Introduction
There are different educational programs that may help parents prepare their children to school. It is significant to choose the right one. Every parent should make this choice on one’s own. However, there are different article and books written for one or another program. This essay is aimed on solving the problem, which program suits better for a child: the head start program or the Montessori program. The research is aimed on parents who has not made up their minds yet. The research paper is aimed on presenting clear evidence for both programs and help parents make their choice.
Purpose Statement
There has been many books written on both of the programs. Some scientists are for the head start program and again the Montessori one; some scientists have the opposite opinion. First, parents claim that the Montessori program is rather expensive and children do not receive all the necessary skills. On the contrary, some parents claim that the head start program does not prepare children to school. The head start and Montessori programs are programs for children of different society layers. Children from rich families are educated according to the Montessori program, whereas children from poor families visit kindergartens where teachers practice the head start program.
The aim of this qualitative research is to discover differences between the given programs and help parents choose between them. Nowadays many parents face such a problem as choosing the program according to which a child will study. This qualitative research is aimed on presenting reliable data to help parents make a choice. Besides, the qualitative research is aimed on describing peculiarities of the programs. The research is rather significant because, as it has been mentioned above, the data presented will help parents make a choice between the programs. For every parent it is essential that a child grows up smart and ready for school. The participants of the qualitative research will be parents whose children are educated according to one or another program. Besides, children should be involved as well. Children as well as parents will have a questionnaire.
Methodology
The main idea of the research is to help parents make up their minds and not pay too much for preschool education. Every research should be based on the data collected by the researcher. In this case the methodology part will contain methods that may be used while conducting the research.
There are different methods of analyzing the information. They all are divided into different types. In the end, according to the results received, it will be clear what recommendations programmers should follow to make tracking devices more perfect. The research methods are the following ones:
- A quantitative method;
- A qualitative method;
- Interviewing:
- Face-to-face interviews;
- Telephone interviews;
- Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI);
- Questionnaires:
- Paper-pencil questionnaires;
- Web based questionnaires.
Qualitative methods of research are the most used in social, ethnical or educational studies. In this research, I will combine qualitative methods with quantitative ones. Quantitative methods will be used to calculate the data. Two methods of qualitative research will be used: participant observation. In this case, children will become little researches and help answer several questions. The second method that will be used is the interviewing of parents. In this research I will analyze the attitude of children and their parents to the programs and try to define advantages and disadvantages of the both. The purpose of the research is to provide parents with the information on each of the programs and help them make their choice. For me it is significant to understand whether it matters if parents pay much money for preschool education or not. Parents usually think that the more they pay for preschool education, the better their child will be ready for school and the better his marks will be.
The first step in the research will be to make up two questionnaires: for children and their parents. The second step will be to find kindergartens that work on the programs. The third step will be to present the research to kindergarten authorities and ask for their permission. The next step will be to find the participants.
Participants
In the conducted research, I have used such methods as questionnaire. The qualitative research was held online. Parents on different forums were proposed to answer several question help understand which program is better. I understand that such research may not be objective because not every parent was interviewed. Hence, the face-to-face interview was held in kindergartens. There were one hundred parents who answered the questions in the face-to-face interview and a thousand parents who answered the questionnaire in Internet. Parents had several questions to answer “yes” and “no”. It was significant for the research to find reliable participants. Hence, parents whose children were educated according on one or another program were participating. Besides, parents were asked to leave their feedback and express their impressions.
When choosing participants for the research, it will be significant to find parents who have objective point of view. Obviously, it is rather difficult to find those who have an objective point of view. Hence, for my research I will try to find parents who have two children, one of whom is educated according to Montessori program and the other according to the head start program. Obviously, it is not an easy task. Hence, the other part of participants will be those parents who were making their choice between the programs. For sure, they have read many articles about both of the programs and have several arguments on the issue. There will be five hundred parents and the same amount of children. Half of children will be educated according to program the head start; the other half will be educated according to Montessori program.
Data Sources
Qualitative research means that a researcher should collect data and analyze it. There are several methods of qualitative research. The researcher can look through documents and different materials; besides, the researches may held interviews. In this case, it is significant to understand not only differences and similarities in the programs. The idea is to help parents choose. Hence, to proceed the data, the researcher should use the quantitative research method as well.
The good thing is that the research will be reliable and valid. The point is that there will be one thousand participants (parents and children), which is a rather significant amount. Obviously, objective research may not be provided because every parents and every child has one’s own opinion. However, I claim that the results will be reliable and valid because of the amount of participants. When the data is collected, the last step is to analyze them. For data analysis, I will use the method of quantitative research. I will need to calculate the number of positive and negative answers and present the results in graphs.
Conclusion
The qualitative research will be aimed on helping parents make their choice when deciding what kindergarten to choose for a child. Besides, the results of the research will show whether it matters how much parents pay for preschool education (if they pay anything). Parents tend to believe that the more they pay the better education the child receives. However, it is not always true. The qualitative research will be based on the method of participant observation (children will answer questions) and the observation of nonparticipants (parents).
Appendix
Questionnaire for children
1. do you like being at a kindergarten?
2. do you have many friends?
3. are you willing to go to school?
4. what do you study at the kindergarten?
5. can you read?
6. do your parents spend much time with you at home?
7. do you have a home assignment?
Questionnaire for parents
1. do you spend much time with children at home?
2. do you encourage children to be creative?
3. does your child tell you about all the events in the kindergarten?
4. is your child ready for school?
5. can your child read?
6. do you help your child make home assignments (if he or she has any)?
7. is your child satisfied with his or her preschool education?
Resources:
Pan M. (n.d.) Head start and Montessori. Retrieved from http://sitemaker.umich.edu/pan.356/home
