Like with Google Scholar, this is my first time using Australian database A+ Education. The database provides education research for the teaching and research professional.
A+ Education landing page. Annotated screenshot by author.
I spend some time cruising around the database to see what it has on offer and learn that A+ Education:
- has been operating for 30+ years
- has over 200, 000 index records
- indexes over 200 Australian journals, plus scans more than 500 Australian and international journals for relevant material (Woo! Big job!)
- was created in partnership with ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) and delivers coverage of all kinds of educational content to support teaching professionals
| Search string | Results | Comments |
| inquiry learning | 576 | A lot of results |
| “inquiry learning” | 60 | Really narrowed things down |
I browse the index with the term “inquiry learning” and receive these results:
A+ Education: Browse index “inquiry learning” = crazy amount of hits. Screenshot by author.
Although searching for the specific term “inquiry learning” in the simple search narrowed things down, it also eliminated other (possibly relevant) articles that may use synonymous terms such as “guided inquiry”, etc. I head to A+ Education’s thesaurus user guide page to see how the database thesaurus works. I search using both the alphabetical search field and entering the exact term.
A+ Education: Using the thesaurus. Annotated screenshot by author.
Here’s a mind map of key synonymous terms to be aware of (as guided by the A+ Education’s thesaurus)
A+ Education: Mind map of key thesaurus terms for “inquiry”
Having familiarised myself around the place, I tab open A+ Education’s search tips page to refer to while expert searching. Some of the advanced searching techniques are notated differently to Google (notably the introduction of XOR, operators such as: %, !, %10, !10, and @, as well as using range operators <, >, +, -.).
I pick up my search trajectory from Google Scholar and continue investigating: how to create an inquiry learning environment? What key features need to be in place?
Searching in A+ Education. Annotated screenshot by author.
| Search string | Results | Comments |
| creat* (?nquiry OR guided) learning environment | 190 | Truncation: creat* covers create, creating, creation, creates, created… & some inquiry synonyms.
Wildcard ? covers Inquiry and Enquiry Changed the sort to ‘most recent’ Found interesting article: What Good Teachers Do to Promote Effective Student Learning in a Problem-Based Learning Environment (qualitative study done in Singapore). “Findings reveal three themes influencing the quality of teaching and learning in the PBL classroom: the questioning techniques of facilitators; the timeliness of facilitator response; and facilitator awareness of unique learning goals and situations.” |
| creat* (?nquiry OR guided OR collaborative) %5learning environment | 184 | Introducing %5 proximity operator narrows results (just).
I add “collaborative” from the thesaurus list – it works a as synonym but may also bring about results that pertain to TL and teacher team teaching? Found a fab article: The importance of creativity and innovation within 21st century schools (I’m a sucker for anything to do with creativity and innovation! – and this takes me back to the themes I kept finding in my Google searching) A lot of articles regarding technology-rich, digital era, etc (also part of my inquiry investigation initial questions — saving that tangent for later). |
A+ Education: interesting article, noting indexing for relevance and to capture new terms for future searching. A Google search shows Vision is a peer-reviewed journal – which informs me of trust-worthy content. Annotated screenshot by author.
The article above provides some answers to one of my inquiry questions on how to develop that love of life-long learning:
“When they (students) can debate and engage in effective dialogue enquiry, they learn how to think independently, solve problems and develop a curiosity for philosophical inquiry.”(Dunlevie & Murphy, 2015, p.30)
I’ve found some interesting things browsing, but narrow the search further to save browsing time:
| creat* (?nquiry OR guided OR collaborative) %2learning environment py:2005-2015 | 78 | Limit publication date to last decade (py:1005-2015) to narrow and shrink the proximity between the terms to 2%.
Some great articles about designing innovative spaces for learning but I’m after something less tangible than learning space and more theoretical in terms of creating a mindset. Majority of articles seem to regard the creative arts (perhaps from my truncation of creat*?). |
| creat* (?nquiry OR guided OR collaborative) %2learning environment AND history py:2005-2015 | 8 | While I’m on this search string, I add history to see if I can uncover anything useful (tie-ing in with my original search plans)
Adding ‘history’ narrows the results right down BUT three of the eight articles pique my interest exploring the changing landscape of contemporary learning and teacher-librarians’ changing role with information literacy and collaborative teaching. This relates to my questions about what a 21st learning environment + inquiry learning looks like. |
A+ Education: Adding HISTORY to the search string narrows results. Annotated screenshot by author.
Because I have learnt A+ Education’s advanced searching techniques, I can conduct an advanced search within the simple search field using operators and symbols. If I was to use this database a lot, I can learn further keyboard shortcuts such as:
- + [plus symbol] — replaces AND
- | [pipe symbol] — replaces OR
- – [space hyphen] — replaces NOT
I’m happy with the amount of results and material I have discovered, with promise to uncover more as I continue searching. One problem I face is my own lack of confidence with knowing which articles from which publications are worthy of my attention. With limited time, I like to prioritise and read the best research but how can I know who is conducting the best research and who, in the field of inquiry learning, I should be paying attention to?
Favourite things and pros of A+ Education:
- You can sort by: relevance, newest, oldest, publication and database. I enjoyed switching around the sort for each search string to see different content up the top as opposed to scrolling down through pages.
- You can easily share any material on social media with buttons for Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Youtube and Linked In
- Has a comprehensive section of FAQs, How-To Guides, Tutorials and more. It also features tips on advanced searching strategies such as truncation, wildcards, Boolean Operators, searching date and number ranges and more.
- High quality of content: peer reviewed and scholarly
Cons:
- Session kept timing out (Pop-ups alert me to my session timing out and have to keep clicking “continue session”). Walked away for mini break and session was timed out. The library did warn me about this:
This database will timeout after 10 minutes of inactivity so please save your results as you go. Browsing through and marking results does not count as ‘activity’. — Okay, lesson learned ;( - hard for a newbie to know which articles hold more academic weight/importance if unfamiliar with reputable journals and authors
I generate more inquiry questions after reading articles found in A+ Education:
- In order to ensure high levels of success in my students, critical analysis is essential. What are the best tools to help my students critically analyse? And how can I help students develop a mindset where this becomes intuitive?
- I need to encourage students to deepen their thinking and give them opportunities to consider philosophies and events from multiple perspectives. What resources or frameworks can support me in accomplishing this?
I continue my expert searching by checking out US Education database, ProQuest Education
References:
Dunlevie, D, & Murphy, S. (2013). The importance of creativity and innovation within 21st century schools. Vision, 23(1) 30-38.
Inquiry Learning 