Finding literature about research

In addition to reading books, you can find and read other types of academic literature such as journal articles that report on research. Finding this information will help you with assignments and increase your understanding so that you can develop more evidence-based teaching in the classroom.

The library subscribes to lots of education and childhood journals. For more information on what journals are and why to use them see this Learning Skills module Understanding journal articles.

Watch this short video to see how to find journal articles on an educational topic using LibrarySearch:

Online databases for educational literature

You can also use the library’s subscribed online databases in LibrarySearch to find academic literature. These may contain a wider range of journals and academic sources and have more advanced searching functions (note that some are indexing databases which provide references rather than the full-text articles). Find out more about what databases are and tips for searching them on this Learning Skills module: using databases.

Key databases to search for educational literature include:

British Education Index

Child Development & Adolescent Studies

Bloomsbury Education and Childhood

Find guides to these and other library online databases at Online Database Guides.

 

Google Scholar

You can also use Google Scholar to find academic literature. Google Scholar can be linked to CCCU LibrarySearch in the ‘settings menu’, so when you search it, you can see if academic sources are available in CCCU library (i.e. you do not have to pay for them!).

Watch this short video to see how to do this: 

Accessing online library sources on placement – top tips

• Remember to always login to LibrarySearch with your CCCU username and password.
• You may sometimes also be prompted to click on OpenAthens, Shibboleth or search for your institution (type in Canterbury Christ Church) to access a resource – no more passwords are required.
• If you are trying to connect on a PC in a school and have difficulties, then check with the school/local IT department that “port 9003” is open and that no firewalls are blocking access to CCCU resources.