Wrapping up

Over the past eight weeks, my knowledge about research has expanded and made me feel more confident as an early childhood professional to be a competent and informed consumer of research. I have recognized the importance of research in its many varieties to the early childhood field. I now realize that there is a vast amount of information that can be gathered using research including people's ideas about things, statistics, information from the past, generational or cohort information, information that informs further research, and so on. I also have made the connection between pairing what the researcher wants to learn with what methods the researcher chooses and how different methods can provide different types of information and carry their own specific limitations. Further, I realize that ethics play a major role in research, but that ethics play an even greater role when the research is about or on young children. There are historical examples of deception, abuse, and even exploitation of young children in research projects which illustrates the need for researchers to utilize institutional review boards (IRB's) which will compare their proposal with current ethical and procedural standards. Research ethics is not only about the types of actions that are performed on or with children and their families but also deal with the location of the study, the logistics of the data collection, and the amount of information available to consumers of the research about the participants (privacy and confidentiality included). Despite the wealth of knowledge I have gained over this course, I feel much more confident in my ability to understand the nuances in research designs and have the ability to read complex research with comprehension. I also think that my future courses at Walden will become easier as I am now a more efficient reader of research. I encountered few challenges in this course other than having difficulty finding research of the type I was seeking- it is sometimes hard to discern the research methods of a study from the title, and looking into the methods takes time and practice to identify what type of research method is being used. This was the hardest part of the course for me. As an early childhood professional, I feel more empowered to teach other adults about research and its significance and complexities.