When I Think of Research...

Doing research must be important in any discipline. However, after taking this research course, I find that research findings is not only important for the professionals in early childhood to find best ways for children, improve early childhood theories, system and services; but moreover, it is highly recommended that anybody works in early childhood or deals with the children, such as the teachers, caretakers, and school directors to at least read the research studies for them to know and give their best for the children.

I first understood the nature of doing research as the opportunity for lecturers to find or test a theory for further study, but through this course I found a research as a friendly tool for professionals to work in the field better, to know whether what people are doing for the children is correct and or to find ways what and how to improve, if needed. This course has also step-by-step taught me a lot of how to plan, design and conduct a research in early childhood. Specifically, I learned deeper about the basic principles of designing a research, and how to make a research effective, valid and reliable. If, let say, I will never make one, but at least I know how a good research should be.

Frankly speaking, a research was not an interest of mine, and I had some challenges in understanding the course materials, especially the terminologies that took me many times to re-read before I could get the meaning. Fortunately, the additional readings, and the colleagues’ opinions from the discussion helped me a lot to get clearer and better understanding about them. Thank you, to all of you and, especially to Dr. Shephard who always provided additional links to the topics I had in the discussion, and to share this valuable piece of knowledge.

It is a must for the early childhood professionals to be familiar and put a keen interest in research. As a ‘professional’ in early childhood, he or she must have the eagerness, a calling, and a big interest for always improving the early childhood field. There are many inputs, insights, findings a research study may provide, and it all depends on how important we think working for the children is.