Initial Database Search

Initial search record

Context: I am an experienced database searcher, having completed my undergraduate degree only four years ago. My teaching degree was undertaken at Griffith University which was already fully interfaced with Blackboard and had an expectation of current resources being located via the database search process. Consequently, using Boolean operators to refine searching is not new to me. However, I am not particularly familiar with Google Scholar and other Google features such as Wonder Wheel.

The particular search session I am about to document was undertaken with a predetermined desired outcome in mind. I always try to have a clear focus before I start or I end up spending hours finding general information on a topic, which is interesting but not necessarily useful. Time demands necessitate a more structured approach. Clearly, for the purposes of this unit I need to research both Guided Inquiry and Information Literacy and the relationship between them. Additionally, I am hoping to reduce my work load by discovering articles along the way that I can use for the assignments in Professional Applications of Research (EDN611). Consequently, I wanted to explore the topic in a manner that would produce articles that were either quantitative or qualitative studies. For this purpose I decided to look for articles that focused on any evidence that GI was in a fact a successful pedagogy. It is this context that framed my search parameters.

As a result of my studies at Griffith I decided to use the A+ Education and ProQuest Education databases due to having prior successful experiences with these. I used the Boolean operator AND throughout this search session because I did not want just general information on inquiry learning or guided inquiry. I wanted specific, results based, information on the effectiveness of this approach to teaching and learning. I use Boolean parameters when I search because I have found them successful in the past. I was taught this approach in a workshop at Griffith University but there is a helpful explanation of their use in Chapter 8 of The Hidden Web: finding quality information on the net by Henninger (2008).

ProQuest Search:

1. Search parameters – inquiry learning AND students outcomes = 0 results

This zero result surprised me given the size of the ProQuest database, and the focus on student outcomes in modern education research, so I decided to try a completely different attack. I decided to try one of the ProQuest headings in the suggest topics section: learning AND inquiry method. Keeping in mind that ProQuest is an American database, the list of headings in the suggested topics section indicated to me that while we regularly talk about outcomes in the Australian context the American literature tends to talk about learning or learnings.

2. Search parameters –learning AND inquiry method = 64 results

Personally I find this to be a really good number or results – not so many as to be unworkable but enough to ensure a reasonable chance of finding something really helpful. In an attempt to increase my efficiency at this stage of the process I decided to be more steady and selective than I usually am . I usually do a very quick scan of titles and articles and decide to keep or print so many that I overload to a major degree. This time I devoted more time to exploring what I had found.

• I had forgotten to indicate that I wanted full text only so I was able to get rid of abstract only articles straight away – there were ten of these.
• Another four were discarded because when I tried to open them they were not actually there?
• Three initially seemed useful but when I looked more closely they were very much in a pure science context so I discarded them.
• Two were quite good but they were around seventy pages long and I cannot read that much off the screen or afford to print them out.
• There were many articles that were of good quality but just not what I was looking for.
• Four articles fell into the category of good information for Nexus purposes, good data collection for EDN611 and a useable length. These I have saved for future use.

A quick glance seems to indicate that research is showing a positive correlation between guided inquiry and student learning/outcomes. Further thorough investigation of these studies will be required to establish if they show any agreement with Limberg’s concerns, regarding the ability of students with poor information literacy skills to do anything more than obtain discrete facts for reproduction, when using inquiry learning (2000, pp. 193-198. Retrieved from CMD).

On the whole I was pleased with the results so far and decided to try again with sligtly different search terms.

3. Search parameters – guided inquiry AND data = 19 results

I actually thought I might get nothing from this search because my parameters were so specific, but I decided to try these particular terms because I needed a quantitative study for EDN611. Nineteen results was a pleasant surprise. Most of these were very heavy going and not for me at all, but two of them had some very good information and are real contenders for the quantitative article for the Professional Applications of Research assignment.

I then decided to move to the A+ Education database to see what I could find in an Australian context.

4. Search parameters – guided inquiry AND outcomes = 6 results

This did not give me many results, but A+ Education is a much smaller database because it is largely Australian specific. Only three of these were available when I tried to open them and one of them was not at all useful. However that left me with two useful results. I decided to keep trying and, because it is an Australian database, I stuck with the term ‘outcomes’ for the time being.

5. Search parameters – information literacy AND outcomes = 23 results

This looked like a good result but there were no articles that I felt suited my needs. By this stage I was losing interest and motivation and decided to leave it for now and come back with a fresh head on another day.

Overall this was a successful search session, however, when I return to look for more literature, specific to the Nexus assignment, I am going to try using some of the newer Google features and some of the suggestions in The Hidden Web: finding quality information on the net.

I know that Mandy wants us to use mind maps etc on this blog but I just can’t use them. I have tried a number of times in the past and they just confuse me. I am a linear thinker and work in dot points and tables. Mind Maps just create a sense of disorder for me so numbered lists such as I used here are really my best option.