Library Guides: Education: K-12: Recommended resources

Dictionaries and encyclopaedias

A Dictionary of Education by Wallace, S.
Publication Date: 2015
The Greenwood Dictionary of Education by Collins, J., & O'Brien, N.
Publication Date: 2011
The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar by Chalker, S., Weiner, E. (Eds).
Publication Date: 2014

Quick links

eBook collections

Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
A huge multi-disciplinary database in the EBSCOhost platform that covers just about all the disciplines and subjects taught and studied at Charles Sturt University.
It includes article records and summaries from more than 12,500 full-text periodicals, and of these, more than 8,500 have full-text as well. There are also records and summaries from more than 13,200 other publications, including books, reports, and conference proceedings.

Subjects covered include nearly all areas of academic study, including arts & literature, business, computer sciences, education, engineering, environmental science, ethnic studies, language & linguistics, medical sciences, science, social sciences, and theology.

Coverage varies with publication title but extends back to 1887.

The database is updated daily.

Academic Research Complete is one of many databases available in EBSCOhost. EBSCOhost also has a number of subject-specific databases, and the Library gives access to packages of subject-related databases in EBSCOhost.

Once on the EBSCOhost search screen, you can change databases by clicking on the Choose Databases link above the search boxes. All EBSCOhost databases can be searched individually or in any combination.
International Children's Digital Library This link opens in a new window
A free online "library for the world's children".
The ICDL's stated mission is to "support the world's children in becoming effective members of the global community ... by making the best in children's literature available online free of charge".

The ICDL provides free access to children's books from around the world. It contains literature for 3 to 13 year-olds in a range of languages, and is fully searchable.

The collection is intended for parents, librarians, teachers, and researchers, as well as for children.
Oxford Academic - Books This link opens in a new window
Previously available as Oxford Scholarship Online eBooks, this is the eBooks collection within Oxford Academic. Charles Sturt has access to approximately 2000 eBooks across a range of subjects, with unlimited user access.
In Oxford Academic - Books you can search using basic or advanced search, or browse the journals by subject area. The top-level subject areas are:
• Arts & Humanities
• Law
• Medicine & Health
• Science & Mathematics
• Social Sciences.

You can filter your results by various criteria, including availability, format, subject, and publication date.

Charles Sturt does not have full-text access to all content on the site. In results lists, availability is designated by icons: full-text availability is indicated by a green Unlocked (Purchased) icon, a green Free icon, or an Open Access icon. Items that are NOT available to Charles Sturt users are marked with a blue Get access label. You can filter results by availability.

The search box gives you the option to search across the whole of Oxford Academic or the Journals collection. You can also access these at Oxford Academic and Oxford Academic - Journals.
ProQuest eBook Central This link opens in a new window
A huge and constantly growing multidisciplinary collection of eBooks. This collection is the Library’s largest collection of eBooks, and covers many of the subjects taught at Charles Sturt.
There are sometimes restrictions on the use of these eBooks. With high-demand items where there is a limit on concurrent users, we recommend that you find and download what you need and then close off the book/browser window to free up the licence for someone else. For a demonstration of how to do this, please see the Library’s short eBooks etiquette video. There are usually limitations on how much you can download and copy, but these should reset after 24 hours.

Some books are available for full download. If you wish to download a ProQuest eBook Central eBook to your computer, you need the free software Adobe Digital Editions. To download to a device, you need a free app: Bluefire Reader or Aldiko Book Reader (for android only).

For help with using this collection, see the ProQuest Ebook Central page in the Library’s eBooks guide. It includes a link to ProQuest’s own guide on the collection, and has embedded videos from ProQuest on the online reader and on downloads.
Taylor and Francis eBooks This link opens in a new window
A collection of eBooks on a range of topics, covering the humanities & social sciences.
Charles Sturt Library does not subscribe to all the eBooks in this collection, so you might get many results that are not available in full-text. These are marked with a locked padlock icon on a grey background.

You can filter (refine) your results to show only those that are available in full-text. These are marked with an unlocked padlock icon on a blue background.

When you have applied a filter, that filter persists in your searching until you remove it. This can assist in finding full-text material.

You can filter results by other criteria as well, including by subject and by date.

When you access an eBook, you can read it online (opens in a new browser window) or download it (opens the entire book in Adobe Reader).
IGI Global / InfoSci-Books This link opens in a new window
IGI Global / Info Sci-Books is a research collection of thousands of scholarly works on information technology and computer science. The collection is mainly eBooks but also includes more than 150 eJournals. Results are available at chapter/article level.
IGI Global is a publisher of books, journals, and other materials in the areas of education, social science, library science, healthcare, business, environmental science, public administration, computer science, and engineering.

