Ba Research Project

[DavidW]

I need to do a research project on a subject of my choice -connected with early years explain how I will do it and then do it! I will need to do surveys etc. I have thought about doing it on what does quality look like from the point of view of parents ,children and possibly staff.What do you think? Too broad should I just choose one? Any other doable ideas?

[JacquieL]

If you type in 'research projects' into the search forum posts link at the top of the page you will find several very helpful threads. Best of luck

[hali]

i would personally do it on one of those....whatever you decide keep to the point as you can very easily go off on tangents...good luck

[Guest Wolfie]

I think "quality" sounds a very interesting and "do-able" subject - lots of scope for surveys and questionnaires and certainly plenty of reading and research to get your teeth into. As Hali says, try and narrow it down a bit or you'll be writing a 500 page book before you know it!!

Edited August 12, 2007 by Wolfie

[HappyMaz]

As Hali says, try and narrow it down a bit or you'll be writing a 500 page book before you know it!!

You say that as if its a bad thing...

 

Seriously though, as one who finds it almost impossible to stick to any given wordcount, narrowing it down will make it much more manageable. Consulting with children is a 'hot topic' just now - there's probably a lot of research. MOSAIC comes to mind immediately, but there's bound to be loads.

 

Let us know what you decide.

 

Maz

[Guest]

Yes, I agree - I think it would be a great subject to cover but I do think that quality from three different perspectives i.e. children staff and parents is perhaps too broad - perhaps choosing one of them would be good - analysing data from three different sets of people might be hard but I can understand your thinking behind this to see what correlation there is between each group but I think that you will find it really difficult to analyse this - perhaps staff and parents might be easier but still hard. I actually did something similar for my research and interviewed parents on what they thought was important in a quality setting (not quite the right wording) results were fairly consistent with what I had originally thought - some suprises though from some parents though. I think I did a likert scaling for this with about 17 parents - I think the perception of quality would be a good subject but I dont reckon you could do all three. If you want to see my graphs and charts I would be happy to show you my results if you PM me

Nikki

[DavidW]

Thanks for the input - sorry but I don't know what MOSAIc is. Help I am starting to stress

[HappyMaz]

Thanks for the input - sorry but I don't know what MOSAIc is. Help I am starting to stress

MOSAIC is about involving children in making changes to their setting - how they were consulted etc. Peter Moss and Alison Clark did the original piece of research, which has now been updated. You could google it or go to Amazon - sorry don't have time to find you the link - off to Ikea!

 

Good luck

Maz

[Guest cathy m]

I have just completed the foundation degree and the final course was centred around the Mosaic Approach, below are some of the tools used in this approach

 

 

Observations - Narrative accounts.

 

Child conferencing – A short structured interview with individuals or a small group.

 

Using cameras – children using cameras to take photographs of ‘important things’.

 

 

Tours – tours of the site directed and recorded by the children.

 

Map making – 2D representations of the site using children’s own photographs and drawings.

 

Interviews – informal interviews with colleagues and parents

 

 

Cathy

[DavidW]

Thanks for that i will look up MOSIC and see what else I can find out -it will def. help if I decide to look at things from the childs point of view