Research Reflection

This course has allowed me to gain certain insights into research practice in the early childhood field.  One insight includes a new understanding of the process of planning and preparation that allows a researcher to design a study.  I've also been able to experience this process through our research simulation, allowing me to experience the process first hand.

My ideas about the nature of doing research have changed to some extent throughout this course.  If nothing else, I have gained a respect for the professionals who are constructing and carrying out the pertinent research that is guiding practice in our field.  One thing I have learned during this course is that it takes a very specific type of brain to be able see the world through the design, activity, and analysis of research!

I have learned about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood.  One lesson I learned is that attention to detail is key.  I have learned that any research involving human subjects is complex and warrants considerations on many levels.

One challenge I encountered during this course was tackling the technical terms.  The weekly charts helped me learn the terms.

One way my perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course is in gaining an understanding of the process that shapes the practices and information we use in the field.  Understanding how research findings come about is an important part of being an early childhood professional.

Research Around the World

I recently visited EECERA.com ~ the website for the European Early Childhood Education Research Association.  This is the research resource I've been looking for!  The searchable library of the European Early Childhood Education Research Journal contains back issues full of highly useful research analysis. 

One topic in the journal library that caught my eye was play.  Other topics from the current issue include teacher education, leadership and management, diversity, culture, and language, as well as something called polyvocal ethnography, which I will have to read up on ;)

An insight I gained by browsing the EECERA website is a renewed understanding of the wonderful global and diverse perspective that seems to be more pervasive in non-US organizations.  I look forward to revisiting the issue on play as I write a curriculum for a workshop I am teaching later in October in order to add a more diverse dimension to my materials.

One other noteworthy piece of information I discovered is an article titled "Digital play in the early years: a contextual response to the problem of integrating technologies and play-based pedagogies in the early childhood curriculum".  I wish I would have discovered this article during the initial phases of my research simulation- I look forward to reading it in order to build on my understanding of current research in the area of technology use in early childhood education and development.