concluding research

• What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?

I have seen that there is a lot more to doing research than simply looking up some sources. There are methods and various ways of going about finding the information needed. I now know that in order to have a proper research study that one must have a clear and consice question in mind and be able to narrow it down in order to find the answers that are needed.

• In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?

As I stated before i now know that there is a lot more needed than to read some papers. I know that the ways we have been taught make research a little easier than simply googling some answers. These methods we have been given allow us to narrow down the search and look at the answers from different points of view.

• What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?

I know that there has to be a plan. Before I would simply look up some information and call it a day. Now I have the understanding that in order to have all the information needed I need a game plan and an idea of how I want the research findings to turn out. I can see now that the process of studying someone or a group of people is a little more complicated than just watching and writting some notes. The more detailed you are with your observations or interviews the more likely it is that the research will be seen as valid.

• What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?

Finding the information in general for my topic was difficult. I had to learn how to word the question to get the information I was looking for. It was not as simple as asking what color do children like the most. It was a process of using the correct words and in the correct order to get the information I needed.

• What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?

I can see that it takes a lot more than some schooling or just liking kids to be in the field and truly know what is going on and why it is happening. I can see that it takes more effort on the part of the professional to stay up on what they need to know about children and how they function and learn.

International Research

I looked at the website for austrailia. http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ I found that many of the topics that are important to them are also relevant in the United States. some of the topics include; breastfeeding, childcare ratings, diversity among children, inclusion of children, and many more. I saw that the national quality standards were a big issue on this site. They seem to take the "accredidation" process very seriously there. It was good to see that we are not the only country that is focused in on the inclusion process of children. This is one thing that I believe will make or break a child in their school careers. Children need to feel included no matter their state. I also noticed that child health and obesity is another big topic in their country. This means to me that we as a human race need to stop and look at what we are feeding our children and how much we are denying them the abilities to actively play. This is something that i would like to look closer into and possibly try to find a way to helop parents understand that this is not ok and that our children are going to suffer in the long run.

Research that will benifit children...

If I could choose any topic within the early childhood field to research and it would have a positive outcome on the entire community, it would be behavioral problems in young children. I choose this topic because I lived with this issue for much of my life. My brother has had behavioral problems his whole life due to a severe brain injury he got when he was two. I know what it is like for children to be put through test after test, and the Doctors never come up with a correct diagnosis. I would run a study to make sure that children were not being passed over when there may be something seriously wrong. Too many children today are being diagnosed with ADD and ADHD, and I find that to be the "easy way out" for doctors and parents. A child who is two or three years old should not be given this diagnosis. The child is more than likely just acting their age and the partents do not know what else to do, so they run to the doctor and get a prescription for Ridlin to calm the child down. This makes it difficult for the next child that comes along who may have something more severe than ADD or ADHD. I had a child in my class years ago who was, for lack of better terms, terrible. This child was as sweet as could be when things were going his way or he was playing. When he lost his temper though he was capable of injuring even adults. He woudl throw chairs, tables, knock over shelves filled with toys, bite, punch, the list goes on. There was something about this boy that I was drawn to. I took him under my wing and played a little bit of favorites with him, so I coudl possibly point his mother in the right direction. Jeremy was three and there was no reason for him to be acting the way he was for no reason. After I took on this mission I found that there were triggers that would set him off and allow him to lose his temper. He had a very difficult time with transition and needed ample time to prepare himself for that to happen. I would always alert him when there was 10 minutes left of an activity and allow him to begin his own transition before the rest of the class. This helped him a great deal. It was not medication that he needed it was attention.
I want to run a study that would allow people to see that jumping to conclusions like ADD is not always the right choice. A child may simply need some extra TLC and some time to work things out for themselves.

My research topic

I decided to do the topic of when children begin to actually learn their colors, shapes, letters, numbers, etc... I narrowed the topic down to what I truly wish to research and put my effort into. I have noticed in my many years of working with children and in day care centers that children are attracted to certain colors. Before the age of two I have found that if you put multiples of the same toy in front of a child of different colors almost 99% of the time the child will go for the red toy. This is what I find to be curious. I know that as children age their site grows. i also know that when children are born they are color blind and red is a significant color that sticks out in their grayscale. I want to find out why children truly like the color red over any other color. I want to know that when children begin to learn their colors and shapes, etc... that they learn certain letters or numbers faster because they are in the color red. These are all small little experiments I have done in my own time and with different children in different ages. I want to know the reasoning behind this.

