When I Think of Research...

From this course I have learned so much about research and what it entails. One insight that I gained was that there are different types of research studies. There is the quantitative design which involves using numbers for analysis and then there is qualitative design which uses words for analysis. Each can be used on their own or used together to make a study that has numbers and words to back a finding. I also learned that I am not supposed to understand everything in a research study. Before this class, I would try to read a whole research paper and would get completely confused. Now I know what to read and what not to read, and have a better understanding of what I am reading.

I looked at research as something that scientist did and now I know that everyone can do research. Before this course, I viewed research as something that happened in a lab and that was something I would never do since science was never a strong subject for me. Now I know, that research is way more than that. It is the act of observing and finding out the answers to questions that we have. Without research we would not know much of what we know today about children.

When it comes to the early childhood field and children I learned that there are ethical concerns that need to be looked at. Consent is a major ethical concern that every researcher should get from their participants. This also means, that if the participant is a child, consent from their parent or guardian is a must. When it comes to a research project this is all a part of the planning process. As for conducting the research project in the early childhood field, I learned that we need to take a role in the classroom. Researchers need to let the children know what their role is and that they are there to listen and not judge or grade.

One challenge that I faced during this course was telling the difference between a quantitative design and a qualitative design. In the beginning I was not sure what the differences were. By talking to Dr. Davis and rereading the course work, I realized the main differences. When it came to quantitative design, one must be more exact with what they are finding. Where are qualitative design is more lenient on where the research is going.

I want to thank all of my colleagues and Dr. Davis for everything that you have taught me. This course topic was one that I was not familiar with and had some difficulties understanding some of the concepts. It was because of all of you that I now understand everything that we were supposed to learn. Thank you again, and I wish you all the best of luck as you continue this journey to your masters.

Research Around the World

The website that I chose to look at was http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/.

Some of the research topics that I found were quite interesting. The first one that caught my eye, and could be used world wide, was Dealing with bullying together: prevention and resolution. Since you have to pay to see the full report, I am going to share the brief overview that they gave. The research talks about being a careful observer, gives strategies for helping children who are bullies or have been bullied, tips on supporting the parents, and preventing bullying all together in the early childhood field. Anti-bullying programs have always been an interest to me, and I think it is important that every teacher learns the signs of bullying and takes an active role in stopping bullying.

A few other topics that they have were:

Children's resilience: Working with the Early Years learning Framework
Nurturing the spiritual child: Compassion, connection, and a sense of self
Aggression and young children
and many more!

One piece of information that I found interesting was that there was a section under position statements that has a statement of regret. Here they talk about how they are taking a stand and are recognizing and committed to reconciliation with the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander children and families that were forced out due to new settlers. I think that by taking a stand, they are showing that they care for all children and believe that all children deserve the same rights and education.

I did learn that just recently all childcare settings in Australia have a ration set in place of one teacher for every for infants in a room. They put this into effect so that all children under the age of 24 months will have a higher quality in care and development. With this development they have also put in place a rating systems so that parents can see how their child care setting compares to others in the area. They stated that this is the biggest reform in the child care setting they have had to date (Early Childhood Australia, 2011).

This was definitely an interesting website. I just wish that there were more free resources to see some of their findings.

References

Early Childhood Australia. (2011). Early childhood news archives. Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

Just over Thanksgiving I was informed that my best friend's sister was sent to the hospital with a diagnosis of type two diabetes. Without research, the fast treatment that she received to survive, would not be in existence to save her. Due to this, I decided to look at more research that was going on to find out what causes diabetes in healthy children and what they are doing to make sure children do not have to live with diabetes.

The one research that I found most intriguing was that they are tracking the spectrum of insulin resistance in diabetes. They know that diabetes begins when the body resists the insulin that is being produced. They are not sure when and how the disease takes over.  The Joslin cohort study, which is ran by Dr. Patti and Dr. Goldfine are using different volunteers along the insulin resistance spectrum. This is done so that they can see the differences between a healthy person without diabetes to a person who has type two diabetes. With the spectrum they will be able to see the changes as they occur with each level of the spectrum. Dr. Patti stated, "if we can identify factors that are different in people at risk for diabetes, those factors may play a casual role in diabetes development" (Joslin Diabetes Center, 2012).

Through this research, they are developing new therapies to prevent and even treat the disease. Hopefully, in time, more research will find the cure so that no child has to live with this disease. There will be no more pricking with needles to check their blood sugar count and  no more poking with needles to give the insulin that they need.

References

Joslin Diabetes Center. (2012). Tracking the spectrum of insulin resistance in diabetes. Retrieved on January 20, 2012 from http://www.joslin.org/news/tracking-the-spectrum-of-insulin-resistance-in-diabetes.html

My Personal Research Journey

The topic that I chose to work with this course is inclusive classroom and whether they are beneficial or distracting to students. I chose this topic because it is one that my cooperating teacher (back when I was student teaching for my bachelors degree) always talked about. She was a big advocator for this, and it has always interested me on how it would work and if all the children would benefit from this. Recently, I went back to do an observation in her class and found that she was teaching in an inclusive classroom. Spending the day with her and her students made me realize that there were some great benefits, but there were some draw backs as well.

So now, this week I am in the process of reading research papers to find out the results. So far I have found that schools with inclusive classrooms, usually but not always, have a higher quality program. All the studies I have found so far is based off whether the teacher is qualified to handle an inclusive classroom. From first glance, it seems that an inclusive classroom can work as long as the teacher is prepared to make it work.

