When I Think of Research...

The course Building Research Competencies has been very challenging. I think more so because I did not know what I was doing. The insights from the course have given me a better knowledge of what it takes to go through the research process. I believe the nature of doing research is a very broad process because it takes the researcher a while to determine what they want their focus to be. I know personally I struggled to narrow my question down because I was unable to see the bias in my question.  I would say that was my biggest challenge.  I also think that was the greatest lesson learned: the importance to narrow the study down to a question that is non-biased and gives the researcher the topic they want to research. As a researcher I continued to reword my question but I also continued to research my topic to understand it better and to make sure my personal interest or topic was headed in the right direction.  

I see teachers can be researchers in their classroom.  As I perceive all early childhood professionals I believe there is a common goal to care for children and make quality better.  I hope as a researcher they remember their ethical responsibilities to keep children and families safe and stay personally objective. To always be clear, ethical and give anyone involved in a study informed consent. I would also hope that the true professional knows what is developmentally appropriate for children. They follow the NAEYC Code of Ethics. I know there still can be biases and prejudices.  Some researchers or teachers may have their own agendas or have reasons for making a study/child observation conclude in a certain way.  I believe this is the down side of early childhood professionals in research or in preforming a classroom observation.

Research Around the World

Research around the World

This week the blog assignment is to read and thing about early childhood research internationally. The location I chose to research was the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

I found this site to be very informative. The Mission Statement for the organization is to further develop African ECD leadership capacity as a key strategy in support of child, family and community well-being and broader social and economic development. They are committed to improving the quality of life for children and their families in Africa. The organization will accomplish this by working with Early Childhood Development leaders in Africa.

The work completed by the program participants has been published online. Their objective was to increase available information concerning the status of Early Childhood Development in Africa. A requirement was for each countries participant to complete a report that identified the current status of children, families and women's issues. I found the reports were very interesting because of the information provided. Things that we take for granted in our country they definitely lack in theirs. In Zambia only 6% of pre-school children benefit from any form of organized early child care program.  

These are some aspects lacking in their education systems in Zambia.

Key issues in Basic Education:  Basic Survival

 

High prevalence of HIV/AIDS (19-27%)

High poverty index (27-41%) for girls (0-25%)

Double orphans poor (51-88%)

Low Girls enrollment (70-83%)

Repetition rate (2.5-6.8%)

Out of school orphans 45%

Low girls completion rate (48-65%)

Increasing number of child-headed households (130,000 out of 1,905,000) headed by children below 14 years

Low prevention against malaria, inadequate diagnosis and treatment of malaria, including    shortages of drugs and poor referral systems for complex cases

Following the completion of this project the students listed 25 major projects and theses for the countries they lived in and reported on. The topic from Zambia was a Pilot Study of the Adaption of an Established Measure to Assess the Quality of Child Services in a Selected Orphanage in Zambia: The Inclusive Quality Assessment (IQA) Tool. The researcher concluded that the tool was “appropriate for regular evaluation of services in childcare facilities and home settings but would require effective policy formulation and implementation to make it a reality in Zambia.”

The website was informative. The information provided was at times older than 10 years. I would like to see data newer. Overall it gave me a look at countries far behind us and the challenges they have for everyday live, let alone trying to provide quality early childhood programs.

Reference

http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

The story I would like to share is about a little girl who had a hard time speaking and walking.   The girl would always fall down when she walked and her balance was terrible. She was just 2 1/2 when she came into the program. She went to the Doctor numerous times and they could not find anything wrong. She had older siblings. They talked for her and assisted her with her daily needs. The educators at her school knew there was something wrong but they did not know what it might be. They begin to collect documentation on her about her behaviors and play in the classroom in hopes of coming to some sort of conclusion.  She was referred to child find and given a hearing test. They found that the little girl was tone deaf. She was referred to a specialist and they found a problem within her ear tubes that although they looked to be formed normally; they were not which caused the sound not to come in. After she had surgery she was able to hear certain sounds. 

Response to Intervention in Early Childhood is so beneficial to children and their parents.  Children that attend quality programs benefit from the programs knowledge of early intervention. In Colorado we have a Response to Intervention process. With this process, children in quality childcare, state pre-school programs or head start programs use a RTI form and gather documentation about the child. This helps educators and other professionals come up with solutions for the child. If children do not qualify for special education help this form follows them into kindergarten and tells their new teacher the child’s strengths and weakness. Early Intervention is very crucial to a child’s development especially in they are not developing at a normal milestone rate. 

“Response to Intervention in Early Childhood: A Case Study” (Rudinoff, 2011) was a mixed-methods descriptive case study. This study looked at how a school district defined an early childhood response to intervention process for children that were not attending the school district. The results of this study showed an increase in the “childcare provider’s knowledge and use of early childhood response to intervention and the relationship between the childcare providers and school district was strengthened” (Rudinoff, 2011). This in turn helped children be ready for kindergarten and also helped with early detection of childhood problems.

 

References:

Colorado Department of Education. 2014 http://www.cde.state.co.us/rti/learnaboutrti

Rudinoff, Rachel. Response to Intervention in Early Childhood: A Case Study. 2011.

http://udini.proquest.com/view/response-to-intervention-in-early-pqid:2440410781/