As I reflect on this course, I am enthused at the amount of
insight and knowledge I have gained in these short 8 weeks. I have a deeper
understanding of the nature of research in general and especially how it
relates to child development and education. I plan to continue beyond this course in learning
about this area of early childhood in my professional development, staying conscious
and open to the topics and skills in research design, planning, implementing,
and the whole subject of research in general.
One thing I learned the most about that I feel will significantly
help me in my career and professional development is my improved ability to
read research articles. I have a greater understanding of the outline of research
and I get more knowledge from them. Also, having a better understanding of the research
process, terminology, and ethical concerns helps me to get more from my
reading.
One challenge I experienced in learning about research is the
starting process. I feel that finding a specific enough topic, hypothesis,
design, and all the other details needed in the beginning of how the research
is to be carried out is the hardest part. The rest, to me, seems easier and
kind of falls into place once you have the plan (given that the plan executes smoothly).
I am a better early childhood professional because I have a
better idea of how to study children and child development. I also feel that I
can do a better job of informing parents of the latest research and studies in
child development. I hope one day I can actually do a research study. Throughout
this whole course as I have read the resources and my colleagues’ posts, I have
been reminded of a research project I did in middle school to learn about the
basics of research. The knowledge I gained in my middle school class kind of
all came back to me, including the tons of note cards I had to write on lol. This
has been beneficial in helping me “get” the research process and all the topics
of research we learned about in this course as best I can.
I am so very appreciative of my teacher, Dr. Johnna Darragh,
and my fellow classmates from this course. You are all very smart and knowledgeable
and have provided useful information, insights, and feedback for me. Some of
you I was excited to see from previous courses and I am glad I have met some
new people! I hope to see you all in the next class and wish everyone the best
of luck in the rest of this program!
