CIMA 700 Educational Inquiry and Electronic Research Technologies

This page has:

- Identifying key concepts and synonyms or alternative terms
- Using ERIC descriptors and truncating terms
- Using concepts to search ERIC

Step 1: Identifying Key Concepts and Synonyms in the Topic

Before you can search for appropriate articles for your bibliography, you need to identify the key concepts in your research topic, and identify any synonyms or alternative terms. Let's look at the first five topics in your syllabus:

Step 1: Identify the key concepts in your research topic.

For example: Increasing Comprehension Skills of At-Risk High School Freshmen Students

		OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms
Concept 1	comprehension	OR	critical thinking	OR	brainstorming	OR	troubleshooting
AND
Concept 2	skills	OR	skill	OR	ability	OR	abilities
AND
Concept 3 AND	at risk	OR	high risk	OR	potential dropouts	OR	special needs
AND
Concept 4	high school	OR	high schools	OR	secondary education	OR
AND
Concept 5	freshmen	OR	freshman	OR	Grade 9	OR	ninth grade

Developing Mathematics Thinking Skills Among Pre-School Children Through a Program of Free Constructive Play

	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms
Concept 1	mathematics	OR	math
AND
Concept 2	thinking skill*	OR	thinking abilit*	OR	cognitive processes
AND
Concept 3	kindergarten	OR	early childhood	OR	pre-school	OR	preschools
AND
Concept 4	play	OR	constructive play	OR	free constructive play	OR	free play

Implementation of a Program to Promote Secondary Science Research Education

	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms
Concept 1	secondary education	OR	Grade 7 or Grade 8 or Grade 9 or	OR	high schools OR high school	OR	middle schools OR middle school	OR	junior high
AND
Concept 2	science OR sciences	OR	math OR mathematics	Or	chemistry	OR	physics	OR	biology
AND
Concept 3	program	OR	programs
AND
Concept 4	research	OR	research studies	OR	scientific research

Implementation of a Mentorship Program to Improve the Academic Achievement of African American Male High School Students

	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms
Concept 1	mentor OR mentors	OR	mentorship OR mentoring	OR	modeling	OR	shadowing
AND
Concept 2	academic achievement	OR	academic progress	OR	academic success	OR	student achievement
AND
Concept 3	African American OR African Americans	OR	black OR blacks	OR	minority group OR minority groups	OR	ethnic group OR ethnic groups
AND
Concept 4	male OR males	OR	boy OR boys	OR	masculine	OR
AND
Concept 5	high school OR high schools	PR	secondary education	OR	ninth grade OR tenth grade OR eleventh grade OR twelfth grade	OR	Grade 9 OR Grade 10 OR Grade 11 OR Grade 12

Step 2: Identify ERIC Descriptors and Truncated Terms

Step 2: Identify any synonyms or alternative terms. You can look at the ERIC thesaurus for ideas.

You can have more focused results if you identify the ERIC descriptors. These are the subject headings or index terms used by ERIC to locate other resources on the same topic. You can use the ERIC Thesaurus to identify terms.

You can include more alternatives if you truncate words with various spellings. For example, you can use child* to find child, children, childhood, childless, childish, etc. In other words, you use the asterisk (For example, child* ) to look for those letters as the root or stem in other word.

Increasing Comprehension Skills of At-Risk High School Freshmen Students -- ERIC Descripters in Yellow

	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms
Concept 1	comprehension	OR	critical thinking	OR	understanding	OR	cognitive processes	OR	metacognitive
AND
Concept 2	skill*	OR	abilit*
AND
Concept 3	at risk	OR	high risk	OR	remedial	OR	Special needs	OR	potential dropouts
AND
Concept 4	high school*	OR	secondary education	OR	secondary schools	OR	secondary students
AND
Concept 5	freshman	OR	freshmen	OR	Grade 9	OR	ninth grade

Developing Mathematics Thinking Skills Among Pre-School Children Through a Program of Free Constructive Play

	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms
Concept 1	mathematics	OR	math*
AND
Concept 2	thiking skill*	OR	thinking ability	OR	cognitive processes
AND
Concept 3	kindergarten	OR	early childhood	OR	pre-school	OR	preschool
AND
Concept 4	play	OR	constructive play	OR	free constructive play	OR	free play

Implementation of a Program to Promote Secondary Science Research Education

	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms
Concept 1	secondary education OR secondary schools OR secondary students	OR	high school*	OR	middle school*	OR	junior high	OR	Grade 7 or Grade 8 or Grade 9 or Grade 10 or Grade 11 or Grade 12
AND
Concept2	science*	OR	physics	OR	biology	OR	chemistry	OR	mathematics
AND
Concept 3	program*
AND
Concept 4	research	OR	scientfic research	OR	research studies

Implementation of a Mentorship Program to Improve the Academic Achievement of African American Male High School Students

	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms	OR	Alternative terms or synonyms
Concept 1	mentor*	OR	coaching	OR	modeling	OR	shadowing
AND
Concept 2	academic achievement	OR	academic progress	OR	academic success	OR	student achievement
AND
Concept 3	African American*	OR	black*	OR	ethnic group*	OR	minority group*
AND
Concept 4	male*	OR	man OR men	OR	boy*
AND
Concept 5	high school*	OR	secondary education OR secondary students OR secondary schools	OR	Grade 9 OR Grade 10 OR Grade 11 OR Grade 12

Using the Concepts to Search in ERIC

Example 1 -- Keyword search in ERIC (CSA) using key concepts and synonyms:

Example 2: Using descriptors and truncated keywords to search in ERIC: