Early Childhood Teacher Research

From Questions to Results

Kathryn Castle

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781136858185
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación general

What is early childhood teacher research and why is it important? How does a teacher researcher formulate a research question and a plan for doing research? How do teachers apply research results to effect change? Early Childhood Teacher Research is an exciting new resource that will address the sorts of questions and concerns that pre- and in-service teachers of young children frequently have when engaging in teacher research.

Accessible and interactive, this book touches upon the important issues every early childhood teacher should know—the uniqueness of early childhood teacher research, reasons for doing it, and how to do it. In this comprehensive guide, Kathryn Castle explores each stage of teacher research, from conceptualization, generating research questions, identifying data sources, gathering and analyzing data, interpreting results, sharing results, to taking action based on results.

Special features included in each chapter:

• Teacher Researcher Journal prompts for the reader to record ideas for research questions and to develop a plan for doing research.

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• From the Field provides rich examples of real life early childhood teacher researchers and their perspectives on doing teacher research.

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• Reflections ask readers to pause and think deeply about relating content to their own situations.

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• Exploration of additional content, websites, resources, and activities are located in each chapter to help the reader go further in constructing their knowledge of teacher research.

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one

What is Early Childhood Teacher Research?

Please think of the children first. If you ever have anything to do with their entertainment, their food, their toys, their custody, their day or night care, their health care, their education—listen to the children, learn about them, learn from them. Think of the children first.

Fred Rogers (2003, p. 168)

How My (the author of this book) Teacher Research Journey Began

Young children are fascinating. Young children are vulnerable. My research journey began as a young woman caring for a two year old boy, Michael, while his mother, my sister, worked. There was a cat in their home that Michael liked to hold very much. His mother would tell him and remind him not to put his mouth on the cat. She lectured him very sternly about germs and dirt. I don’t think he understood her lectures, but he did understand that she would get upset when he did this. He was not deterred by her reprimands. He continued to put his mouth on the cat. I was puzzled and curious that he would persist even when his mother would punish him. Research typically begins with puzzlement about something that doesn’t quite make sense.

My study of Michael began with puzzlement and a question: Why would Michael continue to put his mouth on the cat, even when he was being punished for it? My study ended with wonder. In between the question and the wonder, I became a “child watcher” of Michael, trying to understand his motivation while I was caring for him. I watched him very closely, wondering what he was thinking. I observed him and the cat at close range. I noticed that he wasn’t really putting his mouth on the cat. He was putting his cheek very close to the cat’s body and just close enough that when he would do this, the cat’s fur would stand on end, barely reaching his face. He was very gently and softly rubbing his cheek just close enough to the fur to feel its softness, similar to the tickle of a feather gently brushing against your cheek.

I was so surprised to see his eyes light up and an enormous smile appear on Michael’s face when he gently brushed against the cat. He seemed to get great pleasure from this experience. The sequence of my research began with a puzzling situation, then a question, then systematic observation, then data gathering, and finally interpretation of the data. My interpretation was that Michael was getting such positive sensory feedback from the cat that disobeying his mother was worth the price of the thrill! Reflecting on this situation hit me like a bolt of lightning: young children thrive on sensory experiences. Michael knew what he was doing and that his mother didn’t approve. But he did it anyway.

My study did not end at this point. I felt I had to share my findings with my sister. She was afraid Michael would catch a disease from putting his mouth on the cat. She also thought he was doing this just to spite her. She said his behavior was a result of being in the “Terrible Twos” phase of development. I shared my observations with her including my interpretation of what was happening. She got it! Then we talked about substituting other fur-like, clean, and acceptable objects for his sensory exploration. As a result, the power struggle between Michael and his mother over the cat was resolved.

This experience fueled my desire to work with young children and their families. I wanted also to do more research like this. Although I wasn’t a teacher at the time, I do think I regarded Michael with developing “teacher eyes” focused on his learning, well-being, and interests. I have been an early childhood teacher, professor, and researcher for many years now. I have witnessed the value of teacher research in improving teaching and learning experiences for children. I think teacher research is quietly reforming schooling because teachers are more likely to apply results from their own research to their teaching than results from distant researchers outside classrooms.

This chapter is about the unique qualities of early childhood teacher research. Have you already started your own teacher research journey? Have you experienced situations that didn’t quite make sense to you and you wondered what was going on? Have you ever wondered why babies usually crawl before they walk or why some children learn to read at age 4 while others have great difficulty, or how you might help generate a love of books in young children? If you have a curiosity about young children and why they do what they do, then you just might be an early childhood teacher researcher! This book should help you in your journey.

TEACHER RESEARCHER NOTEBOOK

Begin to keep your own Teacher Researcher Notebook and choose a format that best fits your learning style. You might choose a spiral notebook, loose-leaf notebook, or go digital. Plan to record entries in your notebook from prompts in this book. Occasionally you will be asked to revisit entries and reinterpret their meaning, so choose a format that is easily accessible to you.

TEACHER RESEARCHER NOTEBOOK ENTRY #1

Your first entry asks you to:

Try to recall a research study that you remember, possibly from a class you took or from the news media, and write down what you thought was significant about the study. Then think about reasons you remember this particular study and write about the significance this study has for you. For example, recent research says that infants need to be placed on their backs for sleeping to help prevent sudden infant death syndrome. If you have an infant or care for infants, it would be important for you to know about this research. Can you think of a similar research study?

Next reflect on a time you either had a question about your own teaching or the teaching of someone else such as a teacher you might have had. For example as an early childhood teacher, I might ask, “I wonder if all my children have equal access to my teaching, or if only a few are getting most of my attention?” Write a question about teaching and reflect on why this question is important to you.

