Instructional Media Center
Education Research for MAT Students
The Research Process in General
McIntyre Library’s website has many guides in the Research Assistance pages. Ones that may be of particular interest:
Finding Education Books
What's where?
Education research materials can be found in three places in McIntyre library:
- The IMC professional collection (lower level)--hands-on, lesson-planning type books
- The main stacks (usually in the LB section on 4th floor)--books that discuss and explore research in education
- The reference collection (1st floor)--dictionaries, directories, encyclopedias, research guides,
and school law
- Education handbooks and encyclopedias (NOT a complete list of our holdings)
Suggested Subject headings
Try these searches (be sure to change the search from keyword to subject):
- Literature—study and teaching
- Reader-response criticism
- Reading
- Composition (language arts)
- English language Composition and exercises
Limiting a search to the IMC or reference location
- Leave the textbox empty and click on “Go” at the library’s “Library Catalog Quick Search” on the homepage.
- Click on the drop-down menu arrow next to the “No Limits” textbox and select “IMC” or “reference."
- Enter keywords and search.
Using a more advanced builder search
- Leave the textbox empty and click on “Go” at the library’s “Library Catalog Quick Search” on the homepage.
- Select the “Builder Search” tab.
- Enter keywords and search after checking to see:
- If Boolean operators should be changed (AND, OR, NOT).
- If using a phrase, change the drop-down menu from “any of these” next to the keyword to “all of these” (results must have all the words in the phrase, but not necessarily in that order) or “as a phrase” (results must match what was typed) for a narrower search.
- To limit to the IMC from here, click on the yellow “More limit options” button on the far right lower corner, then select “CRIM IMC” location and click on “Set Limits.”
Additional tips
- Be specific in your keyword search. Instead of "social studies," try " geography," "history," "political science." Better yet, "elections,” "United States history--Revolution, 1775-1783,” "France."
- Add the PHRASE "study and teaching" to your keyword search to bring up education materials, not literature about a subject.
- When an item is found that is appropriate, scroll down to the subjects. Clicking on them leads to other materials with the same subject headings that may also be of use.
- More information on how to use the catalog here.
Need more materials?
Request a book from any UW System library using Universal Borrowing. It’s free, and the books arrive in 2-3 days. The link is off of the library’s homepage. More information on Universal Borrowing here.
Finding Education Articles and Journals
Each database uses its own subject terms, so the keywords that create a successful search in one database may not work in another database. Be ready with synonyms and use the database thesauruses to check your terms for the most accurate, successful searches.
Core and More: Recommended databases for education research
- From library homepage, click on “Article Search.”
- Click on “Core and More.”
- Click on “Education” (depending on the topic, “English Core and More” may also be appropriate).
- Recommended databases for scholarly research in education: Education Full Text, ERIC (EBSCO), Academic Search Elite.
Tips for using Education Full Text
- Results can be limited to peer-reviewed articles by checking the box on the lower right of the screen. Otherwise, peer-reviewed articles are identified with a mortarboard hat icon.
- Print/e-mail/save options are located either at the top or on left.
- Use the “Back” button at the bottom of the entry instead of the browser button.
- TO USE THE THESAURUS
Click on the button on the left menu bar, then enter the first keyword. Matches and related topics will be listed, and any of the terms can be clicked on for more related terms. To build a search query from here:- Put a check next to the term.
- Click back on “Thesaurus” to search a new terms (the old ones will be saved).
- When all the keywords have been entered, click on “Get Marked” at the bottom of the screen to see your search.
- Click on “Search Marked Subjects” to execute it.
- TO ACCESS THE TEXT OF THE ARTICLES
- Click on the "html full text" or "pdf" icon to get the article.
- Articles that do not have the html or pdf icons may still be available through different resources in the library. Clicking on Find It! link launches a search through all the library’s other databases and print holdings for the article.
- If the article is available in another database, the message will say, “Full text available via…” Click on the database name to get to the article.
- If a print copy is available, the message will say, “Print version in…” Click on the link to see where in the library it is located.
- More information on using Find It! here.
Tips for using ERIC (EBSCO)
- ERIC contains indexes and abstracts from education and education-related journals and
from professional papers, reports, and documents. Journal articles have an “EJ
number” and documents have an "ED number.”
If the ED item is not available in the database, note it and check the library microfiche holdings on 2nd floor. We have most ED numbered items, but they are not linked online.
Print/e-mail/save options are at the top of the article.
- TO USE THE THESAURUS
Click on the “Thesaurus” button on the top menu bar, then type your term in the “Browse for” box (under the “Find” box). Use the radial button under the “Browse for” box to switch to “Term contains.” Matches and related topics will be listed, and any of the terms can be clicked on for more information. To build a search query from here:- Click on “Add” to add it to your search above.
- Browse for additional term and add them to the search string, making sure the Boolean operator (AND, OR, NOT) is the one you want next to the “Add” button.
- TO ACCESS THE TEXT OF THE ARTICLE
- Click on the full text icon to get the article.
- Articles that do not have the icon may still be available through different resources in the library. You can find out by clicking on the Find It! link. More information on using Find It! here.
Tips for using Academic Search Elite
- This is also an EBSCO product, so looks very similar to ERIC, but it DOES search different journals and it DOES use different subject headings. These subject heading can be explored in the thesaurus, which works the same as the one in ERIC.
- It is possible to limit a search to peer-reviewed items by clicking the “Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals” box.
The article’s not available?
Request it through ILLiad, the library’s interlibrary loan system. Requests need to be limited to 4 per week, and may take up to two weeks to arrive, so plan ahead. There is a $4 charge for each item that is NOT picked up. More information on interlibrary loan here.
Using Citation Linker
Once an article or books is found that covers the research topic, be sure to look at its own bibliography of resources. In many cases, these can be sought out to add to your research materials. Citation Linker can search through all of our databases and our library print resources for a specific article at once. To do this:
- From the library homepage, click on “Article Search”, then on “Citation Linker.”
- It’s not necessary to fill in all the spaces. The search works best if you enter the article title, journal title, date, volume, issue and starting page number.
- The results come up in a window that is similar to Find It!
Remote Access
- All the library’s online resources can be accessed off-campus as well. An additional window will pop up before connecting to a specific database. The UW login and password is the same as the webmail one.
- Additionally, through the library catalog, it’s possible to view a listing of all the materials you have checked out, renew materials (if renewals are permitted for a particular type of item), check on the status of any fines/fees you owe, and place holds and recalls on McIntyre Library materials by clicking on the “My Account” link next to the “Library Catalog Quick Search” box on the library’s homepage. More information about using your account here.
