When I Think of Research...

            This course has provided me with valuable information about conducting research.  I have learned a lot about choosing a topic, stating a research question and a hypothesis, and choosing between a qualitative and a quantitative research. 

I have always wanted to conduct a research and this course taught me the steps to take in order to carry it out successfully.  I always thought that doing research would be overwhelming and very challenging; however, the research simulation showed me that with the right knowledge and tools I would be able to conduct a successful and informative research.

  This course has also helped me design a research by selecting methods, participants, data validity, and ethics.

One of the challenges I encountered was narrowing my research topic.  I think that a professional research needs to have a specific research question.  I tried to choose a specific research topic and question in order to be able to conduct a detailed study and obtain related data.  This would help me provide the best results. 

This course has helped me realize that an early childhood professional has the responsibility to conduct research in order to allow the field to keep growing.  Each early childhood professional has different perceptions of children development; therefore each childhood professional can contribute to the field in a different way.  This will allow professionals to learn from each other in order to benefit the children; which is the ultimate goal of all early childhood professionals.     

Research Around the World

I chose to explore the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).  Most of the topics include ways to improve the education of children and also parents.  Researches also include studies about including indigenous knowledge and practices into children’s school education.   

The ECDVU is supported by international, regional and local organizations in order to provide training programs.  It is interesting to see how many professionals from so many different countries and cultures came together to support this organization.  Its goal is “to further develop African ECD leadership capacity as a key strategy in support of child, family and community well-being and broader social and economic development” (ECDVU, 2012).

This website also provided links to the ECDVU Middle East North Africa (MENA), the University of Victoria School of Child and Youth Care.  It was interesting for me to go through these websites to understand more about the ECDVU Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Research that Benefits Children and Families

            To conduct a research, I would choose to study the benefits of play on young children and their families.  More specifically, I would like to study the social and emotional benefits of play on children’s behavior.  I believe that this study would encourage parents and caregivers to spend more play time with their children in order to promote healthy and positive development.  This research would also allow parents and caregivers to engage their children in rough and tumble play, pretend play, role play and limit their time playing video games or watching television.  Many parents are not aware of the negative effects of television and video games have on their children.   I believe research can shed light on these dangers and motivate parents to spend more time playing and doing activities with their children.  Including different kinds of play in the classroom can also help children enjoy school and motivate them to work harder to achieve more; therefore this research would also be beneficial to early childhood professionals.

Your Personal Research Journey

The topic I chose for the research simulation is the importance of play in early childhood development.  The reason I chose this topic is that recently, there has been so much pressure on teachers to cover the academic curriculum that children aren’t given enough play time. Throughout this course, I have learned about the necessity of including all kinds of play in a child’s everyday life.  I have also learned about all the positive outcomes play has on children’s early development. 

I am using the Walden Library to find journal articles providing information about play and early childhood development.  I found several articles about pretend play, rough and tumble play, role play; and about how all these kinds of play are important in a child’s development. 

Since this topic is a vast one, I think I will need advice from my colleagues on how to start this research process and ways to obtain new information and findings.  I think I will also need advice on sorting resources; I tend to gather too many resources and then I always have a hard time studying only the most relevant ones.  One relevant resource that I have studied in a previous course is The vital role of play in early childhood education (Almon J., 2002).

Final Blog Assignment

The blog assignments in this course helped me gain new information about the international early childhood field.  The discussions with my colleagues (in Saudi Arabia and Jordan) allowed me to reflect on ways to advocate or volunteer in the early childhood field.  Another consequence of learning about the international early childhood field was realizing that issues were present globally; education in the early childhood field is still growing and many countries are still working hard to provide a better quality education to children.  The third consequence of learning about the international early childhood field was learning more about the situation in public schools.  Because I have always worked in private schools, I was not really aware of the situation of children living in poverty.

These blog assignments have inspired me to keep interacting with other international early childhood educators in order to exchange ideas and therefore try to provide a better education to all our children. 

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

 Saudi Arabia, most early childhood professionals are not qualified; they mostly have bachelor degrees but not in the early childhood field.   This is due to the culture; most women prefer to work in the morning and get home early; that is why most women find themselves working in schools.  Fortunately, many schools offer workshops and trainings for new teachers; actually in the school I work in, we are implementing the common core standards curriculum, and so we are doing a lot of training.  

My colleague shared her professional goals, which are learning new skills and offering a high-quality education to her students.  We work together in a private school so she explained that her professional hopes were that all children, even in public schools, would have access to high-quality education.  Actually, Saudi Arabia is not her native country so her dream was to go back home some day and offer a quality education to children.