What better place to pursue a quest, now I'm starting to feel like a searching pro than ProQuest? The quest is to find answers to the questions:
Search TipsAs ProQuest Education is an American database, search terms need to reflect American language preferences. For example elementary rather than primary. When using this database, there are many searchable fields to narrow your results. One such proximity operator that I found useful was the indexing tool SUBJECT.exact. The use of quotation marks around search terms negated lemmatization whereby the search engine only looked for exact matches of the search terms. Alternatively, if you want the search engine to look for variables of a key word, such as mouse and mice, do not include quotation marks. The proximity operator NEAR/4 allows for the combination of words within a specified proximity of one another. When examining the search results, it is advisable to look at the suggested related items. When using a database such as ProQuest, another tool available to the searcher is the thesaurus. The thesaurus is valuable as it suggests synonyms for key words. Unfortunately for my search, the suggestions were irrelevant. For example: My second search string which was following up on the relationship between student questions and engagement (see below); the thesaurus suggested related terms for question as interviews, polls & surveys, responses and for engagement I was heading into military air strikes and friendly fire territory. Although this is how the prospect of inquiry teaching may feel at times ... this is not what I was after! Search string and resultsSUBJECT.exact("Inquiry method") AND SUBJECT.exact("Elementary schools") This search string yielded 27 results, including one of particular interest. A dissertation by Diaz (2011) analysed the use of the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH). The SWH is a framework for instruction based on providing multiple opportunities for students to develop conceptual understanding. A key component of the SWH involves student-generated questioning. As my re-search questions pertain to the role of student-generated questions, I followed up on this model. "science writing heuristic" (question NEAR/4 student NEAR/4 engagement) Two results were forthcoming from this search string. One by Chin and Osborne (2008), argued that "To nurture the spirit of inquiry in students and cultivate questioning as a habit of mind, a central role for any teacher, therefore, is to foster a classroom environment where it is intellectually, socially and academically rewarding for students to pose thoughtful questions." Indeed, I do feel like a search pro thanks to the success experienced using ProQuest Education. I have found articles that relate directly to my inquiry questions. ReferenceChin, C., & Osborne, J. (2008). Students' questions: A potential resource for teaching and learning science. Studies in Science Education, 44(1), 1-39. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03057260701828101#abstract
Diaz, J. F. (2011). Examining student-generated questions in an elementary science classroom (Order No. 3461111). Available from ProQuest Education Journals. (879631950). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/879631950?accountid=13380
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