Research that Benefits Children and Families

There are many research topics that really interest me.  If I were able to conduct research in an area, I would want to learn more about the effectiveness of certain types of interventions.  I’d also be interested in conducting research and gathering data on retention in Kindergarten.  These are two topics that are close to my heart as a Kindergarten teacher.  Each year we have a handful of students who don’t respond to normal levels of instruction and intervention.  Teachers send home extra materials and projects, work one-on-one with these children, and add them to our reading interventionist’s caseload.  At the end of the year, however, there are still a few that are so behind that we worry about sending them on to first grade.  Still others lack maturity, social, or behavioral skills and have the academic piece.  Keeping children to do a second year of Kindergarten is not a decision we make lightly.  I always wonder if I’m doing the right thing, though.  Does a second year really help?  If they’re not getting something will an extra year of the same thing really make a difference?  I would be interested to track student growth and progress to compare children who were pushed to first grade and lacked skills versus those who were held to do another year of Kindergarten.

This research would benefit children, families, and teachers.  Teachers would have some guidance and insight into when Kindergarten retention in beneficial and when it is detrimental.  Families would be able to understand a recommendation to hold or pass along a child because there would be more information and research to back it up.  Children would benefit from quality care given by adults who have their best interest in mind, but also have the information to back up their decision. 

My Personal Research Journey

My topic for the simulation revolves around the influence of play on a child's academic development.  I am interested in finding out more about how we can link a child's learning goals to their play situations.  This also leads to me wondering about different forms of play as a link to a child's memory or to learn a certain skill.  I know that, for instance, my Kindergartners love music.  They are amazing at remembering information that is put to a song.  I also have seen that so many of their more "academic" learning goals can be learned through a first-hand experience or an inquiry-based situation.  This got me thinking about the connection between play and a child's academic development.

So far in this course I've noticed that there are many things I already knew but hadn't thought of or used in a long time.  I have appreciated the applicable nature of the course.  Often you learn about research (or some other topic) and it seems there is no connection to your work or real life experiences.  That has not been the case with this course and I have loved that.

I am interested in learning from colleagues as they go through this process.  We will be able to share both resources and also experiences.  Learning from one another through collaboration and shared information is going to be very beneficial to our overall success in the course.

Final Blog Assignment

Learning about the international early childhood field had many personal and professional consequences.  The first would be that it opened my eyes to the world around me.  So often we get caught up in our own little world and we forget that there are other places to look for inspiration and information.  The second consequence of international learning was that my knowledge-base and resource pool have grown.  Instead of only using my community and the people I know, I was introduced to the idea of looking abroad.  It would be foolish to assume that the United States is the only place to look for information on how to run early childhood programs or care for young children and their families.  I now realize I should be looking to others outside of my little bubble.  The third consequence was an unintended consequence.  I realized that international contact is extremely difficult, albeit beneficial.  Out of my group, only one person was able to establish contact and she had issues maintaining contact due to the time differences.  When you do gain an international contact, I think it’s important to keep up with them often in order to maintain that contact.

In the future, I hope to gain and maintain more contacts outside of my comfort zone.  This may mean international contacts, but would also include people from different walks of life, different states, and different programs.  Learning from others is so important!  Having connections with professionals from different backgrounds makes you a stronger teacher as an individual. 

UNESCO's Early Childhood Care and Education Website

As my attempts to make international contacts never quite worked out, I will be again working on the alternative assignment.  I look forward to reading about what my classmates have found out from the people they were able to connect with outside of the United States, though.

This week I looked at UNESCO’s Early Childhood Care and Education webpage.  According to the website, “UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programs that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children’s holistic development.” 

The first thing I chose to explore was a news article entitled International Day of the Girl Child.  The article talked about empowering girls, through education, to help them avoid poverty, violence, and discrimination around the world.  The article touched on issues that I don’t think of often in the United States, especially the idea of very young girls getting married.   

Next, I looked into the section called “Access and Equity”.  This section talked about different programs put into place to ensure that all children have access to quality care.  In some cases, this means redistributing wealth or thinking about things in a different way to accommodate poor families.  The aim should be that all children have the chance to learn no matter what their family background or economic status.

