When I Think of Research……

When I think of research, I think of it being a systematic way of investigating a topic or issue that is culturally specific in order to gain information and/or provide a solution (Mac Naughton, 2010).  

I feel I’ve learned a great deal about the process of research from this course. I’ve learned how to narrow a topic down for more control of the data and in terms of thinking about ways to make it equitable for all the participants. I’ve learned about what methods to use in a quantitative, qualitative or a mixed method approach to designing research I’ve learned the importance of making the research ethical by attaining the consent of parents for quantitative and qualitative approaches to research and children’s consent when using the mixed method approach. I’ve learn that reliability involves attaining consistent results by using consistent  measurements  and/or consistent definitions when using observations and validity in qualitative research involves using a sample of participants representative of the case study setting or looking at the research from a number of vantage points, called triangulation (Mac Naughton, 2010).

My biggest challenge was narrowing the question or problem down to a more controllable set of

observations but after logically explaining the research each week, the actual question became clearer. Another challenge of mine was determining the dependent and independent variable and it didn’t become clear to me until I received Dr. Dartt’s comments in last week--Week 7’s part 2 application assignment. Initially, I thought about observing only the males in the classroom but after reading about rigor and triangulation, I included two males and 2 females in order to have a sound sample that represented the genders in the classroom.  The nature of the research process changed also after I read about the mixed research method and then I included the children’s willingness to accept my observations by them actively participating in the classroom, especially after explaining that I would be looking at them work at Center time for four days as my getting their consent. I also learned that the process of thinking about equity; how to select the participants and obtaining the consents of participants should be done in the planning phase of the research. Thinking about collecting the data, what method(s) to use to collect the data;  what data to collect; how and when to collect the data; what and how to write and share the data should also be done in the research design phase and then conducting of the research at this point should be pretty smooth. The analysis and interpretation of the data should be rigorous and use triangulation to increase case study validity.

Before I completed my research simulation, I had not fully realized the complexity of conducting research and the power of completing the process but now I feel I have a deeper understanding of how to complete a case study and why it is important. Today, I have a renewed respect for the research process and I now understand why research legitimizes the work of the professional and I look forward to being more ferverent in using research to keep abreast of the current issues and trends of early childhood in my work here, in America and around the world.   

Reference

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A. & Siraj-Blatchford,  I (2010).  Doing early childhood research: International 

        perspectives on theor and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill