When I Think of Research...

What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?

I have learned to form a research question and set up a research plane as if I were the researcher. I discovered that there are standards in place to protect the participants and researcher.

In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?

My attitude towards conducting research has changed by relieving some anxiety towards research because I have learned how to evaluate resources I find. I also learned how researchers conduct their research and the hard work and time the put in.

What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?

I learned that you have to make a plan, perform prerequisite  research, decide on participants, collect gather and analyze data. Researcher also need to receive parental consent before conducting any research.

  

Research Around the World ~Australia

I chose to explore Early Childhood Australia website which is consider the Australian equivalent to the U.S. based NAEYC. I chose this website because of their mission statement which reads, “Early Childhood Australia will advocate to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years”.

Some current research international research topics that were highlighted on this website are: school readiness, babies and toddlers sleeping, child health and childhood obesity, early years learning framework, children’s cultural and heritage, and building family partnership.

This website was easy to navigate and had current and relevant ECE topics.  One topic I found surprising is Australia takes in refugee children and have established Principles, Goals, and recommendations for the country in order to support the refugee children.  Early Childhood Australia conclusion, “In order to achieve successful outcomes for children it is necessary to secure the cooperation of all departments and agencies involved in the support of children and their families. In relation to refugee children and children of asylum seekers, solutions need to be put in place that are appropriate to their immediate and long-term developmental needs. Early Childhood Australia is unequivocal in its call that these solutions do not include the incarceration of children, or their separation from their families”.

This organization is advocates for young children and their education. They have an establish set of code of ethics, philosophy, and values that involves a vision of how young children need to be treated.