Saturday, September 15, 2012

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.

2 comments:

  1. Marta,
    I too am a bit concerned about the time factor. I wonder how much additional time will be needed? I think that your topic is very interesting and I love how you relate it to your career goals. I think that it will be meaningful research for you because of this!
    I think professional development is a good research topic. If you need any input from me, just let me know. I would be willing to answer any survey type questions you may have if you need any participants.
    Happy research!
    Kristi

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  2. What a great subtopic. I think that your search will lead you to many results supporting quality and p.d.
    A longitudanal study found that, "professional development focused on specific instructional practices increases teachers' use of those practices in the classroom, (Desimone; Porter; Garet; Kwang;Birman, 2002)". Our team works to create our professional development based on the results of our program quality asssessment. We find this to be the best approach to an increase in quality.

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