Research Around The World

I explored the Early Childhood Australia Website.

I found they were researching many different subjects. Some that were interesting to me were Young Children's Learning which was about infants and toddlers learning. Another subject of research was Respecting Diversity and how it happens in the classroom. Also, my favorite research topic on the site was learning and teaching through play. This is something of great interest to me because I constantly have to defend our play based learning in our Head Start program. It was nice to see that in other parts of our world they also see the benefits of play based learning.

I was so surprised to see that they were studying play based teaching and learning. I know here in the United States and it is hard to get some people including parents to buy in to the fact but I had no idea it would be going on in Australia. I have heard many good things about the quality of Australia's educational system so them supporting play based learning makes me feel even better about us supporting it here in our Head Start program.

The other noteworthy information that I found was the fact that they have a Early Years Learning Framework. This is something we also have here in the United States. I was especially glad to see that our educational system has some of the same things as Australia, because as I stated before I have heard good things about their educational system. To think we are lining up with some of their practices is heartwarming.

Share a positive example of research for children and families

Conscious Discipline is a research based discipline program. Its motto is discipline isn't something we do to children, its something you develop within children. Our Head Start program is embracing this and has been doing so for the last three years. It has been really wonderful for some of our children who are behavior problems. Conscious Discipline teaches children to focus on their feelings instead of reacting to them. Our teachers and staff are having monthly trainings and our managers have been attending the conferences twice a year. Conscious Discipline is a really huge outfit now. It was developed by Dr. Becky Bailey and she can be contacted through her website and you can also learn more about Conscious Discipline. The web address is www.consciousdiscipline.com

Personal Research Journey

I have chosen to do Parental Involvement as a research simulation. I am not exactly sure how I can narrow it to one specific subject to convey what I want. If anyone could help me tailor it to be more specific, I would be grateful. I am open to any suggestions. Sometimes, I have trouble putting in to words what I would like to say. I chose this because I have seen many children grow from my preschool program moving into middle school and beyond. I have seen differences in the children who had parents directly involved with them than those who did not. Some were in the custody of a foster family, or group home, or even an orphanage. I also have seen children that were minimally taken care of by both parents. These children show different signs of development. The children of parents that were more involved developed better socially, academically, and had better behavior. The children of the parents who barely took care of them didn’t fare so well. They were in trouble, failed and had to repeat grades. Some are even in trouble with the law now. I feel like this is a credible research project. If we could get the information out to people, maybe parents would spend more time with their children. Thus, creating a better outcome for their lives and creating better communities. I feel like this is an advocacy issue and I could use the research as a tool to help advocate for parents to be more involved.