I am excited about doing a research simulation in these upcoming weeks; I know little about research and the processes behind it so this will definitely be a learning experience! After much thought, I narrowed down my topic of imitation/modeling behavior in children to a few subtopics. The one that I chose to focus on for my research simulation is the role that gender plays in what children imitate and model. Are young girls more likely to model behavior from a female adult? Are boys more likely to imitate other boys? Do boys and girls choose different types of behavior to model? Or does gender not even play a role in what children choose to imitate? This subject is really intriguing to me and I have a lot of questions about it!
I chose this topic because for two reasons. First, I am interested in it from a professional perspective. The early childhood field is heavily dominated by females; does this influence what children in early childhood settings imitate? Secondly, I am interested in this from a personal perspective. I have an 18-month old son and am raising him as a single mom; he imitates and models behavior that he sees me do. Would he imitate the same things if he had a male to choose to model behavior from?
The simulation process so far has been interesting. It has been a little bit difficult to understand and take information from research articles, but I am slowly beginning to understand the language and presentation better. I have realized that I have to read certain paragraphs of research articles multiple times to grasp the meaning, but hopefully once I have a better understanding I will be able to tackle it more efficiently! Having a research chart has been helpful because I have come across a lot of new vocabulary; it helps me to have a concrete visual aid that I can build upon.
Research is such an important part of the early childhood field; I expect that I will gain a lot from taking the time to understand and learn about the research process. If anyone has any insights into the research process or the topic of gender and imitation, let me know, I would love to hear some new ideas and perspectives! One website that I came across that has a lot of credible research on a wide number of topics is from the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), http://nieer.org/, hopefully this resource will be beneficial to someone else too!
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteYou also picked a really cool topic to research! I personally do not think gender plays as big of a role as it use to. I feel boys today feel comfortable enough to play in the home-living center with the girls because they may see dad do the cooking at home. I studied this topic during one of my observations in the second course. The Walden Library does have excellent articles on this topic, so good luck!
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteI like your topic! It immediately brought to mind a student I have in my class. This student has severe developmental delays and had to leave school after week two to receive home therapy until he was able to have enough skills to come to school with a full time shadow teacher. When he came back to school a couple months later he was very excited to see all the children he new by picture. His attention span was very short, but he would imitate their behavior for 30seconds and then move on to another child. For example outside he would look at a child swinging on the bar and he would copy it once, then quickly run over and draw with chalk as he watched another child do. It was enlightening to watch him experiment with all the movements and behaviors he was watching his peers do.
Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great topic that you have chosen. I often wonder the same thing about young children modeling behavior. One thing that I have noticed in some of the young boys in our Center with single mothers when they are potty training the majority of them will sit rather than stand. Also, I have noticed that these same young boys tend to be more comfortable when in the dramatic play area nurturing a doll as to imitate caring for a young person.
Again, just as you have stated research in early childhood is so important. The more when can understand about young learners the more equipped we will be to educate. I enjoyed reading your post and will be sure to pass on any information that I learn throughout the course regarding your subject.