When I Think of Research........
The biggest insight I gained from this course is the planning and thought which goes into a research simulation. I learned how to conduct research and all the different ways in which it can be approached.
My nature of doing research has changed because I actually feel like I understand the process and feel confident it is something I could try. When coming into this course I remembered my undergrad Research Methods class and how the whole process seemed very foreign. Now years later after working in the field and going through the course at Walden this class seemed much more pertinent and I was able to relate to the information much easier.
My biggest lesson about planning, designing, and conducting research in the field of early childhood was focusing on conducting a ethical research simulation. There are so many aspects of ethics we have to think about as researchers and I wanted to make sure I conducted myself in a ethical fashion. When I started planning my research I thought about a question I have been wondering about through the school year in relation to teaching social skills. I know I could plan, design, and conduct the research all within Head Start. Because I have a relationship with many of these teachers it would be easier for me to attain the information.
One of the greatest challenges I came across was when I interviewed the teachers. I did not want to make anyone feel like they were not running their classroom correctly by not following a social skills curriculum. I made it clear all teachers use different tools in their classrooms, and I was trying to find out if there was a correlation in social/emotional growth and teaching using a social skills curriculum.
I understand now how early childhood professionals are putting out information all the time regarding change and new insights in this field. I took my research simulation to the next level and ran the data from the different classrooms. It was amazing when my hypothesis matched my results. The children who were taught the social skills curriculum had a growth of 20.1% in social/emotional development, while the children who were not only had a growth of 13.5 %. As a researcher this was exciting. I feel overall I grew as an educator and researcher after completing this course.
