Education Research Tutorial

Selecting a topic is the first step in the research process, and it's not always an easy task. You may feel overwhelmed and uncertain at the beginning. Here are some suggestions to help you choose an appropriate topic.

• Understand the scope or requirements of your research project. When in doubt, discuss the assignment or project with your professor.

• Select a topic that interests you. You'll be spending some time with this topic; it will help if you choose something you'll enjoy investigating.   
• Read, read, read!  There is no substitute for doing some reading about your topic.  Consult subject encyclopedias, books, book chapters, and articles in education journals.

• Choose a topic that has sufficient information to support your argument. A preliminary exploration of the topic using books, journals, newspapers, and web resources can help you determine if there are adequate sources for your research. (Remember also that, if a topic seems to be so thoroughly researched that there is little left to add, you might want to look for a new approach to the topic or find a different subject.)

• Pick a topic that is focused, yet presents multiple facets. This will allow you to narrow or broaden the topic if necessary.

Once you have selected a topic, try to gain an overview of the scope, background, theories, important figures, significant events, and issues surrounding it. Books, articles, and authoritative web resources are always helpful. 

You may also find subject encyclopedias and handbooks particularly useful for background information. A subject encyclopedia or handbook provides explanations of the field’s terminology and jargon, introduces you to subtopics, and leads you to other relevant sources through bibliographies at the end of entries. In addition, cross-references provided by the index can broaden your view of the topic.

Remember to be flexible about your topic.  As you explore a subject and the available research, you may decide to revise your original topic by narrowing or expanding the scope of your research.  Or, you might decide to change your topic entirely.  Starting your research early will give you the greatest flexibility.

Below you will find several videos and links to help you find articles for your assignments and research. Before you start, it is helpful to have some way to organize your information as you gather your citations. If you only need one or two sources, it may not be critical but as you have to do more extensive research it becomes imperative.

At minimum, create a document to save your citations. I recommend including the following information:

• Citation in APA format*
• Permalink from the database. This link allows you to go directly back to the article if needed without first going to the JCK Library site and searching for it.
• Abstract - The abstract is especially helpful for more extensive research to help you remember why you thought this article was important.

*APA CAUTION – when copying the citations in ANY of the databases, think of it as just the beginning. Some databases are better at accurate formatting than others. They will usually have all the information but the order, capitalization, italics, etc., may not be correct.

Citation Management Tools

Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research. The Library provides all UCM users with unlimited storage. To access the full features of Zotero, go to www.zotero.org. Click Log in and then Register for a free account.  Use your UCM email to create an account.  For maximum benefit, download the desktop app to your PC or Mac and the browser connector for either Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge.

De-duplications

You will have multiple versions of the same article as a result of searching multiple databases and will need to de-duplicate the results before article screening. After you have conducted your searches and imported the results into your citation management software:

• In Zotero, click on the "Duplicate Items" collection in your saved collection library. You can remove duplicates by merging the files. 

If you need support with using any of these tools contact a librarian!