When I Think of Research

My God, this has been a long journey for me. I came into this class skeptical, but optimistic at the same time. I have to be honest with you I have really gained a lot from this class. I have learned to put my ideas together and to search ddeply for answers. This class has taught me some of the proper techniques for designing a research project, and puting it all together. The way that I view research has become more refined, because during research the researcher must make sure that the project will fall into an acceptable research project with all factors of the research taken into consideration.

One of the most exciting part for me was th fact tht my research smulation would have observations in it. That is exciting for me becasue I would love to see what I am researching unfol before my eyes. This method has to be be done very carefully as to not have biased opinions about what is being observed.

I have to admitt, this class has whipped me. I made so many mistakes trying to get this simulaton up to standard with a real research project. My thinking at times was too broad and genaral. Sometimes my areas were not lined up with each other. The research topic that I chose was a good one, but by the end of the course I had refined it so that it was not the original subject that I wanted to know more information about, but had become a totally different subject. I had to he help not only from the professor, but from you guys as well. Although I didn't do the best job in this class as I would have liked, there is still a need for research. The area of early childhood is constantky in need of research that will shed some light on the difficult tasks that arise in the field. so even though it is difficult I do support ealry childhood research and back it 100%.

Thanks to everyone that helped me to get through this class, I am truly grateful.


Sincerely,

Melanie

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.

Week 8 Assignment

I have learned through Michele’s Adventure and Godfrey her international contact who is an Early Childhood Education and Development Specialist from Kenya.

Godfrey shared

v  That their government is addressing the issue of equity because there are a large number of children who do not benefit from early childhood services due to inaccessibility and poverty.

v  That  Parliament is currently considering a policy that will make early childhood education part of the education system and therefore mandatory

Consequence:

I have become more aware of the issues in early childhood from an international perspective and I have realized that many countries are facing the same challenges in this area.

I have learned from the article Fostering Child Development through Empowerment, Unity, and Cooperation.

v   In a rural village in Paraguay, a Catholic Church relief organization named Pastoral Social, established Pastoral Del Nino. This organization employs a community-building model which teaches parents about their children’s needs and helps them by encouraging them to work together to strengthen the community.

Consequence:

I have learned that international communities employ programs and have organizations that are put into place to give it’s children, families, and communities a chance at learning skills that can benefit everyone as a whole and help educate the children and families alike.

Consequence:

I have learned that although I live here in the US other countries have similar struggles in their educational systems as we so, other countries set in lace programs and organizations to aid in the education of its children, and that the world as a whole is focusing on educating its future leaders.

One goal for international awareness:

I have resolved that I will continue to search for an international contact that I can communicate with. I was so impressed by Michele’s contact and how informative he was on the current issues in country. This type of contact can benefit me in my pursuit of this Early Childhood Studies Degree.

UNESCO'S Early Childhood Care and Education Web Page

The insights that I gained from Unesco were found under the news section. One article spoke on the role of education in a world of seven billion people.  Unesco believes that

v In a world of seven billion everyone has a right to an education

v Considers education to be the best insurance against poverty. It stresses the importance of education for sustainable human development and supports countries to improve access and quality and to redress inequalities in their education systems.

v Champions the efforts of 75 million teachers to provide quality education, and advocates for the training and recruitment of an additional 2 million teachers to achieve Education for All by 2015.

The article every child has a right to an education speaks on the Convention on the rights of the Child. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Convention, the biggest challenge is to eliminate disparities in education and to ensure that the core obligations of States regarding the right to education remain in the forefront, not only for accelerating progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, but for pushing the Education for All agenda forward. The right to education is not only a human right in itself but also essential for the exercise of all other human rights.

The article Early Childhood Care: The Earlier the Better states that Early childhood care and education carries enormous potential to address this emergency. From the World Conference on Education for All in Jomtien in 1990 to the Dakar World Education Forum in 2000, UNESCO has constantly promoted an expanded and inclusive vision of learning. Over the past year, we have organized world conferences on inclusion, literacy and adult learning, education for sustainable development and higher education to further encourage this integrated, lifelong vision of learning. We also call it a holistic or a comprehensive approach. It simply means that we consider that learning enhances a person’s potential throughout life, from the earliest years through adulthood.

These articles opened reinforced my beliefs about early childhood education. I do believe that every child deserves the best education possible and that they deserve a teacher that will stop at no cost to make sure that they have imparted valuable and life changing lessons into a child

A Look At Inequity

 

Wow, this is fascinating we are studying this week about inequities and the newsletter that I subscribed to has an article about racial inequities. I am going to share it with you so that you can read it for yourself.

Racial Inequities: What Schools Can Do

EducationWorld is pleased to present this resource shared by the State Education Resource Center (SERC) in CT. This adapted material originally appeared in the SERC document Equity in Education: A Transformational Approach.
This article offers an overview of the problem of racial inequities in education and discusses changes that can be made in the area of leadership in order to meet this challenge. See part 2 of the article for additional strategies in the areas of professional capacity, school climate, school-family-community partnerships and teaching and learning.


