*** FUNCTION VS. FORM ***

I was really energized to find some pertinent information on my research topic, “The Benefits of Natural Day Preschool.”  I enjoy learning new terms for early childhood pedagogy. I learned of a new phrase called “playscape” and that children absorb information through perceptive education while playing outside. This is called function.  “Heft (1988) suggested an alternative approach to describe the environment, which focused on function rather than form. The functional approach corresponds better to the children’s relations to their environment. Intuitively children use their environment for physical challenges and play; they perceive the functions of the landscape and use them for play”(Fjørtoft, 2000, p.111).  I’m not gonna lie, my search path isn’t pretty, but it resulted in a “Scholarly (peer reviewed) Article from a Journal the proposed material that is helpful beyond my initial theory and fuels my intended purpose.  My hope within the scope of this research is to add accurate learning methods to my future profession as a teacher. I spent a good hour and a half just finding an article that aided in my search for the benefits of organic learning.  I was sure to write down all of my flawless search methods.  I’m kidding, have you been listening at all?  I did write down all of my sad attempts, search terms and limits, this made it much easier to record all of my missteps, so that I could clearly share them with all of my esteemed colleagues.  My favorite part was when I went from, NO RESULTS to 168,472 RESULTS.

Search Path:

I began searching Academic Search Premier through the Leatherby Library database. My key words started as:

• Natural day preschool
• Organic preschool
• Nature preschool

I set the limits for scholarly (peer reviewed) journals and the “also search within full text of the article.”

• Document type: article
• Publication type: all
• PDF full text

I chose to wait until setting a date limit.

NO RESULTS FOUND!  (Geeze, I felt like that was a lot of work for nothing)

NEW SEARCH---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Used same search terms as above

Changed limit to:

• Find any Search terms

168,472----results----and none of them (at least the first 20) related to the intended research topic.

NEW SEARCH---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Natural day preschool
• Organic preschool
• Nature preschool

I checked the “smart text search/full text box” Peer reviewed...blah blah blah again,

NO RESULTS FOUND!

NEW SEARCH---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Search Terms:

• Natural day preschool
• Organic preschool
• Nature preschool

Any search terms/related words, nothing directly related to my intended article, but I did spot some new words to use in my search terms.

• “Outdoor preschool” in quotation marks, and interesting article regarding “Risky play in Natural Vs. Ordinary Playgrounds, I really wanted this article to be useful, and it was but only because again, it led me to zero in on better search terms.

NEW SEARCH---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Search Terms:

• Playscape

• Natural
• Related results

I found something that looked like it may be useful, but sadley***Full Text Not Available***

1.5 hours in I begin to start typing forcefully on my keyboard, this doesn’t help either, in case you were wondering.

NEW SEARCH----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Search Terms:

• Playscape

• Natural
• Related results

Clicked on ALL DATABASES, my last ditch effort...I found a title, I read the abstract, I clicked the citation tool bar on the right and copied and pasted it in case I navigated away from this article and couldn’t find my way back.

I looked at the “subject terms”

• Primary education
• Play
• Child development

I found a scholarly (peer reviewed) article from a Journal, that was specific to my research topic.

so here you go:

Fjortoft, I. (2001).  The natural environment as a playground for children: The impact of outdoor play activities in pre-primary school children. Early Childhood Education Journal. 29(2), 111-17. doi:10.1016/s0169-2046(00)00045-1

Handler, D., & Epstein, A. (2011). Nature education in preschool [PDF document]. Retrieved from. http://www.highscope.org/file/NewsandInformation/Extensions/Ext_Vol25No2_low.pdf

I ended up changing my topic as I felt that my initial question regarding closing the gap between parents and IEP’s would be a great topic, however it was much too broad and being able to focus on a condensed subject would allow me to delve deeper.  I was interested in learning about how a natural environment can positively affect the cognitive skills in early childhood education.  According to the authors of Nature Education in Preschool, large amounts of research demonstrate the adverse effects that are associated with not creating a connection early in the student's academic career.  I learned that the disposition of the parents regarding nature can transcend to their children thus creating a negative environmental choices for future generations.   There are great socioeconomic gaps in the amount of green time offered to young children in homes of need, than that of the wealthier class..  Some schools and cities cannot afford    “The National Association for Sports and Physical Education (NASPE, 2010) recommend preschoolers get at least one hour a day of vigorous physical activity, yet studies show children fall far short of this goa”(Handler & Epstein, 2011).  A new search strategy that I found useful this week was the small magnifying glass to the right of the ebook, it allowed my to read some of the book without completely making a commitment to it.  Also the ability to set limits was invaluable.  Finding different tools that aid in the citation process is helpful like  “On EndNote Online, it is a reference management software program that can help you gather and organize your material when conducting research. You can store and manage your references, up to 50,000 references”(Rosen, 2015).  Bookmarking the helpful research sites can be very beneficial, infact I book marked the ILLiad domain, The LBSU Library resource page, that has great links to other promising research paths.  And the Leatherby Library link to my desktop.  I also ordered or I guess requested a book from the ILLiad, I am not sure it will help with this assignment, as it may come too late but it is very cool to know that I can,...for the future.  I thought that it was pretty cool that we could get extra credit for learning how to efficiently find research materials. I really didn’t like it when I wanted to go back to the main page, of my ebook search if I click on a title I don’t want.  I thin have to resubmit all of my limits.  My goal to find out more about this research is to begin recognizing the different styles of learning. As I research my topic, I want to create an information folder and begin to collect ideas so that when I become a teacher, I will use those opportunities when permitted.                                       

