Building Research Competencies

This class has definitely been a challenge, but in a good way.  I didn't realize how much really went into planning, designing and executing research.  There are so many things to be careful about, and it is very important to remember that you working with people, not just subjects.  Planning research takes a lot of time, effort and ethics. 

One challenge I had with doing my research simulation was keeping in mind that this was just research, and not the answer to what my research question was.  In my end state at first, I was trying to teach the parents who were not spending enough quality time with their children what to do, rather than just keeping in mind that this is just research.  So that was a little difficult.

I enjoyed the class, and I thank everyone for their comments on everything that we did.  Good luck to all of you in your future classes, and with your final simulation!

Early Childhood Australia

One thing I noticed on this particular early childhood website is that they have articles archiving back to 2002.  One particular issue that caught my eye was that children were being sent to a detention camp in Malaysia while trying to seek asylum in Australia.  This was in August 2011.  Early Chilhood of Australia chief executive Pam Cahir was trying to talk with the governor in order to put a stop to this, and give the children and their families another option while seeking asylum.  I didn't see any up to date articles on this particular issue.

The Australia website has many of the same resources as some of the American websites offer, to include issues with baby and toddler sleeping, school transition and childhood obesity.  They also offer a Being, Belonging and Becoming learning framework, which offers several different ideas and resources for different learning topics.  It seems as if this would be something good to incorporate while working with families:  http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/resource_themes/eylf_early_years_learning_framework.html#EYLF_Principle_1_Secure_respectful_and_reciprocal_relationships.

Along with the above learning framework, they have a few others, such as how to build confident learners.  I think these are great ideas, and something I will save in my resource guide.