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.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI too feel that I am being "stretched" to learn in an area I'm not confident! I think concentrating on the qualifications of early childhood teachers is a very important topic, worthy of research. I believe improving the quality of early childhood programs begins with improving the quality of the teachers. Discovering the effectiveness of coaching and mentoring is something I find interesting. Mentors are used in the school systems where my daughters work. Based on their comments, I wonder if the effectiveness of the program is related to the training and qualifications of the mentor. My daughters voiced a need for mentoring when they were new teachers which leads me to believe the program has merit.
Good luck with your research project.
Joey
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI have several comments to your struggles!
First, Teaching Adults in the ECE field is my specialty in this program so I am quite interested to follow you in this simulation. Mentoring is one of the areas I am most interested in. There are many different things that I have done in my infant classroom over the past three years that I would like to pass along to other infant teachers, and I am quite aware that what I am doing is unusual. It is my hope to pass along the passion for infants and give my ideas and support to other teachers in the infant/toddler area. So I will be a cheerleader for you! I need you and I want to see what your search produces!
Second, I have used the Walden Library for the last four classes and tried to navigate it on my own, having limited success. This past week when we had to go in for our application to find research about our topics, I finally decided that I can call them for help! So I called them and had a librarian walk me through the process of locating articles on my specific research topic. It was very helpful! I encourage you to do the same next time when you are struggling to find your way around the library databases. They can answer your questions about topics and which database would best serve your needs.
Lastly, you are not alone. The other four classes were a stretch for me, but I feel LOST in this one. Let's encourage each other to push through our lack of confidence to figure out the world of research so we can use it effectively in our work.
Cindy