My personal Research Journey

I have struggled with deciding what topic to use for my simulation.  As I read through chapter 2 of our text I realized I needed to know the literature that is out there for specific topics in order to find questions that are workable  I also realized I often am asking questions that I need to find research on, not necessary create research about.   As I thought about things I am interested in  I found myself  always coming back to the equality in professional development for early childhood teachers.  What makes a quality early childhood teacher?  How can peer mentor/coaches be effective? What policies can improve equality among all teachers?  I then asked myself if these questions have been answered or are they to complex or broad. 

As my peers I was wondering if these questions would be something you would want to know about, or what questions about equality would you like to find out?  Do you think these questions are worth investigating, to broad, or complex?   

My struggle continues…….   I think the most important question I have is how effective mentor coaches can be for the professional development of teachers, what are the factors that make mentoring effective?  As we continue this process of learning about research I am hoping it hones my skills in finding the right questions to ask. The text is very clear that this is the most important step in the research process.  The text book “Doing Early Childhood Research,” says, “We cannot stress enough that it is worth spending time finding workable, appropriate questions,…..Your research question will influence what you research, how you research it and what you find out from your research efforts (p.23).”

As I was working on my application part 2, I found Proquest offered me more articles about mentoring than the Academic complete database.  Did anyone find one more successful than another?

This course is surely stretching my learning in an area I do not feel confident in.