Welcome, glad you made it!
I am Julie Morfin and a Master of Arts in Teaching with Preliminary Education Specialist, Mild/Moderate Credential is what I am seeking through Brandman University. This is my second Term with Brandman, I am an online student that reserves the right to utilize the Modesto campus, (which I may need to do for Math, yikes). My Career aspirations will probably sound extremely selfish, I really just want to enjoy my daily interactions with the students, I want to enrich the quality of life that Special needs students experience when they are associated with my classroom or resource center.  I would like to have a degree that will allow myself preference over other teaching candidates in my area.   Long story short, I want to wear flip flops to work. 
The specific aspects of my career path that I plan on researching further has to do with bridging the gap between parents and IEP's Individualized education Plans or 504's. Children with specific learning disabilities, that fall just below the baseline average of academic standard are an area of concern to me. Some teachers confuse this with laziness or lack of parental involvement. I would like to explore this issue so that I can have a positive impact on administrator's, teachers and parents that I may interact with in the future. I am actually quite embarrassed at my current ability to find and correctly cite scholarly literature. I am a cynical by nature and generally don't trust websites, articles or even history books, as I find the lion's share of people have an agenda behind their "carefully researched information," so revising my methodology on evaluation is not something I am really concerned with. I think I may have stumbled upon the most important lesson for me regarding research as William Badke points out in his book Research Strategies, "You may be in fact saying to yourself, I've never been good at this research thing, I don't think I have a good research project in me." Badke responds, "Of course you don't, a good research project is out there, not inside you."(Badke, 2014, p. 22) I have always put too much emphasis on personal experience, which has generally gotten me "by" in the past, but I fear it won't fare well into University level higher learning and beyond. As the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education points out, knowledge practices, are ways in which learners can increase their understanding of these information literacy concepts (ACRL Board, 2016).  I can copy and paste the six conceptual frames that are the authority of the framework, but I honestly had to research definitions and synonyms so that I could get a clearer understanding of these big fancy college words. (Please say that with a draw)

• Authority Is Constructed and Contextual (The information source is put together and depends on the context in which it is being used. But what if I just want to use the part that proves my theory?)
• Information Creation as a Process (series of progressive and interdependent steps by which an end is attained, in this case possibly just the ability to collect scholarly information that has already been collected by others in order to obtain  "metaliteracy, which offers a renewed vision of information literacy as an overarching set of abilities in which students are consumers and creators of information ("Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education | Association of College & Research Libraries [ACRL]," 2016).  Me, a creator of information?  I'll give that the old college try!)
• Information Has Value (agreed, I once read a discussion post where a student responded to a prompt in a main post with "I think you should feed children." My eye started twitching, how was I supposed to reciprocate a response to that?  It did fuel my false sense of superiority though,..just say' n)
• Research as Inquiry (There is a question, that needs to be answered, not one I already think I know the answer to.  Ugh! A blow to my ego!) 
• Scholarship as Conversation (I thought scholarship really meant money given to someone with potential, that's all I ever heard growing up.  Apparently it means "knowledge acquired by study" ...communicated,  hmmmmm, I still have a shot at a scholarship, woot woot! )
• Searching as Strategic Exploration (purposefully and thoroughly exploring the information, purpose and thorough, two things I find myself innately lacking, I'm working on it though)

I guess I will end this post with my newly cultivated goal for this course, (I am really hoping for some kind of an award or medal for this...) I want to become information literate.

References

Badke, W.B. (2014). Taking Charge. In Research Strategies: Finding your way through the information fog (5th ed., p.22). Bloomingdale, IN: iUniverse, Inc.

Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education | Association of College & Research
Libraries (ACRL). (2016, January 11). Retrieved May 6, 2016 from
http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

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