The Benefits of Research

Research in the field of Early Care and Education has contributed to a better understanding of how young children develop and grow.  Brain research has identified the importance of the first five years of life in the overall development and learning of  children. Also,through research we have identified that quality early childhood programs benefit young children,  families and communities.  These benefits include less grade repetition, lower dropout rates, higher school completion rate, improved health and nurition, improved social and emotional behavior, improved parent-child relationships, increased earning potential and economic self sufficiency.    Research has even helped to identify what practices create quality environments for young children to grow and thrive in. 

Dispite my initial concerns over ethical questions, I have gained a better understanding of the importance of research in the Early Childhood Field this week.  I have also learned how research is guided by ethical guidelines and principles that have been designed to protect subjects from being harmed or exploited.  The overall contributions to the field of early care and education have been significant. 

Research Simulation Week 1

Researching information on the internet this week brought to mind the saying "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.".  I actually considered using this quote as part of my discussion post for class this week.  However,  when I "googled" it to find out who authored the quote, I found conflicting answers including Edgar Allen Poe, Benjamin Franklin and Proverbs.  This simple search illustrated to me how difficult it can be to find accurate and trustworthy information on the internet.  After all, anyone can post things on the internet whether it is true or not. For this reason, I have always approached using information from websites cautiously and have relied on ones that I am familar with to get information.  This week's study has helped me to distinguish the credibility of websites and information by looking at indicators of credibility, accuracy, reasonableness and support.  I found this extremely helpful in my searching for information.  
As I begin my research simulation, I have picked the topic of quality child care and narrowed it down to three subtopics including the effects of quality child care on children's development especially their readiness for school,  parent's perception of quality child care and evaluations of quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS).
I chose the topic of quality in child care because of my passion for working with child care programs to improve quality.  As a former child care director who now works as an employee of a QRIS program, I am very interested in looking at ways that quality can be improved in child care.  As a working parent, I am interested at how quality programs can be made available to parents who need a safe and healthy place for their child to be while they are working and how quality influences a parents decision in choosing child care.  At this point I am going to focus more on parent perceptions of quality and how this affects their choice of child care.  Because the definition of quality can be so broad and can depend on perception, I think it's important to take into consideration the perspective of parents.  Afterall, they decide on what type of early care and education program to enroll their child in. 

Lessons Learned- International Early Childhood Education

Over the past eight weeks I have studied various websites and podcasts about the international early care and education community.  In addition, I have reached out to collegues in other countries to learn more about early childhood education as it exists around the world.  This has been an eye opening and rewarding experience to learn about how other nations view  childhood and provide early care and education to young children.  It has given me a glimpse into cultures  and experiences that are very different from my own and expanded my knowledge about how issues like poverty, equity, excellence and diversity, affect children around the world and how early care and education programs worldwide have addressed these issues.  In addition, I have also gained knowledge of resources and information that I can use in my work.  But most importantly, I have recognized that the early childhood communtiy worldwide is more alike then different.  We share similar goals and we have a wealth of knowledge that can be shared with each other to benefit all children.  So while there are better educational systems than ours in the United States and many that suffer greater challenges,  I believe there are lessons we can learn from the successes and failures of other countries and in turn much that they learn from our successes and failures.   My goal for the field of early care and education is to consider what we have in common with early care and education professionals around the world and to find ways that we can provide better early care and education by sharing our experiences and learning from each other.