When I Think of Research...

This class has greatly broadened my knowledge of research. I had a very brief understanding of what research was prior to this class and now I feel confident in my skills and abilities to become a beginner researcher. Terms were made clearer for me, I learned how to read a research study, and I now know the in’s and out’s of how to conduct research.

Prior to this class doing research for me was to look at others research and evaluating it, I had not really thought about conducting my own research or the steps I would take to do so.

This class has taught me where to begin when doing research, it has broken down a complex subject to a manageable task.

Some challenges I encountered were misunderstanding things when they were first presented to me (some of the terms and steps), using the book was a big help, along with the articles on variables and doing quantitative research. 

I have always thought of myself as an early childhood professional, this class however has helped me to grow as an early childhood professional and has helped me to relate to others and understand others better. This class has been very informative and helpful.

Research Around the World

The Website I decided to look at was Early Childhood Australia.

Some current international research topics in EAC are:

• Malaysia solution must not extend to children under any circumstance. The ECA provides recommendations for the Malaysian children seeking asylum.
• Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is missing the point on early childhood education and care reforms. Pam Cahir ECA chief executive speaks out about the issue.
• EAC also released a position statement on the Children of Asylum Seekers. 

In their latest newsletter they addressed:

- One Day at a Time’ resource for parents of children with a disability.

- The importance of play in children’s lives.

It was very insightful to see what other countries do for children in early childhood. I liked how the website brakes Australia's states up into sections so you can see what each state is doing. 

I found the website to be a great resource. The EAC is making a lot of progress and doing a lot of things for early childhood and having the EAC website lets others see the progress they have made. I can see the resemblance to NAEYC, I do not think their organization has come as far as the NAETC has however they are on their way. 

Resource: 

Early Childhood Australia: This is the Australian equivalent to the U.S. based NAEYC. You can access several links to early childhood research from the menu on the left side of the home page. http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

I work as a supervisor for one of the two school age care centers on Pearl Harbor- Hickam we have a number of kinders who just entered the facility who have asthma, which I found to be unusual, thinking back to when I was growing up and not knowing anyone with asthma. 

I found a research study that followed 1314 children from birth to 13 years old called, Perennial allergen sensitisation early in life and chronic asthma in children: a birth cohort study. The study looked at how indoor perennial allergens affected children and at which ages the effect was greater vs. those who did not have indoor perennial allergens. Indoor perennial allergens are, having dogs, cats, dust mites, etc.

The results of the study were that children with indoor perennial allergens had a greater chance of asthma and depending of the age of exposer chronic asthma throughout their life. “Therefore, the timing of the process seems of importance: the harmful effect of indoor allergen exposure interacting with sensitisation towards these allergens was most pronounced for the first 3 years of life. Adaptive immunity in children matures over the first 6 years of life, but the most important steps towards the development of mature systemic immune responses are taken in the first 1-2 years of life” (Illi, Von Mutius, Lau, Niggemann,  & et al., 2006).

This research will help parents know the effects of having animals and dust mites on their child’s health when they are under 6 years old. 

Resource:

Illi, S., Von Mutius, E., Lau, S., Niggemann, B., & et al. (2006). Perennial allergen sensitisation in life and chronic asthma in children: a birth cohort study. The Lancet, 368 (9537), 763-70.  Retrieved from ProQuest Health and Medical Complete. 

Your Personal Research Journey

During week 1 I formed a topic along with three subtopics:

Topic: 

The developmental differences in children having an early childhood educator that attended college and had training verses an educator who has no formal training.

Subtopics:

1. The quality of children’s development (social-emotional, physical, cognitive and language) in the classroom of teacher with educational training. 
2. The quality of children’s development (social-emotional, physical, cognitive and language) in the classroom of teacher with no formal training. 
3. Does having a formal education and training help a teacher to better prepare their class for kindergarten.

I decided to concentrate on subtopic number one: The quality of children’s development (social-emotional, physical, cognitive and language) in the classroom of teacher with educational training. I used to be a preschool teacher and saw both trained and untrained teachers. I always wondered what the effects were on the children, if any area of development was effected. 

Does anyone have an personal stories or information that will help me? Thanks!

Final Blog Assignment

Over the past eight weeks I have learned so much. I have had the opportunity to learn about children in Kenya first hand from my international contact Amos Balongo and his organization Camp Ohana. I have read about many of my colleagues experiences with different wedsites which has given me so much new information, you have all taught me to broaden my personal resource library! I just want to thank everyone for helping me learn and grow over these past eight weeks and I wish you all the best in the future and hope to continue having classes with you and learning from you. 

From talking with Amos and learning about Camp Ohana I shared with him that I was interested continuing to learn from him and helping with Camp Ohana. I feel very passionate about his organization and what they are accomplishing and am happy that this class helped me to form an even better relationship with him that allows me to help with children internationally. 

I have learned what a quality program components should be part of one. I hope to start changing the facilities within the Department of the Navy and continue with the rest of Hawaii to insure that we are providing quality programs for children. 

I hope that everyone in this field is able to grow professionally and that we are able to change children lives everywhere. Amos had wrote me and said that he wish to change children’s lives one child at a time. This is a very wide open topic but I would have to agree with him and hope to have a part in doing so. 

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

Camp Ohana is Amos Balango’s dream. He is hoping to break group at the end of  2013. Amos said hopefully the project will be finished in 2014. http://www.campohana.org.

Amos said he wants to “change the world one child at a time.”

Amos also told me about the education system in Africa. He said in rural areas they have untrained teachers. These teachers do not receive any kind of education. Next he said they had teacher schools. This is what most people go to and it is similar to an associates degree. Last, teachers can attend University, this is the same as a four year college here. Some students also go to universities in other countries but these students are extremely wealthy he said. 

Sharing Web Resources

This week I learned that the children’s Defense Fund is everywhere. You can follow them on Facebook, twitter,youtube, etc. They are trying varies avenues to getting their cause known. 

I receive the Children’s Defense Fund’s newsletters. This weeks newsletter outlined budget cuts and after reviewing this weeks tops I see that these budget cuts are taking place in the poor areas in our society. This is making quality care establishments hard for our poor communities to access. The article said:

1. Protecting children from all budget cuts. Children are the poorest age group in America and child hunger, homelessness and poverty have risen dramatically in recent years. We must stop the downward mobility of millions of poor children and the disappearance of America’s dream of a better life for the next generation that will result if Congressional extremists prevail.

2. Investing in children to strengthen our nation’s economic future. Leading economists agree that quality childhood development and education investments are sound economic investments. We need healthy, educated children who are our principal national security. That many leaders in the House are recklessly proposing to slash these investments is economically foolish.

3. Ensuring the richest and most powerful contribute their fair share. The gap between the rich and poor is the highest ever recorded. Yet shrill partisan voices in Congress seek to further widen that gap with rigid no new tax pledges. It’s time to end massive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, close tax loopholes for huge corporations, and help our poorly educated and suffering children.

Children’s Defense Fund

I also explored the website and found a link to a New York Times article titled, “Bloomberg to Use Own Funds in Plan to Aid Minority Youth”. The article goes along with this weeks topic on Awareness, Accountability, and Responsiveness. 

Resources:

Barbaro, M. & Santos, F. (2011). Bloomberg to Use Own Funds in Plan to Aid Minority Youth. New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/nyregion/new-york-plan-will-aim-to-lift-minority-youth.html?_r=2&hp

The Children's Defense Fund. (2011). http://www.childrensdefense.org/

Matthews, H., & Ewen, D. (2010). Early education programs and children of immigrants: Learning each other's language. Retrieved from the Urban Institute website: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412205-early-education.pdf