New insights about research

New Insights about Research

During this course I learned about several different types of research.  The first is quantitative, another is qualitative and a third is mixed methods.  Within these categories there are longitudinal studies and case studies.  There are different methods of conducting research and different ways of increasing the validity of a research project.  All of the knowledge I have gained makes me feel more confident about reading research articles.  I have the ability to glean information from such articles because I now have the vocabulary and background knowledge to comprehend what I am reading. Before I would bypass any article that had a chart full of numbers, but now I would make an attempt to understand it.

I learned a lot from making several attempts to design a research study of my own around the topic of attachment and separation anxiety.  I learned the importance of beginning with a literature review to become familiar with studies about my topic that have been done in the past and what was previously concluded.  I had the opportunity to picture myself as the researcher and learn which type of research appeals most to me.  I see myself doing mixed methods research.  I want to find solutions or treatments that can solve a problem.  But I also want to delve in to the heads of the people involved which would require more of a qualitative approach.  I learned that who I am may bias my conclusions so it is best to use various kinds of triangulation; data, methodological and researcher, to make my research more valid.

I encountered challenges as I worked through this course.  Sometimes I had no clue what an assignment was asking.  I had to read and re-read the directions and do the same with the resources in order to glean anything from it.  But I persevered and through repetition I caught on.  I was also helped by my classmates and my instructor through their posts and comments on the discussion board.

I now see that my co-workers and I conduct mini-research studies all the time and that they are often quantitative.  We identify a problem in our classroom which becomes the dependent variable and apply a solution to the problem which becomes the independent variable.  Then we analyze the why behind the problem from a human standpoint and this is like a mini qualitative study.  I am now more aware of how past experiences and certain mindsets may cloud my judgment and cause me to come to biased conclusions.  It is good for me to be aware of this in my early childhood work.