Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

     I would like to share a publish research article that researched the positive effects of smaller class sizes for students. The article is titled “Does Class Size Matter”? I worked in an early childhood classroom, specifically with toddlers up into three years of age. In my opinion and personal experience, class size does matter, because children benefit greatly from smaller class sizes, as they can receive more personal one on one time. Especially toddlers who are very egocentric, they most certainly benefit, especially with social/emotional, cognitive, and autonomy development. The article states “Importantly, small classes have been found to have positive impacts not only on test scores during the duration of the class size reduction experiment, but also on life outcomes in the years after the experiment ended” (National Education Policy Center, 2014) Go and check the article out if you’re interested in class size and the positive outcomes it has for children.

References

Does Class Size Matter? - National Education Policy Center

http://nepc.colorado.edu/files/pb_-_class_size.pdf National Education Policy Center

My Personal Research Journey

     I am choosing teenage mothers as it relates to early childhood education for my research stimulation. I chose this topic to research, because I work on a daily basis with teenage parents and I personally know teenage parents. Some insights that I have gained from came from my Professor, Dr. Todd in reference to narrowing down my subtopics. I will be stimulating some research on child abuse and neglect, is this indicative of teenage mothers? teenage parents understanding of early childhood development as it relates to social, cognitive, or physical development. (Focusing in on one of the stages of development) and these mothers own continuing education. The course text is very informative and explains the research process in terms that are easy to follow; I can appreciate the glossary at the end of the text, because it offers further explanations and definitions to key words. If any of my fellow classmates have any insights, knowledge, or resources that will be useful in my research stimulation, I welcome your thoughts and advice, I will be happy to offer the same to anyone if I can be of help. Thank you and good luck guys!

Reference

Mac Naughton, G., Rolfe, S.A., & Siraj-Blatchford, I. (2010). Doing early childhood research: International perspectives on theory and practice (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill