When I think of Research...

These past few weeks have allowed me to gain a detailed overlook of what research in early childhood entails. During this course, I learned that research can be used as a tool. From this standpoint, early childhood professionals address topics and or questions that they may have experienced professionally o personally. Regardless of how you come to your topic, it is by learning to use research as a tool that you can answer the question or questions you set out to address and inform others of what you have found (MacNaughton, Rolfe, Siraj-Blatchford, 2010, p.8).

Prior to this course, my understanding of what research was consist of finding at least three resources related to your topic. with that information, you would carefully expand on your topic. In this course, I learned that there is so much more to research than one would expect it to be. With the different approaches, types of research and designs of research, my nature of research have changed. I perceive research to be a more strategic approach, one must clearly decide if the study will be non- experimental or experimental. One must also choose the design that will be used to conduct the study. Much valuable research involves observing or documenting things that occur in everyday life with the aim of understanding, rather than explaining (MacNaughton, Rolfe, Siraj-Blatchford,2010,p.108)

One challenge that I faced in the course was deciding on my topic for my simulation. It was hard because I never thought I would conduct a study in early childhood field. As the course progressed, I became intrigued with how effective each of the designs, approaches and methods are to ensuring that truthful results or solutions are achieved. with this new information, I now perceive early childhood professionals as the pioneers for providing educators the support they need to provide young children a learning experience that will spark in their latter educational journey.

References
Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2^nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

 Research Around the World

For this assignment, I decided to investigate Early Childhood Australia website.  I immediately notice how familiar the site is to the NAEYC website. On the top of the page are tabs that are related to various topics, such as resources for parents and information on how to become a member of the association. I really enjoyed reading about their Learning Hub program. This program offers educators the opportunity to obtain training at their convenience and with a group of people. 

To look further into what this website offers, I researched the website to see if I could find information on my research simulation topic and was successful. There were a variety of resources available to assist this topic.  In my search resource books, articles, and even newsletters were recommended. Knowing that there are resources available worldwide for research is a rewarding experience.

References

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/