When I Think of Research

           Wow! Week eight this has been one of my toughest classes. I had always assumed that research was a very intense thing to do. I have learned from this class that it is even more complicated than I could have imagined. The direction of my thoughts have not changed, just the depth of how much I have realized that it is not for me. There is much more to collecting information and documenting that information in ways that meet approved models for the field in order to make sure that your research holds its validity. I am not meaning to be disrespectful when I say that this class has confirmed for me that I will be sticking to observations and assessments with young children and I will not be branching out to do research projects. I will stick to what I do best. This class certainly raised my respect for those who do research.

            I can see some similarities between research and running a classroom. Such as planning, knowing what direction you want to take, knowing child development and what is appropriate, and things like knowing when you need to get permissions. My favorite thing about research and would be my choice if I did a research project is the mixed-methods. I feel the combination of quantitative and qualitative designs in most cases will give the fullest amount of information.

            The most challenging piece was coming up with a simulation question. I would change mine almost each week and in the end reverted back to my original question. Of course the other huge challenge for me was that the specifics of research was so very new to me and I found that research has its own definitions which are opposite of the mental health field, such as the word triangulation. Triangulation in my world is a very bad thing where in the world of research it is a good thing. The way I dealt with these challenges was I repeated my reading each week to really try and solidify the new information.

            In the end this class was very beneficial to my overall learning about early childhood. I would like to extend my thanks and good wishes to all of my peers and Dr. Ferrari for all of the support and guidance. I look forward to seeing you in future classes along with meeting new peers. To any of you graduating I wish you all the best.

Jennifer Pore`