When I think of Research...

Some of the insights that I have gained from taking this course is that research can be quantitative, qualitative, or both.  Quantitative deals more with facts and data whereas qualitative is based more on proving a point, and mixed method research deals with both (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).  I really enjoyed learning about the nature of research.  Before learning how to truly read a research article, I would waste precious time searching for information in an article by reading information that I did not understand.  Now I know how to read an article appropriately to locate the information that I need.

Planning, designing, and conducting research in the early childhood field takes a lot of work.  It is important to interview the right people and to remain ethical which can easily become a problem in this field because it is difficult to interview children therefore deception in research in a common thing (Mac Naughton et al., 2010).

Some of the challenges that I encountered during my research was understanding certain methodologies, trying to break down my research topic, and forming a proper hypothesis.  I took the advice of Dr. Dartt each week and began to understand the research process better.  As a result of this course, my perceptions of an early childhood professional have remained the same.  I have always admired and appreciated anyone who takes care of other people's children all day.

                                                                     Reference

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S. A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: 

     International perspectives on theory & practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Adjournment Stage of Team Development

The adjournment stage of team development is always a sad one in my opinion.  Of all the groups that I have been a part of, even the ones that were not so great, a bond and mutual respect is always formed.  The hardest group for me to leave was my group from Phoenix University.  After a while, I had a set group of five and we traveled throughout our undergrad journey together.  We were truly like a family although we had never met face to face because everything was online.  Occasionally, we would call or text if we had a question, but that was the extent of it.  We all said our final goodbyes and good lucks with a sadness, yet happiness because we had reached our goal of completion.  This was a high-performing group which made it all the more difficult to leave, but in my experience; the low performing groups were also a little hard to leave because there was still a bond that was formed with some of the group members.

We are a military family and transfer every 18 months or so. We usually have a ritual of gathering together and cooking out and we have a "hale and farewell" party.  Those are always sad, even if it is a location that we are ready to leave (such as this one...July 30th, but whose counting)!  I wish there was a way that my group from Phoenix could have made plans to meet somewhere that was central to each of our locations and meet face to face and celebrate our victory.

 In my master's degree program, it will be difficult for me to think of the adjournment process because I've recently began doubling up on courses because I want to be finished before my next transfer in about five months, therefore, my classmates are beginning to change and I'm the "new girl" now.  However, adjourning is an essential stage in teamwork because it allows you to move on and to capture the best moments of the group as well as evaluate what went wrong if the experience was bad (Abudi, 2010).  Everyone has to move on in order to grow.  Change is one of those necessary parts of life.

Recent Conflicts

This topic was more difficult than I thought it would be because I have not worked since the year of 2009.  My family and I transferred (military) to Hawaii while I was pregnant.  I decided to take advantage of those times and I earned my BS in Psychology; got pregnant again and decided that I wanted my masters in ECE.  Therefore, I will discuss a conflict that I had with my last employer in Virginia.  I used to be a massage therapist and was very good at my job.  However, this became a blessing and a curse.  I was in high demand and had a greedy employer.  I discussed that my absolute maximum could be six hours of massage because it is very taxing on the body especially if I have a couple of extremely obese clients.  After a while, she completely ignored me and worked me to death.  On top of that she would always print my paycheck wrong.  For three straight weeks I went to her and explained that she miscalculated my hours and my paycheck was short by about $250-300.  She would say something to the effect of, "I'm so sorry, would you like me to write a personal check or could you wait until I speak with my accountant?"  Of course, I would say, I can wait!  She followed through, but after working so hard, you can understand my frustration with expecting a huge paycheck because of all the hours she made me work.

A couple of conflict management strategies that would have been more effective would have been:
     to use the win win approach which simply states that I want to win and I want you to win too (Conflict Resolution Network, n. d.).  I could have approached her by explaining how grateful I am for the work and that I have so many loyal clients, but in order for us both to win, could you not schedule so many on one day because I am beginning to have back problems.
     also by actively listening to her regarding my paychecks I would have seen the clear picture through her body language which would have told me that she was in trouble financially.

A couple of months after these incidents (there were other employees who experienced the same problem), she informed us that she was going out of business because the were raising the rent prices too high on her building and she could no longer afford to run the business.  I found another job shortly thereafter at a higher end spa and was grateful for the learning experience because she took a chance on someone that was fresh out of massage school.

Reference:
Conflict Resolution Network. (n. d.). CR kit. Retrieved from: http://www.cmhg.org/pages.php?

Research Around the World

I chose Early Childhood Australia (ECA) because their website is very similar to the NAEYC in which I am a member and love what the organization stands for.  Some of the ECA's topics are school readiness and children's transitions and belonging, being, and becoming.  This two topics stood out to me because I have read about these topics in the Young Children's Magazine (YC) which is a journal that I receive through the NAEYC.  This shows me that people in other countries have the same concerns as we do about the children.

I did appreciate how becoming a member of the ECA teaches them how to be a voice for young children, and keeps them abreast of the latest early childhood news and happenings.  It is also a great source for networking with other professionals in the field which is important.  The site also provides several articles and resources that are readily available.  I thoroughly enjoyed going through this webpage and I feel that the organization is phenomenal and reaches out to everyone, not just early childhood professionals.  Some of journals are for grandparents and parents as well.

Reference:

Early Childhood Australia (n. d.). Retrieved from: http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/