Saturday, October 25, 2014

When I Think of Research...

As a result of this course, my ideas about the nature of research have expanded significantly.  Before taking this course, my understanding of research was very basic and limited.  Except for a basic understanding of quantitative research, all of the lessons regarding planning, designing, and conducting research were new to me.  Since my knowledge was limited I gained many insights from this course including: the design process, credibility, ethics, qualitative research, and research methods.

I found the majority of this course to be challenging especially the quantitative research concepts.  Specifically, I struggled with creating a hypothesis and identifying the dependent and independent variables for my simulation.  However, I did the best I could and the comments that Dr. Parrish made helped me immensely.

As a result of this course, my perception of early childhood professionals has expanded to include researchers.  Before now, I have read my share of research papers but I never considered the process or those that conduct the research.


Thank you to all of my classmates especially those that took the time to comment on my discussion and/or blog posts.  I wish you all luck in your next course and in the future.

3 comments:

  1. My previous understanding of research was very basic as well. This course has definitely helped me understand research as well. I feel that this course and Dr. Parrish was thorough in the explanation of it all. I'm glad that you were able to gain more insight from this course as much as I did.

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  2. Hi Melissa,
    I too have gained a greater understanding of the research design process. Identifying the dependent and independent variables was challenging for me as well. Dr. Parrish's feedback helped me to understand the concept also. I wish you all the best and I hope to see you on the boards in the next class.

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  3. Hello Melissa,

    I can also say myself that I too struggled with creating a hypothesis. I did not figure out the connections to the assignments until the end. This research class was quite a task that I have learned a lot about but I don't think it is something that I would like to take again. LOL Good luck for the future.

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