In participating in academic research, core concepts and processes have changed throughout the semester. In the beginning of the semester, the process of academic research began by reviewing previous research studies which allowed for me to gain further knowledge of my now research analysis. Further throughout the semester, I then was able to use previous research studies from various researchers to collect and analyze parental involvement amongst children (ages three-five) of Head Start.  

In the selection and evaluation process for the sources used for research, I specifically collected sources that have been recently published, reviewed, and elaborates on the importance and findings of parental involvement as well as Head Start programs. However, throughout this process, I encountered several sources that were not peer-reviewed, did not have evidence-based findings, were opinionated/biased, and of which contradicted the major findings collected in the research. The evaluation for such process, allowed for me to determine which sources were eligible to use and would further broaden my knowledge of the research analysis conducted. Furthermore, after turning in my bibliography and later final assignment, I did in fact add several sources to the final assignment. The sources that were added gave further information in the research analysis process that was used throughout the research. I specifically added these sources to further broaden useful information and the importance of such process for the readers. 

Throughout the research study, several challenges were encountered. Of those were time management and communication with group members. When conducting research, time management is extremely important as analyzing the data collected may take several hours or more. In overcoming the importance of time management, I created an agenda that allowed for me to organize my day and set a specific time throughout the week to analyze the data. I also limited the amount of time in social gatherings with friends and family as this took a huge gap in time of analyzing the data. Communication with group members was a challenge as in the beginning processes of collecting research, there was a little confusion in the roles needed for each group member. To overcome this issue, I took the leadership role by assigning which task each of the group members would have. I also created a shared document with the group members and created a group chat. This allowed for use to be able to share our ideas, concerns, and to stay in contact with each other.

In the beginning, conducting research gave me great amounts of nervousness, as I then never conducted research nor analyzed research. However, as the course went along, I was able to gather a great amount of confidence as the professor took each of the research process by steps. For example, the professor first had researchers collect information from previous studies then by weekly, the professor had researchers submit assignments and further steps every Friday. This allowed for me to have time to process and gain self confidence in the awareness of the research conducted. Furthermore, by having great contact with my professor allowed for my perceptions, attitude, and confidence to change as she encouraged me to not give up and to continue to work harder day by day.

To “Think Like a Researcher” is to think as someone who sees more than data, numbers, and participants. “To Think like a Researcher” is to be able to collect and analyze data, to be able to correlate the data found in a sociological viewpoint, and lastly, to be able to understand what the findings may mean related to society. Overall, thinking like a researcher takes time and efficiency. As collecting, coding, and generally analyzing data may take up to hours, days, weeks, months, and years to be completed.