Week 10 Eleni Pallotta

This week, I thought I would share the results of a research study I conducted with a group in my undergraduate Research Methods course.  We looked at Opinions on Formal vs. Informal Assessment within the Field of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

•           Early Childhood being ages 0-8
•           Formal Assessment meaning standardized tests, quizzes, etc.
•           Informal Assessment meaning, for example, assessing a child on their counting skills while they are at play in their classroom during play time

Basically, the purpose of this project was to compare and analyze the different perspectives of ECE profressionals and Early Childhood Studies (ECS) students’ views on formal and informal assessment for children aged 0-8.  In other words, we wanted to see if professionals who have a lot of experience in the field have a different perspective on how to assess children vs. students’ perspectives based mostly on what they learn in school about assessment.

•          Our Independent Variable was Amount of Experience (i.e. ECS student vs. ECE professional)
•          Our Dependent Variable was Opinions/Views on Assessment
•      Our Controlled Variable was the field of Early Childhood Education (because only people who work with children within this age group qualified for the research study)
•         Our Hypothesis: We hypothesized that the amount of experience or years (independent variable) working with children in the field of early childhood would influence the subjects’ opinions (dependent variable) and how they view formal vs. informal assessments used for children between the ages of 0-8.

We collected data through an online survey which we sent out through email to ECE professionals and ECS students.  We found that:

•          Our sample size wasn’t big enough to produce a statistically significant difference in opinions on formal vs. informal assessment

However, we did find some other information such as:

•          ECS students seemed to believe that the age of the child determines the major benefits the use of standardized assessment can have on children 0-8 years old, while ECE professionals seemed to believe that formal and informal testing used together determines the major benefits the use of standardized testing can have on children 0-8 years old (qualitative).
•          We also found that more ECE professionals considered other aspects when providing their reasoning for their ratings including disabilities and cultural differences in comparison with ECS students.

I wanted to use this example because I think it demonstrates that while not all findings in a research project directly support your hypothesis, the data you collect may provide you with information you were not expecting to find…in this case, for example, the difference in HOW, WHEN, and with WHAT AGE GROUP different forms of assessment should be used.  I think it is good to keep your mind open to finding information other than what you are "expecting" to find as a researcher.  

(Retrieved from: http://www.parenting-journals.com/2150/helping-your-child-prepare-for-tests/)