Narrator: At Eastern Connecticut State University,
two centers on campus are providing students
with unique opportunities to partner with faculty
on research and creative projects
related to young children.
The Child and Family Development Resource Center
is a children's program serving young children
up to age five and their families.
The Center for Early Childhood Education
is a research and training institute
that serves professionals and policymakers
in the early childhood field.
The two centers have partnered
to involve approximately 180 students each year
in research,
creative activity,
course assignments and teaching experiences.
Students conduct over 100 observations
in the children's program annually
for sociology,
early childhood education
and other classes.
In addition 53 students gain critical experiences
as teaching assistants,
substitute teachers
or in practicum experiences.
Students also teach over 500 lessons for children
under faculty direction
including literacy, yoga and physical education lessons.
Each year early childhood education faculty
recruit Eastern students to assist
with one or more research studies.
Student researchers videotape teachers and children,
code interactions, test faculty developed
evaluation tools and analyze data.
Dr. Trawick-Smith: When students work with us
on their research,
they learn so much more
than just basic research skills.
They get an inside picture
of where the knowledge in our field comes from.
With all of its strengths and flaws.
One thing they come to see,
is that research on human beings is necessarily flawed.
It never leads to truth.
And this emboldens our students
to challenge their professors
whenever we try to sell them research findings
as the gospel.
Now they know better,
our students have had some rather unique
research experiences working with us.
Things that I never did even as a graduate student.
Scott Johnson: It was a research study
on a fidelity rubric,
for how closely the teachers follow the curriculum.
We videotaped them working in the class
with the children and then we evaluated that videotape
based on the rubric.
I found it most valuable to be
seeing what practices they used in the classroom.
It was interesting to see the project based curriculum
that they used,
and that every single thing that they did
in the classroom was based on research
by professional educators.
Narrator: Under the community partners
for Early Literacy Project
24 students have been trained by faculty
to administer standardized assessment tools
on preschoolers to measure
their language and early literacy skills.
The results are used by faculty
to study the effectiveness of providing
professional development and in classroom coaching
to preschool teachers.
Cynthia DeJesus: So the assessment was
assessing children on their oral language,
on their print awareness,
alphabetic principle,
recognizing letters,
recognizing the letter in their name,
writing the first letter in their name.
I was recruited to teach,
to give the assessment in Spanish for those children
whose first language was Spanish.
Assessor: Pig, hen, foot, wig.
Now let's point...
Blair Pugliese: I'm a psychology major
and research is obviously a big part of that.
If you want to see progress in anything
you have to collect data,
you have to collect research
to really back up your findings.
The hands-on experience
I think gives you a better handle
on how research is conducted,
how much time and effort has to go into
making sure that everything goes smoothly.
So being able to come in
and actually do it physically hands-on
is probably one of the best things
that a student like me could get out of
you know, just an on-campus job.
I mean it's, it's amazing to be able to do something
like this that I can tie into everything I've learned
sitting down in a classroom.
Narrator: The two centers also provide opportunities
for faculty to engage students
from communication,
visual arts and other departments
in a variety of creative activities.
Dr. Widdiss: My students had cut a lot of plywood
and of various kinds
and then we gave them to the children.
I knew that if you could entice them
with different shapes
then the shapes would talk to the students,
and if you use the right glue it would all hold together,
and then you have magic.
In the interim we figured out
what approach was working
and what approach wasn't working.
So there was a lot of dialogue
of how to get the kids through the project.
Some of our art students are in the education program
and have art as a major.
Some of the students support themselves
through working in various school programs.
So they come with an interest
because they've done it before
and we thought it was a nice project to do together.
Narrator: Faculty have recruited
communication students to assist
in the development of a number of training videos,
that provide unique professional development
opportunities for preschool teachers across the country.
Kristen Chemerka: A big project that I've been
working on is a 5 segment piece
on children's literacy.
Then this semester, I started making a documentary.
Teaching preschool aged children
about environmental awareness.
The experience has been valuable in that
I've got to spend some time
with some very smart people
who know a lot about what they're talking about.
It's really neat to work one-on-one with a professor
like that and it's been very hands-on.
It's really helped me develop some real life skills
that I don't know if I would have been able to get
out of a classroom.
Dr. Matthews: I think the most consistent project
that we've conducted here
that's involved students in production
has been the E-clips project.
For student,s many times
it is one of the first opportunities
they've had to work on something
that really has to be at a high level.
It's going to be distributed nationally.
So we certainly want to put our best foot forward.
So it's unlike the work that's done in the classroom,
where there are mistakes are allowed
and obviously there isn't time
to bring it to absolute perfection.
Being a faculty in communication,
I'm very intent on seeing our good students
who are very focused on this kind of career,
get the best professional opportunities
that they can get
and then also as the producer of the series.
I can't do everything myself
Dr. Trawick-Smith: As much as they get out of working
with us on research.
I think that the primary benefit of involving students
in our research,
is what I learn from them.
Students are not so entrenched in our field.
So they have these pure,
very fresh perspectives on things,
they see things that I would never have seen.
They ask questions I wouldn't even think of asking.
They really keep me on their toes with their curiosity
and their puzzlement about things,
just their sheer energy.
I definitely become a better researcher
for having involve them in my work.
Blair Pugliese: Personally the most valuable thing
that I've learned is professionalism.
Number one,
it gets you very far when you're working
with other adults but it also really gets you far
with children as well.
Cynthia DeJesus: It's just it's open doors,
I have to say it's, it's really reaffirms my profession.
Gave me the opportunity to to start being a professional.
You know being in charge of the data
and meeting other teachers and being responsible.
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