When I think of Research......

First and for most, I would like to thank my colleagues for all your feedback during this class course. I do appreciate every one of your comments and posts, for that I say to you:

                                             

• What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?
• There is so much I have learned throughout this course, as I had shared at the beginning, i felt pretty worried on how well I would do in a research class but as I look back it has been pretty rewarding for me professionally. I feel more competent and confident to not only understand research but perform one.  
• In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?
• I have learned in order to do research in the early childhood field, we have to be very careful since this is a very delicate area. Research has to be carefully planned for it not to have risk factors or ethics problems.
• What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?
• Every method has its own unique ways of finding the information looking for. I think it all depends on the topic of choice. To plan a good research takes time because there are so many factors such as what design you are using who you are targeting and where it will take place. 
• What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?
• Some of the challenges I faced was to decide what design I was going to use in my research simulation. I all came together after reading and reflecting on what I was really wanting to do with the results.
• What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?
• As a teacher, I do observations every day with the purpose of getting to know my children better, individualized their learning and needs; therefore, by taking this class my perceptions as a early childhood professional has increased because it has taught me how careful we have to be with our bias and perceptions of gathered information. The field of early childhood is very revolving as it is often changing, research in the field is also a very delicate one but one of the most important as well.

Research Around the World

After much browsing the given websites for this assignment, I decided to look at Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa  (SSA)  http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php  and http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php websites. I have always found interesting to learn about their developments concerning their early childhood education programs. Many of the studies and reports focus on the application on several tools implemented in early childhood classrooms, statuses on the administration and coordination of center in Ghana, parental involvement in the schools and the importance of male involvement. One thing I did notice is that the publication on the website was last updated on 2007. Many of the reports given where significantly old. Another point I gained from the several reports was the importance of how to implement an early childhood development focus in the region. Despite the lack of resources available, there are movements who focus on creating a better environment for the children. Another need with regards of early childhood is the lack of administration and coordinators educational backgrounds and policy procedures practices. Many of them are not following appropriate policy procedures giving their center poor quality. I found interesting, how hard they are working to integrate parent involvement and spread out the importance of it as well as their children's self stem outcomes; which is no different to what we are doing in this country as well. It is very interesting and exciting to see how early childhood education is getting more and more attention around the world.