The collection here includes both eBooks (InfoSci-Books), and eJournals (InfoSci-Journals), and also a small collection of eBooks on library science (Library Information Science). These are all options in the Research Collections panel.

The default screen is the list of eBooks but you can change to the list of eJournals, or you can choose to search or browse across the whole database. To do this, click on Database Search in the E-Database Tools panel.

See more tips on finding and using eBooks.

Library databases

A+ Education This link opens in a new window
An Australian Informit database of citations, article summaries, and full-text articles covering all aspects of education, particularly Australian education. The link here will take you to the Informit platform with A+ Education selected.
A+ Education is based on the Australian Education Index (AEI), which is an indexing and abstracting database produced by the Cunningham Library at the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

Of the 700+ journals indexed in AEI, there are 200+ comprehensively indexed journals and it is from these that the full-text articles in A+ Education are mainly sourced. There are more than 190,000 index records, including 48,000 full text articles available as PDFs or as links to material available on the Web.

Other source documents include monographs, research reports, theses, conference papers, legislation, parliamentary debates, newspaper articles, and Internet material. Articles and reports by Australian authors or about Australian education published in overseas sources are also included.

Subject coverage includes curriculum, educational research, information science, librarianship, management, policy administration, psychology, sociology, teaching, and training.

Coverage: Indexed 1978-; Full text 2000 - .

Your searching from this link will be within A+ Education only. You can change the database(s) you are searching using the Change Databases button. Unless you have changed databases, you will continue to search in A+ Education. When you have run a search, your results list will include, at the top, which database(s) you have searched in.

You can use Basic Search or Advanced Search. Advanced Search offers more options for searching, and more limiters. When you have run a search, there are further options for filtering your results. For searching help, there is a useful set of Search Tips at the bottom of the Advanced Search Screen.
EBSCOhost (Education) This link opens in a new window
A package of five EBSCOhost databases, all of which include Education-related material and a considerable amount of full-text content. Includes the important education database, ERIC.
The databases are:

* Academic Search Complete;
* Education Research Complete;
* ERIC;
* Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection;
* SocINDEX with Full Text.

All EBSCOhost databases can be searched individually or in any combination.
ERIC - Education Resources Information Center (EBSCOhost version) This link opens in a new window
ERIC is the largest education database in the world, and is sponsored by the U.S. Dept of Education. It is available here as an EBSCOhost database, with much material available in full-text.
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) is one of many databases available in the EBSCOhost platform, but is also available elsewhere as well (see below). Established in 1966, ERIC is an online digital library of education research and information. It is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. It provides extensive access to educational-related literature, and is said to be the largest education database in the world. It includes more than 1.3 million bibliographic records.

There are two types of ERIC content:
* Journal articles (EJ). Most are from peer-reviewed journals, and many are available in full-text, depending on the version of ERIC being used (see below).
* ERIC Documents (ED). These consist of materials from a range of sources, including scholarly organisations, professional associations, research centres, policy organisations, University Presses, the U.S. Department of Education and other U.S. federal agencies, and state and local agencies. They include conference papers, research papers, dissertations, theses, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, and books. Many are available in full-text.

Subject coverage includes:
* Adult, career and vocational education
* Counselling
* Elementary and early childhood education
* Education management
* Higher education
* Junior colleges
* Second-language learning
* Special education
* Teacher education
* Tests, measurement, and evaluation

A thesaurus is available to assist with subject-searching.

Charles Sturt Library has access to ERIC via 2 different platforms/interfaces. In addition to this EBSCOhost version, ERIC is also available via the ERIC website. These versions differ in their interface, the frequency of updating, and the amount of full-text content.

ERIC's own website includes fewer links to full-text but is updated more regularly and does have extra information about ERIC as a resource.
ProQuest Education Database This link opens in a new window
A ProQuest database of around 900 journals, including more than 600 in full-text. This database can, and probably should, be used in conjunction with ERIC (ProQuest version).
ProQuest Education Database is one of many databases available in the ProQuest platform.

Subject coverage includes not only primary, secondary, and higher education, but also special needs education, home schooling, adult education, teacher education, and other related topics.

