or two word answers within the last month or so.  She spoke to my co-teacher for the first time this week. At home the only person she really interacts with is her mother.  She never talks to the other children, but will play alongside them. None of the shy children I have worked with in the past have taken this long to begin communicating in the classroom so it has made this topic one of great interest to me.

The simulation process so far has reduced my anxiety level a bit. Knowing that we are going to work on this in smaller steps has been helpful. Learning that there are several ways to conduct research that is valid is also helpful because some research designs seemed very overwhelming to me. I am still concerned about formulating the research questions for my study as the topic is very broad in my thought processes right now and I am still unsure of the direction I want to go in.

One thing that I found very helpful when looking for literature on my topic of study using the Walden library was to use a variety of search terms in the database fields. Using shyness AND preschool children produced different results than using reducing shyness AND preschool children. I entered the same terms in different databases which provided me with different results also increasing my choice of research to learn from. 

Any helpful tips on locating quality research are greatly appreciated. If a fellow student is doing a closely related topic I would love to share resources that I find with you as they may be more helpful for your line of inquiry than mine.

References

Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Consequences of Establishing International Contacts

When I first read the assignment description regarding establishing international contacts I will admit to feeling very overwhelmed. I was unsure that I would be successful, wondering if anyone would take the time to help a student in the US with their studies. I was concerned that with so many of us reaching out to the same reference list our odds of establishing contact would go down, with that in mind I decided to take an alternate route to finding connections through my Linkedin early childhood groups. I reached out to at least five group members and received only two initial replies. When I initiated specific course related discussions Godfrey, from Kenya, was the only one to reply. Thank you again Godfrey.

Three consequences that resulted from establishing this contact are:

•   Gaining a more developed world view of early education and care.
•   Gaining an understanding that many of the problems and goals of the US education system are shared by other countries.
•   Establishing a professional relationship that can be a valuable resource throughout my career.

As I shared last week, it is my hope and intention to remain in contact with Godfrey, he agrees we have much to learn from each other. I have had the opportunity to share my opinion and knowledge with others in the Linkedin groups I belong to, establishing contact with early childhood educators around the world. A goal to continue to share knowledge about quality and equity in early care and education on an international level is one I would not have pursued on my own but have found very rewarding.

Thank you to all my fellow classmates for your thoughtful comments and interesting posts!

Professionalism- Training, Development and Goals: A View from Kenya

I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to correspond with my international contact, Godfrey, from Kenya. I have learned a great deal with regard to the many similarities our countries have as we try to improve equity in early care and education.

The past two weeks, once again, Godfrey has been kind enough to take the time to engage in a discussion about quality and professionalism in early education.  Godfrey has a bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education and with that degree he works at a college overseeing Diploma and Certificate students.  The difference in education between Diploma and Certificate students is minimal; all students are introduced to the basics of early childhood development and education. The contents of instruction are not as in depth for Certificate students and the programs have different entrance requirements with the Diploma student needing higher grades to enter. Both can work as teachers in centers and Godfrey reports that interestingly it is often the Certificate students that are rated higher in the field. This made me think of our discussion this week in class about what the requirements to be an early childhood educator need to be. 

His primary duty is to train teachers that will work directly with children at child care centers. The Ministry of Education provides a syllabus that covers diverse topics that include curriculum, child rights, management of early childhood centers, as well as, special needs education.  The hope is that with an extensive curriculum teachers will be better prepared for various issues that come up once they enter the classroom. Additionally, Godfrey assesses teaching students in the field, focusing on pedagogy. Further, the Diploma students in Kenya conduct research on various issues in the field of early childhood.  Godfrey feels it is important that the ministry allows students to be exposed to conducting research.  I shared with Godfrey that in the United States, it requires at a minimum a master’s degree and in most cases a doctorate to oversee education students although some of the requirements, such as research, seem very in depth for non-master’s level work.

