Compare & Contrast of Studies

¶ … traits and factors. These traits and factors will include this short introduction, a review of the design of the studies, the rationale of the studies, the results from the studies, a critique of the studies, whether the research questions and their method of answering make sense, the overall research questions and hypothesis in each study, the measurement and instrumentation in each study, the sampling procedures in each study and the ethical considerations in each study. While the two studies are the same in some respects, they are also very different.

The Lin and Bates procedures did the first home visit after the sixth week of the semester and the participants were given any guidelines. The participants chose the families that they wanted to visit and they gathered the information that they thought would prepare them to better serve children and families in different cultures. In the Lanigan study, it was done over three years with fifty-four providers who were members of three geographically diverse areas. Focus groups were held over three years.

In terms of rationale, the Lanigan study examples family child care providers' perspectives regarding the subject of effective professional development. The Lin and Bates study focused on the impact of home visits on a group of six Head Start educators. The results from the Lin and Bates study show that the home visits were very positive in their impact and that this was not a subject of debate, really.

There were a total of four takeaways from the other study, that being the Lanigan study, which were the value of relationship, elements of effective professional development, improvement in quality and professionalism. Regarding a critique of the studies, there are a few things that can be said. The Lanigan study is correct and proper in focusing on family child care provider perspectives. The perspectives of everyone involved matters and this would include the parents, the administrators, the children involved and so forth.

However, it has to be recognized that some perspectives and desires are ill-informed or improper (especially with impulsive children), so reading too much or too little into what certain people think can be problematic. On the other study, the lack of guidance is a good and a bad thing. It makes things more spontaneous but it can also make things chaotic.

Regarding the research questions and the hypothesis, both studies were a bit on the vague side in terms of the questions they asked and the things they focused on but their sample was both big and small enough to make good conclusions. Measurement and instrumentation can be fickle with qualitative studies but both of these studies seemed to be done fine.

The sample and overall methodology for the studies was solid but the entire point of the questions and so forth could have been refined a bit on both of them. Things are a little too general with not quite enough specificity. Finally, there were no obvious ethical.