RES 8100 The Nature of Knowing

Start your research in ERIC (ProQuest)

TIP: When searching ERIC (ProQuest) for research articles use the Document Type box in the Advanced Search to narrow down your results. By checking the box next to Reports - Research (143) you will only get back, "Original research, technical research, reports, studies, empirical results, experimental statistical studies, surveys, case studies, theory testing, systematic scientific investigations, seeking facts and/or generalizable principles. Emphasis on materials utilizing a formal research design, but may include informal reports and verbal presentations of such efforts. Includes proposals for needed research." For a more detailed description of what else you can limit to by using the Document Type box, download this pdf.

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: Problem solving skills of kindergarten children

NOTE: Use ERIC descriptors to narrow your search results.

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.

Problem solving skills of kindergarten children  -- ERIC Descriptors in Yellow

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

ERIC indexes a variety of types of educational resources, and you can use the Document Type field to locate specific types of resources with research, numerical information, data, and/or reports. In the example, I also used ERIC subject headings to locating resources specifically on the topics on either critical thinking or problem solving. Use the Education Level to limit your results to specific grade levels.

Here is a direct link to the ERIC database for searching:

ERIC (ProQuest)  

If you need statistics or data to document an educational problem or need, try the following:

Websites:

• Florida Department of Education    
• National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)  
• National Education Association (NEA)  
• U.S. Department of Education