First and foremost, I would like to congratulate all my colleagues on their completion of our Master's course in Building Research Competencies as well as all the hard work you have put into this program and your professional development so far. I don't know about you guys, but I found this course both intimidating and challenging. In fact, I found myself wondering in the beginning why we even needed to take this course. Why was it so important? How would this really be relevant to someone like me--a preschool teacher (after all, I'm not trying to be a scientist)? Am I alone in my thinking, or did others of you have similar feelings?
Well, to my surprise, throughout this course and the research simulation project, I have gained valuable insights as to the relevance and importance of acquiring practical skills in this area. I now realize that this skill is one of the basic reasons I decided to seek a Master's degree in the first place. When I think about it, the reason I decided to further my education was to be able to provide children and their families the best possible support and advice to further their healthy development. Over the years working with young children, I have gained valuable experience, honed my instincts and developed my skills, but at the end of the day, when parents would come to me for advice, all I really had to offer them was my opinion. By increasing my research competencies, learning how to efficiently extract useful information from scientific journals, judge the validity of articles, websites and resources, I will be able to support my opinions/arguments with valid, scientific facts. In addition, I truly appreciate learning how to properly design and engage in my own informal research projects within my classroom or school in an effort to help me better understand the community I serve as well as how to best serve them.
In fact, the biggest issue I had during this course was actually deciding which research question to focus on. There are so many areas of curiosity and interest to me in the Early Childhood field that it was extremely hard for me to narrow my thinking. I now have a new level of respect and appreciation for those committing themselves everyday to thinking through the intricacies necessary to achieve valid answers to so many of these questions. With the time and care it takes to answer each of these questions, dedicated researchers are helping us understand ourselves better, our roles better, our students better, our world better and how we can all contribute to creating a better society together. After all, as preschool teachers, isn't this the mindset we are working to foster--teaching the joys of exploration and experimentation, the process of trial and error it takes to master a concept, imaginative and inquisitive minds fueled by curiosity, imagination, and creative problem solving, questioning and testing aspects of our environment and how we can best function in it. Whether or not we become scientific researchers ourselves is beside the point, we are on the ground floor of supporting future researchers, scientists and professionals committed to making the world a better place for us all. Thanks to all my colleagues for your continued support and commitment to this end. You should be proud of yourselves!
Happy Holidays,
Angie Oliver