W.E.B. Du Bois wrote in 1903 that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line—the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.” Over 100 years later, we continue to see that problem of the color-line in our schools today: incredible disparities between the educational outcomes of children of color and their White counterparts. “In nearly every category associated with positive academic outcomes,” according to Pedro Noguera of New York University, “students of color typically are underrepresented, and in categories associated with negative outcomes, they are overrepresented.”

The State Education Resource Center (SERC), as part of its commitment to improve the achievement of Connecticut's children and youth, provides professional development and information dissemination in the latest research and best practices to educators, service providers, and families throughout the state, as well as job-embedded technical assistance and training within schools, programs, and districts.

The state of Connecticut and the nation as a whole are currently confronted by what is being called the civil rights crisis of our time: the loss of our students of color to the racial predictability of the achievement gaps. But students of color are not failing; our educational system is failing them.
For centuries, we have avoided discussing institutionalized racism and its detrimental effects on our students of color as well as their White peers. Such avoidance is mainly due to the uncomfortable feelings and reactions brought about by racial discourse. Feelings of resentment and guilt are some of the most common emotions experienced by people who engage in racial discourse.
Conversations about race and culture are not meant to be easy, but without them we will never begin to understand the root causes of our racial disparities and challenge our current thinking.
Educators within our school systems ask repeatedly for prescriptive strategies that will help them improve the academic achievement of students of color on high-stakes tests. What we need is a pedagogical approach that focuses not on racialized instructional strategies but on creating an educational environment that is culturally relevant and respectful. Based upon the work of researchers and practitioners in the field, SERC [State Education Resource Center in CT] defines a culturally relevant and respectful environment as having the following elements:

1. Teachers who are highly aware of their own beliefs, attitudes, and biases and those of others;
2. Students who are empowered to use their own cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives for academic success; and
3. A curriculum that engages and affirms both students’ and teachers’ identities, cultural and experiential reference points, and world views in the process of learning.

Only when instructional strategies are implemented in a context of mutual respect will we begin to see the impact of our efforts. A culturally and racially relevant approach allows educators to relate to students and allows students to connect to the curriculum and demonstrate their knowledge in meaningful ways.
Potential Solutions to Addressing Systemic Inequities
Creating equity at the district, school, and classroom levels requires this systemic and culturally relevant approach. The literature is replete with information on the essential elements of educational reform. Based upon the work of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, SERC has considered five critical elements: Leadership, Professional Capacity, School Climate, School-Family-Community Partnerships, and Teaching & Learning. These elements are essential in order to achieve systemic transformation in education and ensure an equitable education for all children.
Leadership
According to Hilliard (1995), in order to eradicate the racial predictability of the achievement gaps, leaders must have the skill, will, and knowledge to uproot the underlying factors that contribute to them – qualities that are often overlooked. Educators need to examine the structural practices that perpetuate the isolation of students of color in an educational system that historically was not created for them. This requires leadership positioned to provide the necessary pressures and supports for the development of this skill, will, and knowledge.
Almost every approach to educational reform acknowledges the role of leaders in directing efficient and sustainable change. Therefore, educational reform efforts must begin with leaders who demand high expectations for all students. Any tendency of a district, school administration, faculty, and/or staff to rationalize the failure of students of color as “normal” must not be tolerated.
Whether that rationalization is one of complacency because of a history of persistent and pervasive failure, or abdication of responsibility because of poverty, or a misperception that certain families do not value education, does not matter. Leaders must challenge any attitudes and beliefs, including their own, that accept the failure of students of color.
To move to a climate of high expectations and achievement for all students, leadership must focus on assessment and instruction that are effective for all students and ensure that results are continually monitored against the goals set forward to improve academic outcomes. Leaders must facilitate opportunities for members of their staff and community to courageously dialogue about the intersection of race and education. The understandings generated by such dialogue will serve as the platform to develop structural systems, policies, and practices that lead to higher student achievement. Leaders must assist school personnel and community members to clarify their understanding of what the Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change (2004) referred to as the “forces that maintain the racial disparity status quo and constrain the potential success of strategies for change.” We refer to this understanding as professional capacity.
References (in order of mention)
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1903). The souls of black folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.
Noguera, P. A. and J. Y. Wing, Eds. (2006). Unfinished business: Closing the racial achievement gap in our schools. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
State Education Resource Center. (2009). Culturally responsive pedagogy working definition. Middletown, CT: SERC.
Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago (CCSR). (2010). Organizing schools for improvement: Lessons from Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hilliard, A. (1995). The maroon within us: Selected essays on African American community socialization. Halethorpe, MD: Black Classic Press.
Aspen Institute Roundtable on Community Change. (2004). Structural racism and community building. Washington, DC: Aspen Institute


This was interesting to me. There was one statement that I want to stress and it is that educational reform efforts must begin with leaders who demand  high expectations from all students. I agree with this, I too ask my students for their very best that they can give me being as they are pre-k  students.