Once you are in the ProQuest platform, you can change to any other ProQuest database by clicking on the hamburger menu at the top left of screen, then on Change databases. Other education-related databases in ProQuest include the important education database, ERIC. You can, and probably should search ProQuest Education Journals and ERIC together, to exploit the advantages of each.
Taylor and Francis Online This link opens in a new window
Multi-subject database of journal articles, with most available in full-text.
Taylor & Francis Online is a one-stop site hosting the full text of hundreds of eJournals published by a range of publishers including Taylor & Francis, Routledge, Psychology Press, Lawrence Erlbaum, Haworth Press, and Multilingual Matters.

From the home page you can search using Basic or Advanced Search, or browse for journals by subject category. Most of the subjects taught at Charles Sturt University are represented in the list of 30 disciplines. Advanced Search offers a range of searching options and limiters, and a Citation Search.

One of the benefits of Taylor & Francis Online to users is that it closes the embargo gap for a large number of eJournals that are otherwise available via EBSCOhost - that is, it provides the full-text of recent issues of journals which are not available (for the most recent 12 months) in EBSCOhost.

While most articles are available in full, a standard search might return results that are citation-only. In your results list, full-text availability is indicated by a white tick in a green triangle at the bottom right of the brief record. If you get a result where there is no full-text available, click on the Find link to search for the full item in other Library-subscribed resources.

Results lists include a tick-box refiner for Only show content I have full access to.

See all Education and Teaching databases.

Need some help with understanding how to use Library databases? See our Database Help Guide.

Websites

Getting ready to teach: Professional requirements

ACER Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students
Administered by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students must be successfully undertaken by education students prior to graduation. Includes information on how to register, prepare for and sit the exam.
NSW Office of the Children's Guardian: Working With Children Check (WWCC)
The WWCC is a requirement of those working with children in a volunteer or paid capacity. Learn more about the Check and start the application process online.
NESA Teacher Accreditation overview
NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) is the professional body for teacher accreditation. See the 'Becoming a teacher in NSW' card to learn about getting accredited for the first time.
NSW Department of Education: Approval to teach
Useful information when looking ahead to your teaching career. This resource from the NSW Government explains the process you will need to follow to apply for 'approval to teach', once you have your tertiary qualification; a valid WWCC; and NESA ID (conditional accreditation). Relevant to those planning to teach in NSW Government schools.

School attainment

National Assessment Program: Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)
Provides information on how students, schools and school systems are performing against national standards via an annual assessment undertaken by all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. NAPLAN, in the Literacy and Numeracy
HSC Minimum Standards
NESA resource on the HSC Minimum Standards that students must meet in NSW before receiving the HSC. Typically administered in Year 10, students demonstrate skills in reading, writing and numeracy. This provides an overview of the tests and includes resources for schools.
About the HSC
Provides an overview of the Higher School Certificate (HSC) which students work towards in years 11 and 12. Includes details about the HSC courses offered, along with the setting, delivery, marking and moderation of exams.

Professional organisations

PETAA - Primary English Teaching Association Australia
PETAA is a national, not-for-profit professional association supporting primary school educators in the teaching and learning of English and literacies across the curriculum.
Australian association for Research in Education (AARE)
AARE is a large, national, member-run organisation for improving education at all levels.
Australian Literacy Educator's association
An independent professional association dedicated to literacy and English language learning from early childhood through all stages of schooling and tertiary education contexts.

Other websites

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA)
The state government education statutory authority with the responsibility for the establishment and monitoring of quality teaching, learning, assessment and school standards in New South Wales. NESA replaced the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards NSW (BOSTES) on 1 January 2017.
Scootle
Digital resources to support the Australian Curriculum for Australian teachers; students and staff of Australian universities and TAFEs; and the members of specialty professional associations.
Department of Education
The Australian Government department responsible for national policies and programmes that help Australians access quality and affordable childcare; early childhood education, school education, post-school, higher education, international education and academic research.
Education Services (ABS)
The Education Services Unit aims to promote statistical literacy by creating resources for use in schools.

Industry Resources

Australian Education Departments

Department of Education
Australian federal government department of education. Includes policies, legislation, publications and resources for education in Australia.
NSW Department of Education
NSW state government department of education. Includes relevant policies, legislation, resources and organisations.
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA)
An independent authority providing a national approach to education through the national curriculum, national assessment program and national data collection and reporting program.

Legislation

Australian Child Protection Legislation
Provides links to state/territory specific Child Protection legislation, identifies the principal act and other relevant legislation. Key principles of the legislation are briefly listed.
Pre-employment Screening: Working with Children Checks and Police Checks
Outlines information specific to each state/territory regarding the relevant child safety screening legislation, including the settings where employees are required to undergo pre-employment screening.