Searching with ERIC (via EBSCOhost)

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I attempted to find more information on my ILA, via the ERIC database.  Participating in this subject has definitely helped to improve my understanding of how to use Boolean terms for searches.  Previously, I knew of them but didn’t quite understand how they worked.  During this search I became frustrated with the data base as it didn’t seem to use the terms as they are intended.  I may have missed something which caused this but I couldn’t work out exactly why this was happening.

Search.

I decided to outline what it was I was looking for before engaging in the search.  I was searching for

 inquiry based learning in SOSE for upper primary school.

I listed some synonyms for a number of the terms.

SOSE, Social Studies, Geography

Upper elementary, middle school, upper primary

First search: 

“Inquiry based learning” AND “Studies of Society and Environment” AND "upper primary" OR "upper elementary" OR “Social Studies”: 33592 results.

I needed to narrow the search and I noticed the Boolean term AND didn’t seem to be taken into account.  I think the order in which the search terms are listed is important.  I changed the order of the search.  

Second search “Inquiry based learning” AND “Studies of Society and Environment” OR"Social Studies" AND  "upper elementary" OR "upper primary” : 377 results

This was a better result however “inquiry based learning” wasn’t being picked up in the search.  The phrases I had placed in quotation marks weren’t being adhered too as there were broken up in the searches.  I decided to check out the help section of the EBSCO site to see if this had any answers.  

Using Quotation Marks

Typically, when a phrase is enclosed by double quotations marks, the exact phrase is searched. If a phrase contains stop words, the stop words will not be searched, but the searchable words will be searched in the order as entered. A stop word will never be searched for in an EBSCOhost database, even if it is enclosed in double quotation marks. A search query with stop words only (i.e. no other terms) yields no results.

From the help section in EBSCOhost.

The word "typically" in the above paragraph, I took to mean  the phrase in quotation marks is searched for as a phrase if possible but it can be broken up during the search.  

I decided to try parentheses to see if this gave a greater focus to inquiry based learning. 

Third search (“Inquiry based learning”) AND “Studies of Society and Environment” OR"Social Studies" AND  "upper elementary" OR "upper primary".   Same results: 377.

I now realised that the phrase “inquiry based learning” was the problem so I tried “inquiry learning”. 

4th search (“Inquiry learning”) AND “Studies of Society and Environment” OR"Social Studies" AND  "upper elementary" OR "upper primary".   With same results 377

5th search (Inquiry) AND “Studies of Society and Environment” OR"Social Studies" AND  "upper elementary" OR "upper primary".   Results of 378

I decided to just search for inquiry to see what results I came up with.

6th search Inquiry : 22364 results.  I noticed in the articles that inquiry based was hyphenated.  I noticed that the search engine also picked up the term enquiry during its search as well. 

7th Search (“Inquiry-based”) AND “Studies of Society and Environment” OR "Social Studies" AND  "upper elementary" OR "upper primary".  With 1293 results.  The articles were now becoming relevant to my search. 

I liked the sound of one article “Exploring the Experiences of Upper Elementary School Children Who Are Intrinsically Motivated to Seek Information”  by Sherry R. Crow (2011)

"This article describes research conducted to understand the experiences of children in order to inform school librarians' practice in fostering intrinsic motivation for information seeking.”  Retrieved from EBSCO site.  I liked how it was from the perspective of teacher librarians.  This is an article I will read in more detail.

I decided to narrow the search by adding in the terms “alternative energy” as this is the topic the children were working on.

8th search (“Inquiry-based”) AND “Studies of Society and Environment” OR"Social Studies" AND  "upper elementary" OR "upper primary" AND “alternative energy”  resulted in 66 results.  

I noticed that history seemed to be popping up quite regularly so I took it out in the next search using the Boolean term NOT.

9th search (“Inquiry-based”) AND “Studies of Society and Environment” OR"Social Studies" AND  "upper elementary" OR "upper primary" AND “alternative energy” NOT history.  Came up with the same results: 66. 

History was then highlighted in the texts.  Feeling a little frustrated.  Unsure why the term history was now highlighted when I gave the instruction for it to be disregarded???

Changed the range of dates to between 2000 - 2011 results 36.  Article no.9 looks very good.  “Methods Practiced in Social Studies Instruction: A Review of Public School Teachers’ Strategies” Kevin Bolinger and Wilson J. Warren

Having a quick look it explains how inquiry-based learning is the best way for students to learn about Social Studies.  Another article to delve deeper into.  

Article 17 looks interesting as well "Emerging Inquiry: Using Nonfiction to Guide Student Research."  Unfortunately the full article isn’t available through ERIC so will try else where.  It is for grade 3 students but may be worth investigating.