The biggest insight that I gained from taking this course is that I can really be a researcher! Thinking back to the inception of this class, I was very scared of just the thought of research, let alone actually understanding it piece by piece.
My ideas are now more positive because, like anything else, I have learned about the different aspects of putting together a research simulation and feel more positive and confident as a potential researcher myself. It's all about need, value, support, validity and ethics. I learned that if I take my time and take the appropriate steps, I can actually help the field of early childhood. It's a great feeling.
I now know that conducting research is not only about my beliefs, but about the people being researched and its effect on them. I now understand about risks ad extraneous variables that must be taken into consideration before anything else.
One challenge that I had during this course was remembering the new vocabulary and terminology that I read about, especially the differences between research style like quantitative vs. qualitative. It was easiest to understand when I compared them side by side, in chart form, and when I finally understood that one is to understand "how" something works and the other is to understand "why".
Lastly, I would like to express my greater appreciation for all early childhood researchers because I see how much work goes into designing, developing and interpreting a good research study and I commend them all for their contributions to the field that I love so much!
It's been a great learning experience over all and I look forward to what is to come...
Good Luck everyone!!
Jeannette
Hello Jeannette: Like you, taking this course was frightening at the beginning but it has been a great experience as well. Terminology was quite overwhelming as well but understanding the designs were most. Thank you for your feedbacks and posts. Good luck in your following classes.
ReplyDeleteJeanette,
ReplyDeleteIn mentioning the highlights of the course we certainly had a lot of them. The book is very rich with so much terminology and fresh ideas it really gives you a new prospective on research. I took away so much from this course such as you did and I think that we all have become confident researchers and have a lot to apply to future studies. I enjoyed you comments and I wish you the Best of Luck:)
Rachel Hendrix