Finally, I chose to look at the page about “Quality”.  UNESCO’s view is that early childhood programs and early care should teach the whole child.  This type of ease into learning will help children transition into more formal instruction in older grades.  While there are no universal standards for what makes a quality program, they believe that there are some things all programs should have.  Individuals working with young children should be adequately trained and the programs should be checked up on regularly.

This website had great information on access, equity, and quality.  On top of that, there were many great news articles on related topics.  I found many new, interesting, and thought-provoking facts and areas to explore on UNESCO’s site this week.

Sharing Web Resources

This week I was able to explore the Society for Research in Child Development on a deeper level.  The first thing I did was follow some outside links from the website.  There is a section called “Publications” that has many professional journals and articles related to research in child development.  Some of them led to interesting information, but many of them required a subscription to the SRCD in order to access them.

One area of the site that I chose to thoroughly search was the area entitled “Policy and Media”.  This section included information on policy updates in research in child development.  There is also a section within this section called public comments.  The public comments section is a great place to learn the SRCD’s stance on many issues.  It contains their “press release” answers on many topics.

There was no new newsletter from the site.  This site sends out quarterly newsletters so there has not been anything new since January.  I went back to the January newsletter to look for information on equity and excellence in early care and education.  Since we had not yet covered that topic I thought there may have been something I overlooked.  I was unable to find anything in the newsletter that I haven’t already covered in previous blog posts.

This website has been a difficult one to have chosen for these assignments.  Without a subscription, I worry that this website does not have enough substantial information to be included as a choice for the “expanding resources” section of our course’s blog assignment.  

Getting to Know Your International Contacts - Part 2

I have still been unable to contact any international teachers or early childhood professionals.  My plan is to continue to try and make contact throughout the course, but it is not looking good.  The alternate assignment that we were given is to explore podcasts.  Neither of the links provided for the World Forum work.  Each comes up with a message error and will not open the webpage.

This week, I explored Harvard’s “Global Children’s Initiative” webpage.  The Global Children’s initiative aims to, “meet the needs of all children and a critical investment in the roots of economic productivity, positive health outcomes, and strong civil society in all nations, from the poorest to the most affluent” (Harvard).  I looked into the Global Children’s Initiative Fact Sheet as my next course of action.  I found the section on mental health to be very interesting.  It stated that mental health problems are massively under addressed.  Harvard has come up with three programs to address this problem within different countries. 

Another interesting section of the website spoke about applying the science of early childhood in Brazil.  The program allows Brazilian scholars, policymakers, and civil leaders to work together towards to a common goal.  This made me think of last week when we learned about people outside of the early childhood field having an interest in early childhood issues.

This website has a wealth of information and seems to be very well organized.  It is a great resource and has practical solutions for current issues facing the early childhood field.

Resource:

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

Sharing Web Resources

When I began to explore the newsletter from the Society for Research in Child Development this week, I was drawn to an article about policymakers and research.  The article talked about how the individuals in charge of our decision-making need more substantial, research-based information.  Instead of creating more policies, the author suggests they should be investing in the work of social science researchers.  It went on to say that federal funding should be allocated to this area to help the long term effects of issues like poverty.  How can we solve a problem if we only work to make programs to aid once someone is impoverished?  Their idea is to try to get to the root of the issue instead.  This article seemed particularly relevant to our work in this course.

One article that made me think in new ways was about taking on grad school with two small children.  The author talked about what a juggling act it is to be a mom and try to grow professionally.  Each new course brings new struggles with how to balance life, a full-time teaching job, and grad classes for me.  This article made me really think about my fellow classmates with children, though.  While I have many things on my plate, I do not have little ones expecting me to care for them.  It makes it a lot easier for me to schedule my time and finish my coursework.  It was a good reminder that things will always be busy, but you need to be able to prioritize the things that are important in life.

The first article I mentioned urged politicians to back researchers and social scientists.  This is one way that politicians can have early childhood agendas on their radar.  It will help them in the long run to be able to work towards a solution for issues like poverty.

While the website and newsletter contain great information, I found this week that there were many roadblocks if you are not a member of this organization.  All of their excellent scholarly writings and journal articles are available online – but only if you are a member.  Membership runs about $140 a year depending on where you are in your education.  I would love to be able to shell out that kind of money and access the site in its entirety, but that isn’t a feasible financial option for me at this point.