When I Think of Research...

The duration of this course has really been an enlightening journey. Although some of the areas were familiar to me I have learned so much new information. The simulation process was all new to me. The last research course I did was in 1994 approximately twenty years ago when I was pursuing a diploma in secondary education and even though I did a research project to complete my bachelor’s, I believe this is the first time I did research in such details. I must say I am grateful for the knowledge and I am also aware of the sacrifice and hard work researchers must endure in order to produce quality effective work. The research process is no walk over.

Some of the main lessons that I have learned over the past weeks are planning, understanding ethical issues, designing and conducting research. I must admit the process is very time consuming and many of my Sundays had me locked down in reading and exploring materials that relate to research. Sometimes I got it right and sometimes I was totally off but it is a learning process. The simulation exercises and the discussions helped me to understand the research process better. Persons who conduct research that leads to positive changes in early childhood must have a special love or deep passion for the subject area and I must commend them for their efforts. My greatest challenge was to refine my research topic as it relates to how technology has an impact on children’s development in middle childhood.

Every early childhood professional should be aware of how to do research in early childhood. This is a very important aspect of early childhood because the field is constantly changing and I believe research is one of the effective tools we have as professionals to keep up with these changes.

I must say a big thank you to my colleagues and instructor who guided and helped me for the past eight weeks. Your comments and support has surely helped me understand research in the early childhood field.

When I Think of Research...

The duration of this course has really been an enlightening journey. Although some of the areas were familiar to me I have learned so much new information. The simulation process was all new to me. The last research course I did was in 1994 approximately twenty years ago when I was pursuing a diploma in secondary education and even though I did a research project to complete my bachelor’s, I believe this is the first time I did research in such details. I must say I am grateful for the knowledge and I am also aware of the sacrifice and hard work researchers must endure in order to produce quality effective work. The research process is no walk over.

Some of the main lessons that I have learned over the past weeks are planning, understanding ethical issues, designing and conducting research. I must admit the process is very time consuming and many of my Sundays had me locked down in reading and exploring materials that relate to research. Sometimes I got it right and sometimes I was totally off but it is a learning process. The simulation exercises and the discussions helped me to understand the research process better. Persons who conduct research that leads to positive changes in early childhood must have a special love or deep passion for the subject area and I must commend them for their efforts. My greatest challenge was to refine my research topic as it relates to how technology has an impact on children’s development in middle childhood.

Every early childhood professional should be aware of how to do research in early childhood. This is a very important aspect of early childhood because the field is constantly changing and I believe research is one of the effective tools we have as professionals to keep up with these changes.

I must say a big thank you to my colleagues and instructor who guided and helped me for the past eight weeks. Your comments and support has surely helped me understand research in the early childhood field.

RESEARCH AROUND THE WORLD

The link to the website is: http:www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

What are some of the current research topics?

The research topics included

1)      Getting the balance right: The challenge of balancing praise and correction for early childhood year’s children who exhibit oppositional and defiant behavior.

2)      Young Children’s beliefs about including others in their play: Social and moral reasoning about inclusion and exclusion.

3)      Building foundations for numeracy: A qualitative analysis of the basic concept knowledge demonstrated by young deaf children.

4)      The use of technology to facilitate music learning experiences in preschoolers.

5)      Professionals don’t play: Challenges for early childhood educators working in a trans disciplinary early intervention team.

 

I gained new insights and ideas about research in early childhood. Some of these new insights that I have gained is the Australian’s approach to research to early childhood. Although the topics covers research topics that relate to issues such as play, diversity, transitions I have come to recognize that they use research to support best practices and unravel even issues that might seem minute or insignificant in the field of early childhood. This website is a good ground and provides support  for a beginner researcher like myself to explore for information in the field of early childhood.

The website is quite is to manipulate and subscribe to. Australia I believe is one of the leading giants in the field of early childhood research and the more time spent  in exploring the website is the more we can gain from the website and apply it to our own situations.

