Breadcrumbs

A little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal; the heap in the barn consists of single grains, and drop and drop make the inundation.--Sadi

Sometimes when you are trying to find research on a topic, you have to act like you are following Hansel and Gretel and look for breadcrumbs to lead you to what you are looking for. I have several ideas I would like to share for those of you who aren't feeling successful in finding enough research:

1. Key words, key words, key words. Key words are so important in the hunt - and I am not solely referring to those that come up in the official search engines that you worked with this morning. Once you find something close, you need to skim the article to see if there are other words used to describe your topic. Those words may lead to other words and so on.

2. Google. Do not underestimate the power of Google! Put your topic in and see what comes up - sometimes it will return several articles from Google Scholar and these are often peer-reviewed works or books. (And, if they are books you can sometimes get a free preview of several pages - try to get the bib pages in the back!) Even if it doesn't return any scholarly sources, look through what does come up because you may find new key words.

3. Google, Part II. If you are looking for a very specific program (Boys Town Model, AVID, Brain Gym), google the name and see if there is an official site. Often the websites for those companies have links to the research behind their programs.

4. Books and journal articles. As I said this morning, use more than just the articles themselves. Look at the bib information in the back - skim for titles that seem like they would fit with your topic and then look them up.

5. Ask veteran teachers and instructors. People that have been in field may have research to share with you from their professional journals and books. If not, see if you can find out the big names in the area and search for that person's work. For example, if you are looking for research on Guided Reading, Fountas and Pinnell are currently very big in that area, and you could search on their names.

6. Broaden your scope. Research on a broader topic can be used very effectively in your literature review. For example, if you wanted to do your research on effective homework practices, you might search for information on authentic assessment, formative assessment, or grading. Each of these searches may return articles that discuss effective uses of homework, and you will want to have a good grasp of the purpose of formative assessment to inform your homework practices and grading.

As an example of all of these strategies, I'm going to use Meghan's topic (I hope you don't mind, Meghan!) of Using the iPod Touch in the classroom. Since the Touch is so new, she probably won't find a lot of research on its specific use in the classroom. However, she could broaden her search to include the use of technology in the classroom so that she has a good understanding of the risks and benefits of using any technology since those things will apply no matter what piece of equipment is used. She can ask Skip and Ross to see if they know of any research or big names in the field. Googling "educational uses of the iPod touch" may give her some links that will inform what teachers are currently doing - while this probably won't be peer reviewed information, it can inform her introduction and conclusion (see the last blog post for details.) She could go to the Apple website and see if they have any links to research, and she could try looking under different key words that she finds in all of those sources.

Follow the breadcrumbs...a little and a little, collected together, becomes a great deal.