I was very nervous before this class began. I struggled with my research class in my undergrad classes and was expecting much the same with this class. However, by designing my own research study and applying the concepts to my study gave me a much better understanding. I have learned there are so many more steps involved in a research study before the study can even begin. I have also learned how one topic can evolve into a multitude of research studies in order to research the many different angles and perspectives of that topic. My research study is looking at if education requirements in early childhood centers impacts the amount of employee turnover. It was hard each week to keep my study on track and not go off in different tangents. As I thought about my topic there were so many other avenues and other variables that I could research, but it would make my topic too broad and reduce the feasibility of the study. Thinking about and exploring all the different ways this topic could be researched gave me great appreciation for researchers because it was not easy to design the study and it would be even harder to implement.
I had a few challenges in this class personally. I have a 2 year old and a now 5 month old. When the class began my husband was supposed to return from deployment in the first week of class so I thought I would have extra support. However, due to the constant changes in the military he did not actually come home until we were in our fifth week of class. This made it very difficult juggling everything, but luckily he made it home and I made it through the class.
My viewpoint of early childhood professionals has broadened. There are many different ways to contribute to the early childhood field and it is important to recognize and learn from each other. Researchers are critical to the field, but they must also understand child development and learn from teachers about the classroom environment. Teachers must also study research as the early childhood field is continually changing and there are new developments every day. Each of these professions must work together to help provide all children with high quality education.
Thank you to all my classmates for the support throughout this class. It has been fun to learn about everyone's research topic.
