International Research: A Look Around the World

 

The site that I chose to visit was the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Upon entering this site I was directed to a list of research projects that were being conducted.

Topics of research:

·         The Status of Coordination and Supervision of Early Childhood Education in Ghana.

·         Coordinating the Development and Implementation of the 2003 – 2013 National Action Plan (NAP) for Children in Malawi.

·         Improving the Quality of Childcare Through Parenting Enrichment and Training of Trainers: The Eritrean Model.

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I chose took review Curriculum Development Using Community Resources. This research was conducted to view the characteristics of school community relations in Bristol County in Rhode Island. The study focused on the use of community resources in reinforcing pre-primary and elementary school curriculum. The project is going to be used as a guide for the Horn of Africa by partnership management and structures, as well from correlation of theory and practice. This research project used the quantitative analysis method which was used to measure the community involvement in schools such as

•   percentage of parental engagement and involvement
•   the school performance classifications on the basis of students and schools’ meeting standards and other indicators (SALT survey data, infowork
•   the demographic and socio-economic background of the subject communitie
•   annual average household income

The partnership with Bristol communities and schools were positive. The schools welcome community involvement they invite the community in, accommodate them and create conductive environments. Parents and community members are keen in making a difference in the education of their children and in the overall improvement of the education system in the area.

The community and schools go to great extremes to make sure that they are working together for the benefit if the students. The one thing that caught my attention was the fact that the partnership formed the school improvement (planning) team (SIT). SIT is comprised of members of school committee, parents, teachers and the community. SIT holds a monthly meeting. Its goal is to develop school objectives and program activities, strategy for implementation and to ensure their completion.

Research and Children

The topic that I would choose to further investigate would be The Effect of Home Environments of Children. The reason that I chose this topic is because I see a lot of behaviors at school that stem from home environments. Some of these behaviors are postive and some are negative. For instance I have seen little girls who come to school and conduct themselves in a proper manner. What I mean by this is they are like little women, they know how to sit properly with a skirt on, they use their manners,and they want to be little helper in the classroom. These trait that I see I assume is being taught to them at home. Now on the other hand there is right now a little boy who is at pre-k now and he is struggling badly. He has to be sent to the principal's office at least 3 or 4 times during the week. He is disruptive in class and he is constanly getting into trouble. He recently had an evlauation or observation done by the SDD teacher, and during the evaluation or observation he was having a make believe phone conversation with one of his homeboys and they were talking about going to get some liquor so that they could get drunk. Now in my opinion he has picked up these things from his home environment. Sometimes parents do not realize that the environment that a child is expossed to has a lasting effect on how that chld will act and function. This type of research can help educate parents and teach them that every environment is not the right environment for children.

Researching My Way Through

The topic of interest through this course is finding techniques that will teach children to comprehend all lessons that they are taught. I had to narrow down my research topic and I what I chose to explore was learning through play. Learning through play has been a topic that we as early childhood studies students have recently been introduced to. I have seen first hand in the classroom how play is demonstrated by the kinds. When children are at play they will show exactly what they know. This is one method that can be explored to actually see if the children will comprehend.

Coming up with this topic for a simulation was challenging to me because my first sub-topic that I chose was to broad so I had to come up with another topic. I really would like to come up with a topic that explores teaching techniques that will enhance and ensure comprehension of students in early childhood.There was a technique previously used by teachers at pre-k that taught a letter every week, but Bright from the start did away with the letter of the week because they thought that it was not a successful way to teach children the alphabet. There are other techniques that can be implemented in the classroom that will get the job done.I want to explore those techniques and use them in the class room. So if there are any ideas please feel free to share with me.

My research chart is coming along well. There is one definition that I would like to share with you guys. During the reading of chapter 2 I saw that the book stated that the researcher should chose a topic of Significance. I found too that it is relevant that a research topic is of interest to other people besides that of the researcher. That way it will ensure that other people will follow and back the research.