I know that some of my classmates and I have talked about this in another course, but I am curious on what everyone thinks about inclusive classrooms. Do you teach in an inclusive classroom or have children in an inclusive classroom? What are your experiences from this?

As I find resources that I find important for this course or my topic, I will be adding them here. I am excited to learn more about inclusive classrooms and to learn from all of you!

Final Blog Post for the Issues and Trends in the Early Childhood Field

While listening to the podcasts and looking over different websites, I have learned so much when it comes to the early childhood field internationally. The website that I chose at the beginning of this course was The Child’s Defense Fund which is where I learned about programs that were helping out in the U.S.

Delfena Mitchell taught me that there needs to be more programs that are designed to helping children in tough situations. She has the patience and understanding to give a child a safe place to open up about his life at home.  We as professionals can take a cue from Delfena Mitchell and give every child, which crosses our path, a safe place to express themselves.

I also learned that there are programs that are trying to connect what each country is learning and developing with each other.  The Global Children’s Initiative was set up to build activities that promote early childhood development, child mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations.

Finally, I learned that many countries are experiencing the same issues and trends. Personally I have seen that there is changes that need to occur across the world. We as educators need to come together and find ways to help bridge the gap with these issues and trends.

My goal is to find contacts around the world that I can collaborate with. By doing this, I will learn from their experiences and their knowledge.

I want to say, thank you to all my classmates and Dr. Klein for everything that you have taught me these past eight weeks. It has been a pleasure reading your posts and your comments to my posts. I have learned some valuable tools from each and every one of you! I wish you all the best as you continue down this road.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

The podcast that I listened to was from George Forman.  Dr. Forman’s main interest was figuring out what children saw when they played. He talked about teachers teaching about colors and shapes but not about the action taken to make those colors and shapes. Dr. Forman talked about a child that he watched play and the delight that the boy got when he realized that a log could stand up. Dr. Forman couldn’t figure out why this child was so delighted by this until he came to the realization that the child was learning. Dr. Forman said that we need to see the world in terms of change and not change instead of how they are. I think the concepts that Dr. Forman talked about is what teachers learn as they grow professionally.

After listening to the podcast I went to, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/ to learn more about early childhood education.  When looking through the site I found a topic that relates to one of my goals. One of my goals was to become an advocate for the children in my area. Right now, the children that I have focused my attention on are the ones that are living at or below the poverty level. UNESCO wants a “policy of universalisation with targeting can minimise inequity where governments aim for universal access among the target age group, but simultaneously prioritise the poor.” (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/access/). What they are saying is that they want every child to receive the benefits from the government but that they must start with the children who are in need the most.

The website also talks about quality. I think that quality is very important for teachers, which is why one of my goals is to become a high-quality teacher. The website mentions, “Early childhood care and education programmes should emphasise the child’s holistic development and extend beyond assisting the child’s transition to formal schooling” (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/quality/). I think that this statement is something that we all believe in. We must not teach towards moving on to the next grade but focus on teaching what the child is interested in.

Finally, I wanted to talk about investment. We need to invest in our children today by giving them the resources that they need to learn. I think that this website says it best by saying that we need to view early childhood education as part of the basic education. By doing this we are helping our children start down the right path of growing academically and socially.

Sharing Web Resources - Week 6

While exploring The Children’s Defense Fund’s (CDF) website I found a link that took me to Access for Infants and Mothers (AIM) found at http://www.aim.ca.gov/Home/.  This website is set up to inform expecting mothers of their benefits in California. “AIM is for middle-income families who don’t have health insurance and whose income is too high for no-cost Medi-Cal.” There are many benefits that are covered through AIM like prenatal and postnatal care. This website is all about keeping a mother and baby healthy so that they have a good start. Once the baby is born, they are automatically enrolled for insurance so that their healthy start can continue. I really liked seeing programs like this out there for expectant mothers. Many feel like they can’t afford to go get the prenatal care that they need, but programs like this help.

While looking at The Children’s Defense Fund’s newsletter I found out that as of November 7^th the “U.S. Census Bureau released its first report using the new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM)” (http://cdf.childrensdefense.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=25802.0&dlv_id=0). The SPM was designed to take care of some problems with existing official poverty measures and found that child poverty is declining. CDF states that this is due to the federal programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit and food stamps. As CDF states though, in no way does this mean that our children are suffering less. We need to still support the basic needs of our children and still fight for their rights.

This week we have been talking about accessibility, affordability, availability, and equity for our children. CDF has a program that runs after school and all summer long that works with children. The program is set up to teach children about their culture, reading, writings, and expressing themselves in a safe place. One of the students mentioned that it was nice to walk into the school in the morning and see all the smiling faces from children of all ages. They have breakfast as a community along with a sharing time where everyone is dancing, singing, and cheering. They also have a designated time throughout the day where everyone has to drop everything and read (D.E.A.R). All the teachers and students sit down for fifteen minutes of quiet time and read a book.

My new insight for this week is this program. I had no idea that something like this existed in my area. I would have thought that my undergraduate studies would of encouraged us to take part in this over the summer since it is right down the street from the university. They have interns which are college students who teach the classes. One teacher said at the beginning of the year she had children complaining that they had to write a story or a letter. But by the end of the year, her school mailbox was filled with letters from her students. There needs to be more programs like this to help our children by giving them a safe place to learn and grow outside of school.