Saturday, December 22, 2012

When I Think of Research



I have to admit but my knowledge of conducting research was limited and I was very intimidated of this course.  I did not know what to expect and my only knowledge of doing research stemmed from a Methods of Research class I had in undergrad school (that I hated).

From this course I learned that any topic that I have questions about, I can conduct my own research.  I now have the tools needs to develop and complete a research design of my own. 

My ideas about the nature of completing a research study changed because I learned the process step by step.  I learned that it is good to pick a topic that interests you.  A head of time select who the participants will be and what type of research you want to complete. Make sure you have consents from the participants, including children, explaining that they can change their mind at any time and the information collected would not be used.  Decide how you want to collect your data.  Make sure your information is reliable and then all will be valid.

The challenges I had with this course was developing my hypothesis and stating what behavior I wanted to change.  I had help from one of my colleagues and Dr. Myers. I knew what I wanted but could not express it correctly.

My perceptions of an early childhood professional have not changed.  I just learned that I was used to someone else completing the research for me.  This class has showed me that I have the knowledge and tools needed to complete my own research.   I understand now that without research curriculum's and other evaluation tools needed for the profession would not been developed.

3 comments:

  1. Tarshia do not feel bad I felt the same way this was the hardest course that I have ever took. I am glad that you did learn something from this course good luck in the next class and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New years.

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  2. I think all of us felt nervous at the beginning of this class as we were beginning on a journey we were unfamiliar with. I too had struggles in this class and mine was correctly wording my research question. I knew what I wanted to say but narrowing it down and being specific enough was a challenge. I tend to be wordy (you may have noticed this from my discussion postings) when writing so creating that concise question took several attempts. I think we have all learned a great deal from this class and every time we learned a new characteristic of research we lost a little of that nervousness. Best of luck to you in the future!

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  3. To read what you posted here as well as the comments made by others makes me feel a little better. I was unsure of research before this course but now having completed the course I feel more comfortable following step by step. Like you, I also in the past have left research up to others but am interested to actually put my simulation into practice. Good luck in your future pursuits.

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