Topics Today in Educational Research

Search – Topics Today in Educational Research – the Journal Locator Tool in the HFU Library Research Database (Links to an external site.), is an effective way to locate on-line, peer-reviewed academic journals in education.  There are multiple databases available, including Academic Search  Complete, Education Full Text, ERIC, and Dissertation and Theses (Proquest), each of which links to thousands of full-text articles relating to educational research.

Some terms to consider:

Journal – this is the name of the publication

Volume – Journals are often published annually – and noted by a volume number

Issue – Within each volume, there are issues ranging from 1 to 12 per volume, typically.  Many journals offer 4 issues per volume -ie, issues that are published quarterly.

Article – Within each issue of a journal, there are articles.  Articles can be primary research, that is published research by the author completing the research.  Or, articles can be secondary.  Secondary research are commentaries, position papers, literature reviews that may incorporate other author’s research into their reviews.

Title – Each article published within an issue of the journal is given a title. The title provides insights into key features (topics) as well as clues on what is being done in the article

Using one of the Search engines found in the database, search out a current journal in Education related to your professional interest. Search through a recent issues of the journal.  Provide the following information:

1. Name of the Database you used to search out the journal article.

2. Name of the journal

3. Volume and Issue number of the journal issue you reviewed

4. Topics covered in the journal – use key words from titles and or topics listed as “Key Terms,” sometimes found on the cover page of the articles, to get at the topics

5. Your opinion on whether the journal and topics would be relevant to a you as a teacher and why.