Research that Benefits Children and Families

An area of great interest for me is zero to three.  If I conduct  research in that area, the following will be my research question “Infants healthy development: Staying home parents vs. Child Care.  I believe in quality child care, but I also believe that, for infants healthy development, there is nothing better than staying at home with mom and/or dad.  The positive results of my research will be that when infants staying at home with their parents they feel more secure and safe.  Also, that they will effortlessly create that secure attachment with his/her parents that will encourage them to strive and develop well.  Infants will grow as stable and secure children and then adults because their social-emotional needs were met at the crucial age of infancy.

There is currently an advocacy effort for policy changes about the way we take care of our babies.  The initiative started with J. Ronal Lally and Peter L. Mangione both of them are staff members of WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies and PITC(Program for Infants and Toddlers Care).  They have conducted fundamental research in the area of infants and toddlers.  Please, take a look at For Our Babies website and get involved with this effort to help the American Babies.

Personal Research Journey

When I first started this course all I knew about research was to Google information.  To my surprise I quickly learned that is not an easy task to find credible information online.  I always heard “do not believe everything you read off the internet” so I was a little skeptical.  Thanks to last week resources now I feel confident about my skills to identify credible and valuable information for my research and other reasons.

Research is a challenge, but it is a challenge I am ready to overcome.  I am excited of the new knowledge as I am a little overwhelmed.  The biggest challenge I anticipate during this process is time.  Even though, I consider myself as a person who does not procrastinate, and that manages time well I am a little concerned  the time I have assigned for studying may not be enough to complete research.  I know that all of you have busy lifestyles just as I do; and if you can give me some of the ideas of how you find extra time to research I will appreciate it.

I enrolled in this M.S program because I have a passion for the early childhood field, and I have the goal of becoming a trainer/mentor-coach for early childhood teachers.  I want to share my knowledge and skills with other teachers, and help them to growth and develop to become better teachers.  I shared my goal with you because this explains the reason of the research topic I am choosing.  I am interested in the professional development and training area of the early childhood field.  However, this is very broad area, and we can only choose a subtopic.  The subtopic I am choosing is how does professional development helps teachers.  I want to learn everything about this subtopic, and I hope I can get vital information that can help me refine my career goals.

Any resources and information regarding this topic will be greatly appreciated.

Building Research Competency

I am excited and eager to be in this class,  Also, I am expecting to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to complete an accurate and effective research study.