MY ULTIMATE RESEARCH DREAM

Farrington (2002) cited “when people are asked what they think are the main causes of crime, they often nominate poor parental child-rearing methods and especially poor discipline or control of children.”

Early Childhood is such a wide field that I really found it difficult in choosing a topic to research. But for the many years my little country Jamaica has been riddled with much crime and violence and I wonder if it has to do with our early childhood system.  Sometimes I wonder does it have to do with poor parenting skills, the economy and other social issues.  I ask myself questions such as why is the ghetto system alive and well.  Why do young children continue to have children at a very tender age when there is so much information on birth control in schools and there supposed to be laws to protect our most vulnerable? And why do we choose to give our children guns instead of giving them a good education? Why the government sees it so hard to invest in early childhood when they know it can provide us with solutions to the many issues that we are faced. Do we really lack vision for our country and if so, are we really going to perish?

My research in early childhood would focus on the social and emotional development of children. My primary focus; however, would be to examine the impact of teenage pregnancy on the life of the child in in the formative years. For the past four years as an early childhood inspector I have discovered that many of the parents who send their children to community owned basic schools give birth to the children between the ages of 13  to 18 years. Another startling discovery I made is that the fathers for these children are also very young or the fathers are much older than the mothers. I also found out from some practitioners that if the mother who has given birth was below the age of consent many of the fathers’ information is not presented on the birth certificate. We know that children from the time of birth go through social and emotional changes and they also experience cognitive changes. I believe this research will help to identify how poor parenting skills will affect the social and emotional development of our children.

References

Farrington, D. (2002) Family Influences on Delinquency. Retrieved from http://samples.jbpub.com/9780763760564/60564_CH10_Springer.pdf

 

PERSONAL RESEARCH JOURNEY

The topic I hope to focus on for the next of couple of weeks for the simulation exercise is cognitive development in middle age children. The period between the ages of 6 to 11 is a very important time in a child’s life. Piaget called the cognition of middle childhood concrete operational thought, characterized by concepts that enable children to use logic (Berger, 2012). Children during this stage naturally learn quickly. It’s the age where the children are required to think. However, are the children’ thinking are being affected by modern technology such as computers, electronic toys and the long hours being spent watching television. Berger (p. 368), states “U.S. fourth graders score far below those in East Asia. Some critics blame the teachers, some the students, others the schools, and still others the culture.” This could be caused by various things such as the pressure to do well on assessments so that children can matriculate to higher grade, the lack of play, the excessive use of technological devices such as sitting and watching television for long periods of time, the use of other toys. Are children taught how to rote learn and not to think and apply information? My intention is to find out how all these aspects affect children cognitively in their middle childhood. Every aspect of child development is very important but middle childhood marks a period of increase independence and confidence in the middle childhood and therefore children who are not able to perform in school because of low cognitive development may end up becoming school drop outs are just passing through the system If we can identify from this early stage of child development what affects the child cognitive development we can save ourselves millions of dollars that are spent on remediation programs.

So far I am in the preliminary stages of the research chart. The first week was very challenging but I hope I am getting a true understanding of how to manipulate the chart.  Learning about the research process is challenging but learning about the different aspects of research such the various terminologies and the validity of the credibility of resources will prove to be both useful and as guide in ensuring that we understand and apply the research process.

I would greatly appreciate the views of my colleagues on cognitive development in middle childhood. Are children given stimulation exercises to help them cognitive development? Are the children bombarded by too much assessment exercises, therefore, less time is spent on allowing children to discover their world? How does play affect the child’s cognitive development in middle childhood? There are so many questions about cognitive development in middle childhood and I know many of you have much information to contribute to this area.

Judy,

Reference

Berger, K. (2012). The Developing Person Through Childhood(6th ed.) New York: Worth Publishers.

