When I think of Research ….

One of the main insights that I have gained from taking this course is the different types of research designs that can be used to collect, process, and analyze research data. I was amazed to learn that the quantitative and qualitative research approach can be compared to gender roles. The Quantitative research process is thought to be more of a masculine approach because it deals with control, experiments, and numeric expressions. The Qualitative approach is thought to be a more feminine approach because the typical data collection process consists of survives interviews, and observations which give broader perspectives of research. Consider that men tend to like to be in control and women tend to like detail and different approaches I believe there is some truth in the gender roles of the quantitative and qualitative research approach.

When I first begin this class I thought of the nature of research as a difficult and daunting task. I now understand that research is not necessary difficult if each step of the research process is completed thoroughly. Research consists of a chronological process where each step builds upon one another. I currently see research as a process take takes time and a lot of work but not hard work. This class has taught me how to work smarter not harder with completing the research process.

I have learned several lessons with planning, designing, and conducting research in the early childhood field. When planning research in the ECF it is imperative that informed consent is provided by each of the parties that are involved with the research. This goes all the way down to asking children that are a part of experiments, interviews, and surveys if they want to participate in the research study. Taking children out of their natural environment can have negative effects on the research data and results. I learned that observing children in their natural school or home environment provides a way for the researcher to get more realistic results and minimize the emotional and mental risk of the children in the research study. One of the most important lessons that I learned about conducting research is the value of setting aside personal biases, and serotypes to make research valid and fair.

One of the challenges I encountered in the beginning of the research process was getting current research on infants and empathy. Most of the research I found was in the 80’s and late 90’s. After talking to other early childhood professionals I was referred to other sources about infancy empathy that was more current. The next challenge that I ran into was being able to observe the infants when they were active so I could observe the empathy behavior through their social interactions. This challenge was handled by being able to move to another infant classroom when the other infants in one classroom were sleeping. Fortunately for me I didn’t run into a time when all of the infants in each of the four classrooms were sleeping.

As a result of this course I realized that early childhood professionals have a critical toile in the research process. Most early childhood professionals observe daily patterns of the behavior and development of children. This information can be used to help researchers develop positive ways to improve early childhood education.