Reflection on Research

As I complete this last week of Research in Education, I have gained knowledge and understand regarding the process involved in creating and carrying out research.  The first insight that I have gained, and probably the most important, is the sheer quantity of time that is required during the planning phase of research.  From my limited perspective, prior to this course, my understanding of research was the time application during the data collection portion of research.  After concluding this course, I am aware that the planning portion of the research design is probably the most intensive part.  Another insight that I gained from this course are the many considerations that must be taken into account when designing research.  From equity to bias, and cultural aspects to consent, there are so many ideas that must be looked at in order to conduct valid, relevant research.  

My ideas regarding the nature of doing research have changed in that, although the planning process is intensive, it is a must in order to be successful and validated in your research.  I feel confident in my ability to define a research question and plan the research design.  Although I would need to be under the guidance of an experienced researcher, I believe that I could be successful in the process of research design.  

One of the challenges that I encountered was choosing a topic of research that would be relevant to not only the field of education, but to my specific interests.  After choosing that topic, I also faced the challenge of redefining the idea into a workable research question.  This took a few tries and many considerations, but I was finally able to define a specific hypothesis for research.  Another challenge was simply trying to understand the limitless options in regard to the different types of research and the ways to go about collecting data.  There are many considerations when choosing the data collection methods and choosing the right one for my specific question took some understanding and thinking before I was able to identify the one that would work the best.

Finally, my perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course to include potential researcher as a characteristic of a quality professional.  In the field of education, understanding the importance of research, being able to identify quality research, and promoting the idea of being a researcher are all aspects of a professional in the field.  

International Research: Australia

I chose to look up information regarding Australia's early childhood research.  I chose Australia because during the last course, my international contact was from Australia.  I learned a great deal about early childhood from my correspondence with her.  Trish is the director of an early childhood center that was made up of about 60 children.  The main ideas regarding early childhood care in Australia is centered around the development of National Standards that oversee all early childhood centers within the country.  The development of these National Standards has lead to an overhaul of the early childhood system in Australia and the new push is towards excellence in all centers. 

From my contact with Trish, and from reviewing the website provided for this week, I learned that much of the current research in Australia is the same as in the United States.  One such research aspect is the idea of higher levels of education for early childhood workers.  With the new standards in Australia, the level of education required for early childhood teachers is increasing as the research shows that better care is provided by those teachers with higher levels of education.  There is also a push in the standards for play based learning in classrooms, which comes directly from the current research regarding the way children learn.  Low wages are also a current issue in Australia as the research also shows that those teachers who are paid better wages are more likely to stay with the career reducing staff turnover, which has been shown to have a positive effect on the children in early childhood programs.

I learned a great deal of information regarding the early childhood changes that are currently taking place in Australia.  I think the information on the website, along with my knowledge from the last class, has provided me with a better understanding of the importance of quality national standards and the impact that they make on children in early childhood programs.  I think in the near future, we will begin to see some of these changes taking place, particularly thanks to the current research on topics such as teacher education, higher wages, and play based learning.