Dr. Dale Farran, professor of education and psychology at Vanderbilt University, presented her current research, which deals with creating and defining quality Pre-K programs. She began her presentation by describing the widening achievement gap in the U.S. and how some policymakers view pre-K programs as the solution for this discrepancy in achievement. She wants to find if pre-K does help children become more successful in school and what methods for administering Pre-K foster the best development. Overall, I was most struck by Dr. Farran’s ability to be frank about the current issues with policy and our education system, but mostly by her true passion to improve the lives of children. I thought it was significant how Dr. Farran discussed
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Farran was a great example of the applied developmental science principle of disseminating research findings. She stated simply collecting data and performing research studies is not enough. Teachers and administrators might not know what to do with the that data you have found. For example, she discussed her current research where teacher behavior is observed in classrooms, such as the teacher’s amount of listening, time spent in transitions, and time spent on particular subjects. Even with these findings from her research study, many teachers did not know how to make the changes that the findings suggested should be made. For example, she found that the teachers talked 70% of the time, but when giving this information back to the teachers they did not know how to get children to talk more and how to listen to them. She stated that teachers that are trained in special education have more training on how to adapt lessons and how to implement these changes. However, teachers who are trained in early education do not have as much training on differentiating instruction and making adaptations in the classroom. This means that researchers should clearly outline the ways that their findings can be implemented and collaborate with teachers and administrators when …show more content…
Dr. Farran stated that in Sweden, children are encouraged to participate and get along with the group. There is much less focus on academics in early education than there is in the U.S. and much more emphasis on learning to collaborate and work with others. In the U.S., individual achievement is stressed and academics are seen as the main objective. She also discussed that in Finland, children do not begin attending school until they are seven years old. It is fascinating that there are such diverse views on how education should be approached and how the U.S. method of beginning education early and stressing the importance of academics at a young age is not completely supported by evidence. Dr. Farran discussed how she recently met with a woman who works for the Obama administration to share her findings about pre-K programs. After discussing her findings that gains made in pre-K might not be sustained past the first grade, the woman from the administration told her that they would not be using her research. This interaction is representative of the current way that education is decided on by some policymakers. This cross-cultural comparison was informative because I was unaware that other places in the world did not see the need to focus on educating their children at such a young
Farran was a great example of the applied developmental science principle of disseminating research findings. She stated simply collecting data and performing research studies is not enough. Teachers and administrators might not know what to do with the that data you have found. For example, she discussed her current research where teacher behavior is observed in classrooms, such as the teacher’s amount of listening, time spent in transitions, and time spent on particular subjects. Even with these findings from her research study, many teachers did not know how to make the changes that the findings suggested should be made. For example, she found that the teachers talked 70% of the time, but when giving this information back to the teachers they did not know how to get children to talk more and how to listen to them. She stated that teachers that are trained in special education have more training on how to adapt lessons and how to implement these changes. However, teachers who are trained in early education do not have as much training on differentiating instruction and making adaptations in the classroom. This means that researchers should clearly outline the ways that their findings can be implemented and collaborate with teachers and administrators when …show more content…
Dr. Farran stated that in Sweden, children are encouraged to participate and get along with the group. There is much less focus on academics in early education than there is in the U.S. and much more emphasis on learning to collaborate and work with others. In the U.S., individual achievement is stressed and academics are seen as the main objective. She also discussed that in Finland, children do not begin attending school until they are seven years old. It is fascinating that there are such diverse views on how education should be approached and how the U.S. method of beginning education early and stressing the importance of academics at a young age is not completely supported by evidence. Dr. Farran discussed how she recently met with a woman who works for the Obama administration to share her findings about pre-K programs. After discussing her findings that gains made in pre-K might not be sustained past the first grade, the woman from the administration told her that they would not be using her research. This interaction is representative of the current way that education is decided on by some policymakers. This cross-cultural comparison was informative because I was unaware that other places in the world did not see the need to focus on educating their children at such a young