Now consider the two entries you just wrote. Do they have anything in common? What do these examples show about the importance of research? How important do you think it is to do teacher research in early childhood?

Teaching and Research

Teaching has been defined as to assist others to learn. Research has been defined as to systematically search and search again looking for answers to your questions. When you combine the act of teaching with the act of researching, you get teacher research: a systematic approach to studying teaching for the improvement of teaching and learning (Lankshear & Knobel, 2004). Teacher research in early childhood is very special because it puts children first in better understanding how teaching affects children’s learning. In this book about teacher research in early childhood, you will learn what it is, why it is important, how to do it, and how to use results to improve the early childhood experience for the children in your care.

The reason many enter the field of early childhood education is to care and educate young children. The field is focused on the young child from birth through age eight, preschool through third grade. Some say they enter the field because they love children and have experiences taking care of them. Others say they want to give children better experiences than they had as children. These reasons may motivate individuals to enter, but will not sustain them in the field over the long term. Early childhood professionals who stay have found ways to continue learning about how children learn and develop and what they need from the adults in their lives. Just as children grow, early childhood professionals also need growth experiences in their knowledge of what it takes to be an early childhood practitioner and they continuously seek ways to improve what they do in putting children first.

Why did you consider early childhood care and education as a career? What have you learned about children and their learning that you bring into daily activities with them? How did you learn it? Early childhood practitioners who question what they do and how it affects the children in their care, use what they learn to improve what they do. A systematic approach to this learning cycle is teacher research. Early childhood teachers who do teacher research use results to improve practice, improve the learning situation for children, and put children first. They can articulate to others what they are doing and why because they study their own teaching. They have data and documentation to support what they do. For example, when a teacher engages 4 year olds in storytelling activities and records which children can retell a story and which ones have difficulty, the teacher is actually collecting data that will help improve teaching and document to parents and others what children are learning.

This chapter is about what is unique to the field of early childhood education and what is unique about early childhood teacher research. Here you will find examples of such research and reasons for doing it. Before you continue reading this chapter, record any questions you may have about early childhood teacher research in your teacher researcher notebook. As you read, seek answers to your questions and record any new questions that come to mind.

Spiral of Teacher Research

Doing teacher research can be considered as a spiral process that begins with a question and ends with taking action or improvement of the teaching/learning situation that then leads back to new questions (Ellis and Castle, 2010). It is not circular because research results bring new understandings and knowledge that result in professional development in an ongoing cycle as in the spiral depicted in Figure 1.1. The upward cycle indicates that knowledge does not stay stagnant or the same, but grows with a teacher’s learning experiences and understanding that comes from doing teacher research.

Figure 1.1 Teacher Research Process

Source: Adapted from Ellis and Castle (2010)

What is Unique About Early Childhood Teaching?

Early childhood teaching is unique in several ways including its focus on the child, the age group involved, a special pedagogical orientation to children, the role of the family and community, and the multiple contexts in which early childhood programs reside.

Focus on the Child

Early childhood teaching is a special area in the field of education that is focused on the child. A whole child approach to early childhood teaching facilitates children’s development in all areas: physical, socio-emotional, cognitive, and aesthetic. Early childhood teachers recognize that children develop at their own pace and with their own unique developmental profile including special needs (Hooper & Umansky, 2004). The professional knowledge base in early childhood includes not only content areas such as mathematics and methods for teaching it, but also knowledge of how children develop and how they come to construct knowledge including mathematical knowledge (Geist, 2009). Working with children requires comprehension and knowledge of not just academic subjects, but knowledge of children, developmental patterns, and how to facilitate learning and development including accommodating various learning styles and special needs.

Teachers in middle and secondary schools aren’t as concerned with developmental knowledge because at those levels the primary focus is not so much on the learner as it is on the subject matter content to be taught. That is not to say that teachers of older students ignore developmental patterns and milestones, but rather that adolescent learners do not experience the rapid shifts and dramatic developmental changes that younger children do. The first three years of life are particularly packed with rapid growth spurts and developmental milestones (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Frost, Wortham, & Reifel, 2008). In the early childhood years (0–8), young children grow from babies highly dependent on adults into functioning 8 year olds who have learned how to communicate, get around, read and write, make and keep friends, appreciate art, beauty, and nature, and inquire about the world and how it works. These are amazing feats in such a short eight years!

Early Childhood is a Special and Vulnerable Age

Not only is the focus on the child in early childhood teaching, but also on the special age of the child in early childhood programs. Early childhood practitioners work with the youngest age group in the human life span: birth through age eight. Children are more vulnerable than older students, but young children are the most vulnerable of all. Young children are the most vulnerable because what happens to young children can leave long lasting effects including detrimental ones (Stanford & Yamamoto, 2001). The younger the child, the more damaging the detrimental effects can be. For example, infants who do not bond with a primary caregiver, may have long lasting relationship difficulties throughout their personal development. Young children who are abused or traumatized may experience long lasting effects such as learning difficulties that interfere with success in school and that are most difficult to overcome (Hooper & Umansky, 2004). Young children are also most vulnerable because they rely on adults to make decisions for them and take care of their needs. They are not yet capable of making abstract decisions that affect their welfare and rely on adults for daily needs, guidance, and nurturance. Teachers of young children have a special responsibility not only to their learning but also to their well-being.

Pedagogical Orientation

Pedagogy is the study of the teaching–learning relationship. The early childhood teacher plays a critical role in the care and education of children. A unique and special pedagogical orientation distinguishes early childhood teaching from other profess...