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Education

Library support for students in the School of Education

Searching for Information

Searching for information: An introduction for Education students

Note: Use this document (downloads as a Word doc) to plan your work.

What is quality information?

Scholarly sources are:

  • written by academics and other experts,
  • aim to generate new knowledge, or synthesise or summarise existing knowledge
  • created to inform, not entertain.

Scholarly sources use formal language and include citations and references.

What is a peer reviewed source?

A peer reviewed source is reviewed by other academics and experts in the field. 

All peer-reviewed sources are scholarly, but not all scholarly sources are  peer-reviewed. 

What is credible and authoritative?

A source is credible when it is from authorities in the field, professional bodies and standards. 

Select the tabs below to learn how to find quality, academic, authoritative information for your assignments and research. 

Search terms, strategies and operators

Note: This document (downloads as a Word doc) can be used to plan your work.

Read your assessment topic deeply and locate your search terms.

Example: You have been asked to Explore collaborative learning in the mathematics classroom.

Brainstorm terms with similar meaning within your context to use in your search for information.

Where can you find words with similar meaning?

Some ideas can be seen in the table.

Table from video showing key search terms and synonyms for each term. Mathematics = Math* Collaborative = collaborative, cooperative, interactive. learning = learning, strategy, approach, practice. Classroom = class*.

Note: Use this document (downloads as a Word doc) to plan your work.

By combining search terms and using search operators, you can build a search strategy to refine your search technique and save you time. 

A search strategy for the above example might be:

(collaborative OR cooperative) AND learning AND math* AND class*

Look for the search operators in the table below. 

This video shows how you can search the library catalogue with your search strategy.

 

Note: Use this document (downloads as a Word doc) to plan your work.

View the video to learn about search operators.

Table showing Boolean operators. Inverted commas searches for exact phrase, example "collaborative learning". AND searches includes all terms. example "“collaborative learning” AND mathematics. OR includes any search terms example “collaborative learning” AND mathematics OR literacy. NOT excludes exact term or concept, example “collaborative learning” AND mathematics NOT literacy. Round brackets defines a concept, example, “collaborative learning” AND (mathematics OR literacy). Asterisk is wildcard that matches words beginning with the word preceding the asterisk, example “collaborative learning” AND math* Math* = Mathematics, maths, mathematician etc.

 

Finding Information

Finding information

Throughout your university study and your professional career, you will need to find, assess, and utilise information.

Below are self-paced tutorials to support your information literacy.

If after completing these modules you feel you need more support please make an appointment with your Liaison Librarian. 

Learn how using the library can help you success in your studies at UniSQ by completing the tutorial introduction to the Library

Explore the types of information sources available from UniSQ Library and how you can use them in your study.

 

Learn how to find the best information for your assignments by developing effective search strategies

Learn how to use Library Search to find resources in the Library collection.

 

While Library Search and USQ's databases provide access to journal articles, many more are available through Google Scholar.The Using Google Scholar tutorial will show you how to use the features found in Google Scholar to improve your searching.