BLM Early Childhood subject guide

Starting your research

Syllabuses

Where do I start?

Library Catalogue

Statistics

Course Resources Online (CROs)

Databases for finding journal articles

Information on the World Wide Web

Referencing

Curriculum Materials Collection

Evaluating what you have found

Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Education

Starting your research

When starting your research, it is a good idea to begin by gaining an understanding of the topic area by locating some background information, definitions or explanations of words and concepts.

Resources such as dictionaries, thesauri and encyclopedias commonly provide such information. Print publications can be found in the Reference Collection at your campus library. For useful online dictionaries, thesauri and encyclopedias, please see our Web Reference Sources. Below is a list of  dictionaries, thesauri and encyclopedias for clarifying definitions and providing introductory information for education.

For information on how to locate print copies of dictionaries, thesauri and encyclopedias, please refer to the Library Catalogue section.

Print resources (check the Library Catalogue for location details)

Dictionary of Education

370.3 8/1996

Dictionary of Multicultural Education

370.11703 1

International Acronyms, Initialisms & Abbreviations

423.1 33/1997

Macquarie Junior Dictionary

423 48/1998

Magic Dictionary

A823.3 W427 4

Primary Mathematics Handbook: Including a Dictionary of Mathematical Terms

327.7 105/1998

A Children's Medical Encyclopedia

BIGBOOK 610.3 20

Encyclopedia of Educational Evaluation

379.150321 1

Encyclopedia of Science & Technology

503 22

Encyclopedia of World Sport

796.03 6

Gale Encyclopedia of Childhood & Adolescence

305.23103 1

International Encyclopedia of Curriculum

375.0003 1

International Encyclopedia of Education

370.3 6/1994

International Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Education

306.4303 1

International Encyclopedia of Teaching and Teacher Education

370 79/1995

Online resources

Oxford English Dictionary

Access via the Library Dictionaries and Thesauri page

Wordsmyth Educational Dictionary-Thesaurus

Access via the Library Dictionaries and Thesauri page

Webopedia

Oxford Reference Online

Access via the Library Encyclopedias page

Library Catalogue

The Catalogue is the gateway to the Library's collection, whether you are searching for a book, a video or a variety of other resources.

Once you have an understanding of the concepts in your assignment you can search for items in the collection about that topic.

There are two ways of doing this - by keyword or by subject heading.

A keyword search enables you to combine different concepts and different ways of expressing the same idea.  For example:

"early childhood" AND education

education AND preschool

education AND play

"early childhood education" AND curriculum

"early childhood" OR preschool

play AND "early childhood"

Another way of searching for books and other materials is to do a subject heading search.  The idea of subject headings is that every item on the same subject should be classified under the same heading, regardless of the words that appear in the title etc.  Using them can be a very effective way of finding relevant items.

To do a subject heading search select "subject heading" from the drop down box in an Author/Title search.

Databases for finding journal articles

Be aware that journals and magazines are also called 'serials' and 'periodicals' in the CQU Library, and that 'S' in front of a call number indicates a serial.

Electronic journal databases are used to find journal articles. Journal articles are a good source of current information and enable you to keep up to date with trends and developments in your area of study.

Looking through individual journals in the hope of finding relevant material is time-consuming. It is better to use the databases to find articles on your topic.

Access to all Library databases is via  SearchSMART or the Databases webpages. To find Education databases, you will need to select Education from within the Select Your Subject drop-down box on these webpages. If you know the name of the specific database you wish to search, you can locate it by selecting the appropriate letter from the alphabetical listing on either webpage.  Another way of locating a specific database is to search for it under the Database Quicklinks drop-down box on the SearchSMART webpage or under Quick Links on the Databases webpage.

When the entire article (full-text) is not provided by a database, select the Article Linker icon which will provide information about where the full text of the article might be located.

If a journal article is available in print at the Rockhampton campus and is not available electronically, distance students can request to have a copy of the article sent to them.

Statistics

For online statistics relating to  education, please go to CQU Library's Education Statistics page, which provides links to statistical data from both Australia and overseas..

Information on the World Wide Web

A list of useful websites is available on the Finding Education and Vocational Education Websites page.

The websites listed below are related to early childhood education and child care:

Evaluating what you have found

At university level it is important to rely on information that meets the standards expected by your lecturers.  In many cases your arguments should be supported by what are termed scholarly or "peer-reviewed" publications.  Some databases - Proquest for example - make it clear which articles are scholarly and which ones fall into other categories.  There are also databases, such as ERIC, which only contain scholarly articles.

While information that meets recognised standards of scholarship is important throughout university level education, it is the requirements of your particular assignment that determine the kind of information you need.  Sometimes you may need to access the publications of professional bodies or use newspaper articles to support your arguments. 

Remember that whatever the information source you are using, you need to evaluate its relevance and suitability.  The link to the right provides a guide to how to go about evaluating different kinds of resources.