When I Think of Research.........

The most important insight or skill that I have learned from this course is how to read research. The breakdown that we received at the beginning of this course helped me to see what parts I need to read and what parts I can skim or skip over. I think this benefited me a lot as I would sometimes get so confused when looking at research that I would just say forget it and just use another source for information in the previous courses. I have also learned how to identify valid resources and vocabulary words such as quantitative, qualitative, mixed method, triangulation and validity as it relates to research.

I have to admit I was not very excited when I saw the name of this course as our next course but I am glad that I made it through. I would have to say that research is not my passion but know that I could get through it if I had to.

The lessons that I have learned about planning, designed, and conducting research in early childhood are that you must first make sure the benefits of the research outweigh the risks and the ethics involved in the research process.

Some of challenges that I have encountered during this course was knowing whether I was on the right track during my simulation. This was something that was new to me and I was confused a lot of the time.

I would like to wish all of my colleagues luck as we continue on this journey together. We are almost there!

Research Around the World

The website that I chose to explore this week was  from the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) found at http://www.eecera.org/.  Some of the topics found in the journal included play, motor-skills, social-emotional interaction and technology and outdoor activity.

An article topic that caught my attention was entitled “How often do you play with your child? The influence of parents’ cultural capital on the frequency of familial activities from age three to six."This article caught my attention because I have children who are between the ages of three and six. As a working parent who is also attending school I find that it is often hard for me to find time or the energy to play with my children and keep up with all the things that I have to do throughout the day. According to the abstract:

The article analyses the role of parents' cultural capital as a mediating factor between families' social and ethnic background and the frequency of stimulating familial activities in early childhood. Using the data from the German longitudinal study ‘Preschool Education and Educational Careers among Migrant Children’, it is shown that parents' cultural capital completely mediates the effect of mother's education and part of the ethnic origin effect. Additional longitudinal analyses reveal that the influence of parents' cultural capital changes over time and is most pronounced at the earliest measurement.

I was not able to read the full article as I had to have had a subscription but I feel that it is important to find time to play with my children and am looking forward to the break between the semester and the warmer weather so that I am able to go out and play with them and share times and cultural capital with my children.

European Early Childhood  Research Journal, 2014

Vol.22, No.1, 4-13, http:/ /doi/full/10.1080/1350293X.2013.865355