This Libguide serves as an introductory resource for graduate-level research in Education.
Here you will find steps to guide you through the research process, along with resources that may be useful. The resources you use may differ based on your topic. If you aren't sure what resources to use or where to search, you can email me, Jessica Louque, at louque@ulm.edu.
What We Think Research and Writing Are Like:
What Research and Writing Are Actually Like:
Before you jump into using library resources and scholarly sources, it helps to learn more about your topic, brainstorm possibilities for narrowing it down, list keywords related to your topic and identify any questions you have.
This may seem like something you can skip because "I know how to do research - I'm a Graduate student", but each of these steps is important - working through them and writing everything down will help you throughout the process.
There are 7 steps to getting started with your research:
How do these general steps relate to your specific project? Understanding what you know and don't know and having a clear idea about how to start finding information about what you don't know, is vital to helping you find, choose, and make sense of your sources.
Topic: Information Literacy Instruction
Possible Initial Research Question(s):
Questions I have:
Does introducing technology (videos, apps, polls, games, etc.) increase engagement or overwhelm students with "one more thing to learn how to use"?
Answering Your Research Question:
If I tweak my research question to “What are some technologies that increase student engagement in information literacy instruction, and how do these technologies impact learning outcomes?” You can do a cursory search of the literature to see if the literature answers this question and how. If it doesn't, you might need to re-work your research question. Remember that research questions should be clear, focused, concise, open-ended, complex, and arguable. In this case, some articles discussed various active learning and interactive classroom technologies that increased student engagement in information literacy instruction, and it might be helpful to find articles that discuss how student engagement with the technologies impacted learning outcomes and give evidence from the literature.
Thesis Statements:
College student engagement increases in information literacy instruction through active learning and interactive classroom technologies, which increase student learning outcomes. Look for articles that reflect your thesis statement and provide evidence. If you cannot find what you need in the literature, revise your thesis statement, and if needed your research question.
Keywords:
Find Background Information:
Use background information to learn more about your topic. In this case, research different interactive and active learning technologies that are used in the college classroom. Then use what you find to add keywords to your list.
Revisit Keywords List:
Possible Database Searches:
Use the Advanced Search feature in your database of choice and combine keywords with the Boolean operators AND, OR, or NOT.
Hint: In Advanced Search, use the individual search boxes to keep your keywords separate.
Box 1: "information literacy" AND Box 2: "student engagement" or "learner engagement" AND Box 3: ("instructional technology" or "educational technology" or "interactive technology" or "classroom technology" or clickers or games)
Note: All of these keywords did not fit in the example below. View the "Search Strategies" tab in this guide for more database search tips. When you combine two keywords or keyword phrases with the Boolean operator, OR the database will search for articles with either or both of these terms.
Background Information: Do a preliminary search on your topic on the web to get some background and learn about the language and terms that are used for the topic. Also, search some of our reference and general databases below to learn more about your topic.
Credo Reference is a general reference solution for learners and librarians. Offering 551 hundred highly-regarded titles from over 70 publishers; Credo General Reference covers every major subject. Credo Reference is an online reference service made up of full-text books from the world's best publishers. It's a great source to consult when trying to determine a topic for your research paper.
Scholarly and Topic-specific Sources: Search Education and other specific databases to find out what researchers are writing about on a topic, and how their questions have been answered.
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