"It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be."
-Albus Dumbledore
(Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling)

Saturday, October 28, 2017

When I Think of Research...

I believe that my simulation is important to the field of early childhood because it will show that there needs to be more of a focus on early education. Funding is a big issue in public early education programs and providing research to show that it is beneficial and gives students a better chance of success in kindergarten and later on in their education could increase that chance of funding. This simulation is also important to early education as many parents may not realize just how important their child’s education base really is. Getting that solid foundation in kindergarten could be more successful with early education programs.
            If I were to conduct my research simulation, children, teachers, and parents would all benefit. Children would benefit the most as the results would potentially show how much more success students have academically in kindergarten when they are previously enrolled in an early education program. Funding may become more readily available and more children will have the opportunity to participate in these programs. Teachers is kindergarten and upper grades will benefit as the children that have had access to early education are generally more prepared and will show greater success in school. Parents will benefit as their children will have been given the opportunity to become more prepared for school.
            One way that my perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course is that we need to use research to help our young children. Perhaps we will use it to better the group as a whole or there may be cases that we need to focus on specifically if there is a concern. Research can give much needed information to support our stances on policies or when a student needs a service and we need research to back up our reasoning.

            Thank you to all who have read and commented on my blog during this course. I am grateful to have received thoughtful responses and ideas! Thank you!

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Research Around the World

The European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) is a fantastic resource for many types of research in the early childhood field. Some of the international topics that are current in research include: “Enabling professionals to change practices aimed at tackling social inequality through professional development: results from a case study,” “Men and women in childcare: a study of caregiver-child interactions,” as well as “Quality of play, social acceptance and reciprocal friendship in preschool children” (European Early Childhood Education Research Association, n.d.).
            It is interesting to see that many of the research topics include parents and their interaction with their children. There are also many studies conducted about social and emotional well-being of young children as opposed mostly academic studies.
            While this website is based in Europe there are many articles that I found that are about young children in Australia and China. This makes the website even more valuable as there are so many other areas of the world being included in research for early childhood educators everywhere to benefit from.

References


 European Early Childhood Education Research Association. (n.d.) Eurpoean Early Childhood Education Research Journal (EECERJ). Retrieved October 7, 2017 from http://www.eecera.org/journal/