Saturday, July 7, 2012

My Personal Research Journey

My Research Topic
The research topic I decided to write about is school readiness. As I reflected on my topic and my passions I want to learn more about school readiness and children living in poverty. I selected this topic because I was intrigued by the inequalities in school readiness skills among children exiting preschool programs and entering kindergarten. During an assignment in one of my classes at Walden I learned that a large number of the families’ in the community I work in are living in poverty. I have also learned that children living in poverty are at risk of many disadvantages including inadequate early childhood experiences and limited access to quality early childhood education.  This motivated me to learn more about supporting the children I encounter and learn how I could improve their school readiness skills.  Therefore I would like to research how to increase the quality of school readiness among children living in poverty and identify strategies and practices to improve school readiness skills among children living in poverty. If you know of any resources or have any suggestions that would help me in my research process I would really appreciate the information. Thanking you in advance!
Constructing the research chart and other insights…
I think the research chart is helpful when you are reading a book, article and etc. and you would like to reflect on what you learned from the text. It is a good reference to refer back to on particle topics and also build a personal glossary to use when reading other research documents. Week 2’s discussion assignment was pretty cool, prior to this week I didn’t know how to find out if a website was credible or not. I’m glad I now have a better idea of how to evaluate websites and research articles. I will also be sure to share the information with my colleagues.
Here’s a list of Good Credible Resources:

Good luck on you researching journey!

3 comments:

  1. Ruby Payne has written a lot about teaching children in poverty, and she is a wonderful resource. Thank you for the links in your post- I am sure they will be super helpful!

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  2. Hi Katara-
    It is sad to see that children are not all able to receive the important early skill they need to succeed in school. School readiness is such a hot topic right now that it will be interesting to learn more about it. I look forward to reading your research and I will pass along any information that I may come across. Thank you for sharing your resources, I will look at the Zero to Three site for my topic of infant attachment.

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  3. Hi Katara,
    This sounds like a great topic for a research simulation. At my previous job, I, like you, worked in an area that was heavily stricken with poverty. The sad thing is that many children are not ready for school, either due to lack of quality preschool programs and materials or due to the inability to even attend a preschool program, in order to stimulate their minds. Good luck in your research!

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