I am not to familiar with the research process. The information from the articles this week gave great insight on how to determine the quality of electronic resources and the text gave insightful information on how to refine your topic. After reading Chapters one and two of the text Doing Early Childhood Research I have narrowed down my topic and will focus the research simulation on how children develop social/emotional skills through early learning environments. My reasons for studying this topic stems from my experience in the classroom, as a director of a nonprofit child care center for at-risk children and my desire to advocate for young children. During the course of my career I have experienced children raising children, children that have been pushed through the school system without having the proper education, which indicates that they have been set up to fail, and lastly, seeing young children that lack in social/emotional development that I believe is gained through the early childhood experience.
Having the chart is a great tool. While undertaking research the chart will keep me focused. The simulation process took a little longer than I anticipated. After finding information on my topic there were several articles with research that supported social emotional development but some of the research focused on the adult interaction, others on the environment and one focused on that development in the classroom environment. The insight from our first week’s resources on how to read research articles was a tremendous help.
Hi Carmen,
ReplyDeleteYou chose a really great topic to research! Social-emotional development is such an important part of a young child's development but this is often overlooked. With the focus on academics and cognitive skills, I feel like social-emotional skills are pushed aside and not really made a part of many classrooms-yet they are so important and healthy development of them is crucial to a young child's well-being. And you are right, there are many young children that face great adversaries from a young age; knowing more information on the topic of the development of social-emotional skills will help you better serve these children and become a stronger advocate. I am sure that you will be able to use what you learn at your center and share it with your colleagues and the parents you work with-which will help foster healthy social-emotional development in the children you work with! I am looking forward to hearing what you learn on this topic!