Saturday, 28 June 2014

When I Think of Research



Having reflected on my experiences of this course I have realized that research has provided the early childhood field with invaluable insights, ideas and theories about how to work with children and their families.  Before this course, I had never really thought about the magnitude of the specificities that are involved in research – inexhaustible terminologies, methodologies and designs.  In concluding this course, my insights on the nature of research and the extensive preparations involved in producing a research project has heightened my appreciation of researchers and the valuable work that they do.  Through the course I have learnt that planning is crucial to the success of any credible research project.  In order to select the right design the researcher needs to first determine what answers they want to unfold and the direction of the research project,  the equity, ethical, validity and reliability concerns/issues which may arise, the kinds of data he/she anticipates on generating, who will be the participants and how these participants will be addressed.

I must say that I did not encounter any major challenges.  The only challenge I had was in wording my research question.  However, with constant reading and reflection, in the end I was able to formulate a manageable research question.

As this course has come to a close, I would like to say thank you to Dr. Myers for her support and instrumental guidance throughout this journey.  Thanks to all my colleagues.  It was extremely helpful to read your insightful inputs and questions throughout these eight weeks.  I wish you all the best throughout your professional journey.

3 comments:

  1. Zephrina,

    I definitely agree with you! It is very crucial that we plan when doing any type of research! Planning ahead will ensure that the study is done correctly! I find it great that you did not encounter any challenges throughout the course, my greatest challenge was figuring out how to write a correct hypothesis! I wish you all the best in your future courses here at Walden! Best of luck!

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  2. Zephirina,

    I have really enjoyed your blogs. It also took me a while to fix my research question the correct way. I wish you luck in the future.

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  3. Zephirina,
    I too had the exact problem in wording my question. It seemed mine was too broad and somewhat unmeasurable in a consistent way. There were so many variables.However, I think I still have a better understanding of the whole process which is so vitally important.
    Catherine

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