When I think of research...

Reflecting on the last eight weeks in this course, Building Research Competencies, I absolutely feel that I have grown in my understanding of research and the considerations that go into designing a research project.  There are an incredible number of ethical and logistical concerns that need to be thoroughly evaluated as the research design is created, as well as an incredible amount of thought that needs to be put into what the ended outcome of the project is, and therefore, what the initial question and research design should be.

I particularly enjoyed the discussions we have had regarding qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methodology research.  I think that the choice between those three forms of research determines in large part what type of question research is able to answer.  By thinking carefully about these three types of research, researchers should be able to craft their research question in such a way that their research design can yield the outcome they desire.  This is a fascinating process to me.  This is certainly a change in my idea about the nature in research - I had previously seen research design as very black and white regarding which type of research would be appropriate.

I appreciated the carefully designed chronology of this course, as it walked us through the research design process step by step.  Each week allowed us a peek into the next step of research design with enough flexibility to look back at our choices the week before and evaluate whether our project was still on track for what we were hoping to achieve.

I think that the biggest challenge in early childhood research is always going to be that young children are incredibly unpredictable, and highly pliable, all at the same time.  There need to be significant limits set on early childhood research in order to protect this precious population, but at the same time, those limits create significant hurdles to the types of research design available to researchers.

Thanks to this course, I would say that my view of research in early childhood has broadened specifically.  While I may never embark on an eight month research study as a part of a PhD or other research project, and certainly I will never consider myself a research professional, I see opportunities to apply the principles of early childhood research to my own practice.  There is absolutely potential to apply research in a micro setting in order to improve my own best practices, something I hope I will do.  I also hope to be able to better understand and keep up with research in the field, because it is apparent that many professionals in our field are learning things about early childhood at a tremendous rate and we would all benefit to keep up with their work.

Thank you all for your kindness and participation in this course alongside me.  Our discussions and varied opinions certainly add crucial depth and diversity to these online courses.  I wish you each the best of luck with your next course and the completion of your program!

Amy