I shared with Godfrey that I was a master’s degree student when looking for someone to correspond with.  I shared that I was an Early Childhood Studies student with a specialization in Administration, Management and Leadership. I chose this specialization because although I knew I wanted to advance my career this allowed my several options, to direct a center, to work with adults within the profession or to work in the area of advocacy. Godfrey shared that he would also like to continue his education and specialize in the area of developmental psychology or special needs education in order to develop a better understanding of children. He intends to establish a consultancy and training firm to deal with ECE issues.  I wish him much success! I can feel his passion for his work in the messages we have shared and know the ECE field in Kenya is blessed to have him.

The government and NGO’s sponsor conferences and workshops for educators in Kenya.  One held last fall was entitled Knowledge Sharing Among ECE Stakeholders. Godfrey, like many of us in the ECE field find attending conferences, workshops and earning advanced degrees challenging due to time and financial constraints.

As this class nears the end I would like to thank Godfrey for taking time to share his thoughts and dreams with me, a stranger from across the globe. It is my intention to stay in touch with my new professional contact to support each other as we continue our journeys in the ECE field. Who knows maybe someday we will have the blessing of meeting in person.

Exploring the NIEER newsletter for expanded resources.

NIEER (National Institute for Early Education Research) provides several ways to follow their research. I have chosen to subscribe through Facebook and to get their newsletter emailed to me. Often when I receive these alerts I will use the links provided to get more information on what was highlighted.

The newsletter is broken down into several categories, Hot Topics, a link to Preschool Matters Today (NIEER’S blog), Calendar, Early Education News Roundup, and Resources.

In Hot Topics this week were the results of a yearlong study in Texas showing an achievement gap in children as young as 3. While 52% of students overall were ready for Kindergarten, in low income area this number dropped to 12% (United Way, 2011). These findings are very much related to my current studies at Walden regarding equity in early education and the influences of poverty on children’s learning outcomes.

The calendar section provides links to conferences, summits and workshops being held throughout the United States and abroad. There is a conference in Estonia, June 18-19^th 2012, being held by the International Council of Children’s Play.  The keynote speaker is John Wall a professor at Rutgers University which is my home state of New Jersey.  More information can be found at http://www.iccp-play.org/conferencetallinn2012.htm

The area I chose to explore more extensively was The Early Education News Roundup. This part of the newsletter provided links to many recently written articles in the area of early education. It was interesting to me that most of the articles discussed the importance of early education and children’s later educational success and productivity as adults or impending budget cuts to early education programs across the United States. Also discussed was constitutes quality education and are we asking too much of young children. All of the articles related to equity and excellence in early care and education.  The challenges of balancing equity of access to quality early education and being able to fund that access has been the focus of my studies in my current coursework. I found it very interesting how different states are handling or mishandling early education in their state. The article on California’s transition kindergarten program and funding cut is an excellent example. To read more http://nieer.org/news/index.php?NewsID=3301

A new issue that I read about is developmental psychologist Dr. Gordon Neufeld believes we are asking too much of young children and our approach to early education need to change. We should be focusing on play and not be concerned with outcomes until the children reach the age of seven. He believes that there is a correlation to children going to school younger and losing their curiosity by 12^th grade. He believes their prefrontal cortex is not developed and they are much better equipped to work at the age of seven. This was interesting reading and gave me a lot to consider. I have been aware of the pushing down of curriculum and felt that was an issue in early childhood, but not starting formal education until the age of seven was not something I had considered.  To learn more of Dr. Neufeld thoughts on this issue follow this link http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/work+play/6109961/story.html

References

NIEER http://nieer.org/

United Way. (October, 2011). Are there neighborhoods where very young children are identified with developmental vulnerabilities? Children’s Optimal Health, Young Children Volume II - United Way Capital Area Success by 6 Partnership. Retrieved from  http://childrensoptimalhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/UWay-Map-Report-10-13-11-Small1.pdf