REFLECTING ON ESTABLISHED RELATIONSHIPS

For the past eight weeks we have discussed so many consequences that affects early childhood and that will impact our early childhood professional lives. Unfortunately my international contact in Africa did not respond to much of my request but based on many of the websites I explored such as Zero to Three provided me with valuable information on the issues that affect early childhood. I also had the privilege to share my experiences with Jennifer from the USA. I realize how much of the issues internationally that we have in common whether we are classified as developing or developed country. I surely have learned that in order to make some positive impact in the field of early childhood we need to be knowledgeable. Developing international relationships is definitely a plus for me because I know that I can research topics relating to early childhood from these various contacts and be provided with vital information. Based on my learning experiences, information in the field of early childhood is constantly changing and therefore as professionals we have a responsibility to stay informed. One aspect of the course that resonated with me is not to be judgmental or to make assumptions but we must get our facts right. This came across in the topics for me when dealing with culture and diversity; quality and equity in early childhood care and of course poverty. After exploring the many issues that the early childhood field is faced with I have also come to recognize the importance of policies. It is good to advocate but it is also very important on how policies can help to make positive changes for the early childhood field. I believe the early childhood profession is still very young and under recognized especially in developing countries. Not much has been done to ensure to raise the standards of the early childhood field. To me early childhood has been given a raw deal because initially not much emphasis was placed on early childhood development and now we are trying to make things right. Nothing is wrong with this; however, I believe much more support is needed from persons who can help to make the change happen quicker. Again I must emphasize that there is really no place for ignorance or it should be not treated as a trial error game. Scientists, physicians and economists may recognize the importance of investing in early childhood but it is far more important for the early childhood teacher, caregiver and other early childhood professionals to be informed at the highest level so that we all can make informed decisions that will be profitably for the present and also for the future. Early childhood professionals should be the ones to guide and help with implementation of policies; therefore professional goals are too advocated for the field of early childhood so that this field will get the recognition it deserves and not lip service. I must again thank all my colleagues who shared with me during the eight weeks. Your contributions influenced my drive to become a better ambassador for early childhood education. I wish all my colleagues the best in their future endeavours.

Judy

Getting to Know Your International Contacts -Part 3

For this week’s assignment I selected to review the UNESCO’s website on early childhood. UNESCO has provided a wide variety of information on early childhood. UNESCO advocates on Early Childhood Care and Education by focusing on health, nutrition, security and learning. My professional initial goals from the course “Early Childhood Foundations” was (1) to advocate on behalf of early childhood education; (2) to make positive impact on the lives of practitioners and caregivers and; (3) to help form support groups for parents and guardians. At the end of the course my redefined goals were (1) To advocate for funding to support medicals and nutritious meals for early childhood children within early childhood institutions;(2) To support groups within the early childhood institutions such as the Parent Teacher’s Association by providing with information on health care and developmental stages of children and (3) To create and information booth at a designated area or through the use of the internet to collect information on early childhood. The information on early childhood from UNESCO ECCE is overwhelming, so much to learn, so much to digest and so much to execute or to put into action. UNESCO ECCE discusses topics such as access and equity and quality. As you know quality, access and equity are all early childhood issues that affect us internationally and UNESCO ECCE discusses the initiative they have taken to promote deal with all these issues in early childhood education internationally. ECCE examines factors such as pedagogy materials, personnel training, service setting, parental education and involvement. I believe these factors relate to all of my three goals. One insight I have surely garnered from reading this web site is the sharing of information on quality early childhood education. My goals 2 and 3 relates to information sharing. For the past three and half years I have realize enough is not being done on the local level in my country to promote information about early childhood. I believe UNESCO ECCE has vital information that various stakeholders could use to invest more in early childhood and contribute to policies that will eventually lead to long term positive benefits for early childhood education. I might not have a lot of resources but I can start in my small circle by promoting my goals; making my voice be heard in church groups, PTA's, council meetings etc. about the importance of our children gaining access to quality early childhood education and that early childhood gets the attention it deserves.

Reference

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/quality/