I have to admit when I saw that this course, Building Research Competencies, was coming up I was a little intimidated and concerned at how interested I would be in this subject. I was concerned with the statistical aspect and reading detailed research papers. I am happy to say that I am really enjoying the course so far and was excited to pick a research topic. The research topic I chose was Homevisiting Programs in Early Childhood Education and narrowed down a subtopic of factors that contribute to the success of these programs.
I have a very personal interest in this subject matter being an Early Head Start Home Visitor. Within my career I have also been a Head Start Home Visitor. I have also worked in the classroom but have always found myself going back to the home base option. I have also participated as a parent in a home based intervention program for my son when he was little and found it to be very beneficial to both my son and my family as a whole. I am always trying to look at ways that we can improve our program and provide better services to my families.
I have also found working on the Research Chart has been very beneficial to me in that it gives me a better understanding of terms and topics. By writing them down in my own words I am better able to remember and use the information in my own work. Just this week I was able to show my supervisor why an article she chose to share with us on ADHD may not be the most accurate information. I also was able to show her how to read a research article to get the information that you wanted, the article she chose was not even on preschoolers. When we looked at the Participant section we found it was done actually on older children. The research chart helped me to remember this information quickly and easily. I was very excited to be able to share this information.
I now look forward to the remainder of this course and learning more about how to best utilize research data.
I have a very personal interest in this subject matter being an Early Head Start Home Visitor. Within my career I have also been a Head Start Home Visitor. I have also worked in the classroom but have always found myself going back to the home base option. I have also participated as a parent in a home based intervention program for my son when he was little and found it to be very beneficial to both my son and my family as a whole. I am always trying to look at ways that we can improve our program and provide better services to my families.
I have also found working on the Research Chart has been very beneficial to me in that it gives me a better understanding of terms and topics. By writing them down in my own words I am better able to remember and use the information in my own work. Just this week I was able to show my supervisor why an article she chose to share with us on ADHD may not be the most accurate information. I also was able to show her how to read a research article to get the information that you wanted, the article she chose was not even on preschoolers. When we looked at the Participant section we found it was done actually on older children. The research chart helped me to remember this information quickly and easily. I was very excited to be able to share this information.
I now look forward to the remainder of this course and learning more about how to best utilize research data.
Toni,
ReplyDeleteI know very little about home visits so I'm eager to hear more about your research.
What specifically are you looking at for with your research? Are you looking at what you can do for families to make home visits more successful, better ways of working with children during the visits, showcasing the successes of these types of programs, or something else entirely?
Your job of working with families and assisting them in creating a positive environment for their children must be very rewarding!
I also know very little about home visits and look forward to following your blog throughout this course.
ReplyDeleteMolly,
ReplyDeleteI am primarily looking at what makes home visiting programs successful? I feel we have a wealth of information on what makes classrooms successful that we should also have this type of information for home-based programs as well. Is it parent involvement? Education of the home visitor? Duration and number of visits? I can come up with a number of questions for this topic. I can foresee that I will probably have to narrow it down even further. I am glad that others will learn more about home visiting and home-based programs.
I am currently a home visitor for the Early On program in Michigan. I provide home visits to children with an established condition or a developmental delay. As early intervention is the key to a child's long term success, I feel fortunate to be a part of this program. I feel that one of the most influential pieces to a successful home visiting program is the connection between the early childhood professional and the family. In order for the intervention to be effective, the family needs to respect and trust the person that is working with their child. It's refreshing to see that we are in similar fields. Look forward to your findings.
ReplyDeleteI am very familiar with the Home visiting for Early Head Start and Head Start as I was a Supervisor for those programs. They are wonderful programs and I believe it is so important to see the parent and the child in their own environment.
ReplyDeleteI also was a little concerned when we started this class because of the topic. But so far I have been learning a lot. I am so happy to hear you were able to use information in your job. I actually passed on the Practical Guide to reading Research Articles to my Director and the Executive Director!
I look forward to this research topic as well. I have done in home intervention and home visits. My current job doesn't have a home visit component and I really believe that we should. Hopefully your research will help me be able to advocate for a change in our program.
ReplyDelete