Academic research with real participants was a foreign topic to me. Before this class, I had only researched through peer reviewed articles followed by comparing and contrasting other researchers’ work. Since being enrolled in Sociology 345: Program Evaluation and Social Research, I have learned how to be an ethical and non biased researcher. Before this class, I did not know the components of developing a research question. I learned what a good research question should be and how there are certain requirements and guidelines to follow. A good research question will be unbiased, clear, specific, and significant to the research question. I have had to become CITI certified before this class although I never officially used my certificate in the way I was able to in this class. When conducting the parental needs assessment for HeadStart, I felt genuinely involved and connected to the research by interacting with children and parents when handing out a survey.
When conducting research, relevant and peer reviewed sources are necessary. When selecting sources it is important to find articles that are accessible and relate to the topic that is being researched. It is important to be specific and narrow down a topic because the topic cannot be too broad. In my case, my topic related to the HeadStart needs assessment was parental involvement and financial stress. Through these selective topics, I was able to find articles that supported my argument. This was important because this made my argument more relevant compared to if I would have chosen articles that did not support. I chose articles that compared high, middle, and low class parents and their involvement within their child’s education. I also explored articles that related to parenting styles and the different types of parental involvement. After submitting my annotated bibliography, I added one source. This source was added because it was necessary to write my introduction and have significant information about HeadStart. The other sources I had originally I kept because they were relevant and significant to supporting my research.
Over the time spent researching in class there were challenges that occurred. In the beginning HeadStart emailed parents or guardians and our class only received four surveys back. This was clearly not enough to collect an accurate needs assessment therefore, as I stated before our class had to attend the local HeadStarts and hand out surveys. This resulted in twenty-six surveys and a twenty percent response rate. Another obstacle that I had to personally overcome was using R and excel to process the quantitative data. I had never used these programs prior to this class so it was definitely a learning curve. In order to overcome this I was able to get help from classmates and my professor.
My attitudes and comfortability have drastically changed over the course of the semester. In the beginning the title of the class intimidated me and I thought it would be way worse than it is. I am now confident in conducting research and being able to be an adequate researcher. This class has prepared me for other classes I am currently enrolled in as well as other future classes here at Longwood University. Researching takes a lot more effort and hands on work than I expected before being enrolled into this class. It was interesting to me to be able to read the open ended question responses and get a clear picture of how parents felt. I believe in order to think like a researcher it is important to know how a researcher should act. It is important to be clear and direct when establishing a research question. Although this is not the only component, sifting through the qualitative and quantitative data is not easy. It is time consuming work and needs to be paid close attention to. It is also important to come up with solutions when challenges and obstacles can occur. With having a fast response time to challenges this could create more detailed and more effective data. Lastly, being a researcher takes dedication to the cause and exploring how you could make a difference after collecting research data.