Final blog

There were many things that I learned from our international contacts. I learned that the United States is so focused on education and money that we have forgotten about the fundamentals of learning. We as a nation have forgotten about play. Even as adults we need to play (a different kind of play but play), we need to refocus our efforst on teaching children the basics while they are playig. If we continue to focus on education only and keep forcing academics on our children they will get burnt out and not want to learn at all. We need our children to be the future and in order for them to do this they need to be educated in a way that they enjoy it.
I have also learned that in many other countries their education system still incorporates morales and values. While we have a large melting pot of nationalities and traditions we still have nothing that we teach the children other than abc's and 123's. There needs to be some focus on ethics, or values that we hold as a nation. We teach right and wrong but never anyhthing that dates back to our ancestors unless its through family at home.
Another thing that I learned is that we have some of the same issues and trends as other countries. We have the basics of financial troubles, and trust in where we place our children. We have the education delima. We need our early childhood teachers to be educated in order to educate our children. This holds true both in Brazil and Haiti, the two countries I spoke with.

If I could choose only one goal I would have to choose more communication. If we could communicate more openly with other countries' educators we might have a chance at becoming more peaceful. If we coudl understand why other countries teach the things they do and if they could understand why we teach the things we do, we may all be able to come up with a way of creating and equalibrium in the early childhood field. The rules and standards vary so much in the united States alone, that if we could create a standardization across countries we could accomplish anything we wanted to.

I have enjoyed working with all of my classmates and wish them the best in their future classes and professions in the early childhood field, thank you to all who have responded and posed questions to me durring this course.

international contacts

I emailed my contact in haiti and recieved no response but Cintia from Brazil was more than willing to share her thoughts with me.
She stated that in her center they are doing a new program that requires all of the teachers to be certified and possess a certificate or a degree of some kind in the early childhood field. she said that this requires the school to help pay for some of the education that the teachers are lacking. Cintia saidf that this excited her because now she has an opportunity to go back to school and further her education. another requirment that is being instated is that the teachers are now allowed to focus more on their lessons that the children want. She said that it is much like a curriculum that allows the students to chose what they want to learn about. She said that this way feels more natural to her and is looking forward to this change.
As stated before the school now has to help provide so the teachers can further their education as to where before the center required only some college and first aid and cpr training.

I told Cintia that my 15 year plan is to open my own center and have it prosper. I want to offer a center where all children are welcome no matter their financial state. I want children to be offered a chance to shine and have the skills they need and more when they enter primary school. My short term plan is to apply for a newly opened position at work and become an administrator.
When I asked Cintia what she wanted to do she replied by saying that she too would like to offer all of those things to children but does not want to be in the administration or own her own center, she said that she simply wants to be the best teacher she can be and have the knowledge to be able to provide for her students in the ways that they need. She wants to have a work place where everyone is respected and valued for their skills as a teacher and not have to deal with the he said she said gossip that goes around.

NBDCI cont.

While I was looking around the site, I became disappointed because there was little I had not seen. They did not have many outside links to follow and not much on what we are studying this week. As I continued to search around I found an article that was in a newspaper about WalMart. As I often shop at WalMart and have heard pretty nasty things about them in the news lately I was intrigued, I followed the link and found that WalMart had donated $300,000 to the NBDCI to help promote healthy eating habits in American families. This was apart of a campaign done by Michelle Obama to help healthy eating habits become better known and more affordable.
One thing i did notice was the link that I talked about last time, the organization is offering a challenge to states to see who can have the highest percentage of licenced operating centers. This may have potential to relate to this weeks discussion, if a center is licenced, they may be in the running for being accessible and available to all walks of life. This may help promote their business and allow families to afford to take their children to daycare. This may create a new way to find excellence within daycare centers in your community and not just a Babysitting service.

I am sorry to say that there was not much else that related to our topic this week. I am a little disappointed with the site that I have chosen for this course. I thought it would be more informative and have links and potential to help the black communities and their families. The site or organization is doing wonderful things to help but has yet to show a lot of it on their website. Many things are the same from week to week. The most interesting thing about this site, to me, is the black history facts that are always listed on the side of the site page. Those change from day to day and I find them fascinating.