Library Guides: EPT127 Research Skills Guide: Develop your skills

Welcome

Welcome to your EPT127 English Curriculum: Pedagogies in the Early Years of Learning Research Skills Guide. Each section in this Guide introduces the steps you should take when researching for an assessment. You'll find links to videos and resources that will give you the tools to find reliable and relevant information. Use the activities on the test your knowledge tab to see what you need to revise.

If you would like an introduction to our Library website and services please visit:

Watch: Online Library 101

Getting started with your assessment

The first thing is to make sure you clearly understand the task and what topic you are seeking information for, this is called topic analysis. Remember to check your Subject Outline for detailed information about each task.

With an understanding of your task, you then need to plan how you will search for information. This starts with identifying and brainstorming keywords.

Let's take a look at Assessment 1, which asks you to explain and defend your approach to teaching literacies in a clear, succinct way and to be able to justify your professional practice with reference to theory, ethics and research.

The keywords below are taken from your Subject Outline and have been expanded here to cover synonyms and related concepts. Identifying your keywords and thinking of synonyms and related concepts is a key step in completing a topic analysis and will help you with your searching. The table below includes suggestions for synonyms and is not exhaustive.

Keywords	Synonyms or related terms
Models of Pedagogy	Teaching, learning, constructivist, inquiry-based learning, high impact teaching strategies, Montessori
Early years	Kindergarten, early childhood, young children, foundation
Development	Formation, growth
Literacy	Oral, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, comprehension, grammar, spelling, punctuation, handwriting, fluency, phonics
Technology	digital literacy, ICT, devices, computer assisted learning, interactive apps, digital books, multimedia, gamified learning
evidence-based	research-based teaching, data-driven instruction, empirical teaching methods
diverse	diversity, multicultural literacy, inclusive literacy, cross-cultural, multilingual

For guidance in topic analysis check out:

Create a search strategy

When you search using Primo Search or a library database use the keywords and limits you identified above to create your search. Combine the keywords with search operators, rather than searching with a whole sentence or question. Search operators tell Primo or the database how to search with your keywords.

For your assessment topic potential search strings could include:

(pedagogy OR teach*) AND "phonemic awareness"
Teach* AND ("early childhood" OR kindergarten) AND phonemic
(teach* OR educat*) AND (kindergarten OR "young children") AND "text comprehension"
pedagog* AND "early years" AND "literacy develop* AND multimedia

Remember: you will need to try a range of searches. Don't stop after just one.

To understand how search operators work check out:

Choose the right place to search

Before you start searching, think about what types of information you need and where you can search to find those types of resources. There are several different resources that you can use for this assessment, and it's good to know what these different resources involve.

Books & ebooks	Provide broad information on topics and useful background research
Journal Articles	Focus on specific aspects of a topic and latest research. May be peer reviewed
Trade/Professional Journals	Written for practitioners in a field. Not peer reviewed
Reference resources	Dictionaries, encyclopaedias. Useful to clarify definitions and when brainstorming keywords
Media resources	Perspective on current events/popular attitudes. Not scholarly, so evaluate carefully
Web resources	Always evaluate. Try domains like .gov and .edu

Primo Search

Primo Search is a good place to start as it allows you to use one search box to bring back results from most of our Library collection including books, ebooks, journal articles, newspaper articles and more. You may get a large number of results and some of these will be from outside your subject or discipline area. Check the content is relevant to your assessment task before you use it.

Library databases

Databases will help you find academic resources and are often subject specific. You will get fewer results than Primo, but they will be more relevant to your subject or discipline.

The following databases are recommended:

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.
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.

The Education & Teaching database list has more databases you can search.

Evaluate

Using credible information will improve the quality of your assessment and may result in better marks, but how can you tell whether the resources you've found are credible and suitable for your assessment? Have you been asked to use peer reviewed, academic or refereed articles? Are you using authoritative websites?

The information below will help you evaluate the information you find, in books, journal articles, or online to make sure it’s reliable.

Reading, writing and referencing

The Academic Skills team can help you to build your writing, referencing and reading skills to be successful at Charles Sturt.

Explore resources from the Academic Skills team in the Learning Skills section of the Student Portal.

Here are some pages to get you started:

Your textbook

Good news!

Your textbook is available online through the library!

Literacy in Australia: Pedagogies for engagement, 3rd Edition by Flint, A. S. et al.
Publication Date: 2019
An observation survey of early literacy achievement by Clay, M. M.
Publication Date: 2019
Understanding and supporting young writers from birth to 8 by Mackenzie, N., & Scull, J. (Eds)
Publication Date: 2018

However access to your textbooks is limited. Follow the best practice in the video below to ensure you have access to what you need without disadvantaging other students in your subject.

Watch: Ebook etiquette

Using AI

Have you been asked to use Generative AI Tools (GAITs) in your assessment? Or are you thinking of using GAITs for research and study?

Make sure you are aware of the risks associated with using GAITs:

Academic integrity
Plagiarism
Inaccurate content
Intellectual property
Privacy concerns.

For more information see:

Library Guide: Generative AI

Microsoft Copilot

You have access to Microsoft Copilot's secure enterprise version while studying at Charles Sturt. This means your data is protected when using the secure version of Copilot via a student account, hence your data isn't retained or used for training the genAI. To find out how to access, head over to Charles Sturt's Microsoft Copilot page.

Keen for more?

If you're interested in finding out more, check out the following:

Last Updated: Dec 20, 2024 2:19 PM
URL: https://libguides.csu.edu.au/EPT127
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