The process of grasping the academic research concept is absolutely stunning. At the beginning of the semester in August, as any other senior walking into their first day of their final year; and just being blindsided by the overall phases on a research project were overwhelming. The only terms that were popping into my brain were qualitative, quantitative and things that were related to experiments (hypothesis/research question). Beginning to panic and just reminding myself to take one week at a time.
The attitude and state of mind towards doing research has completely changed from the beginning of the semester to the end. The idea of doing research has become easier in my mind, because having learned the different phases has allowed me to grasp each assignment with a better understanding. The confidence level has risen from each assignment to every component being blended together. The different assignments allowed me to feel proud and confident in my understanding of research; through going through each challenge and barrier. The challenges and barriers ultimately, came to be an advantage for me as the semester went along. The advantage came as a confidence booster, because now research as a whole does not seem so overwhelming or frustrating. The confidence in my research allows me to take the bigger picture and complete piece by piece and not look directly at the entire workload. Ultimately, the research aspect is usually hardest when the concept is not understood; now the concept is understood and able to be complete on my own. Throughout each week of methods I learned the code of conduct as a researcher, and the different phases which were the literature review, constructing a survey, using SPSS to analyze the quantitative findings and much more.
The literature review was one of the most challenging parts of the project for me. Through the literature review we were tasked as researchers to find studies on topics that interested us, or we wanted a deeper understanding about. At the beginning I wanted to understand the connection between a socio-economic status and parental involvement on three to five-year olds. The studies I looked at were involving low-socio economic families, parental involvement studies and the outcomes on three to five-year olds. These topics were chosen, because through my view our society has been known to view the socio-economic status of a family on an extremely high scale. Through the studies I hope to grasp a better understanding of how children birthed into a low socio-economic family coped with having an uninvolved parent or guardian. All of my sources remained throughout my literature review the entire semester, because the studies provided a clear explanation of how important being an involved parent enhances the child’s early development. The literature review was the hardest part for me personally because I needed to bring multiple sources together into one understanding. Additionally, the overwhelming amount of research and reading across the studies; covering parental involvement and socio-economic status and how they affected three to five-year olds. Looking back on the amount of work put into only one section is mind boggling and has taught me the importance of program assessment.
Analyzing the responses of the Head Start program surveys was entirely new terrain for both the quantitative and qualitative findings. The quantitative findings could arguably be the toughest thing connected to the academic research; because the program SPSS could be user friendly but at other times not so much. After the data has been presented and the methods course wrapping up; the academic research phases and understanding of the concept is a night and day comparison.
The phrase “think like a researcher” has grown on me throughout the duration of the semester. Mainly, because the phrase was stated multiple times throughout the beginning weeks of the semester. The phrase had become part of the methods class, ultimately making me think what the phrase was portraying. To think like a researcher means a list of different things such as being conscious to always protect the anonymity of the participants; and always be attempting to further the research. Thinking like a researcher allows an individual to place themselves in the shoes of past researchers attempting to study the same topic. The purpose of placing yourself into the shoes of the past researchers is to attempt to duplicate the studies; but at the same time adding your stamp to that topic of research. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to “think like a researcher” as it has grown my ability to bring multiple sources together to find a common understanding for a problem. Working through the process throughout the last semester has helped make me confident in my ability to analyze data, review literature, and bring those together to create an understanding.