Educators, policymakers, researchers, and students need access to educational theory, practice, and policy to help shape the future of education. The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education, is an authoritative database that offers a wealth of resources and insights.
ERIC houses a range of publications, including journal articles, research reports, conference papers, dissertations, and government documents, covering a wide spectrum of educational topics from early childhood education, curriculum development, and assessment strategies to educational technology and more.
Knowing there are multiple ways to search the ERIC database is important. Since the United States Department of Education produces ERIC, anyone can search it through the ED.gov portal. The JCK library offers additional access through EBSCO. Researchers will get the same result set using the ed.gov version but using the EBSCO interface will provide more full-text links to documents or articles as EBSCO coordinates what they display with all the journals that the JCK library subscribes to.
One of the most important features of ERIC is its specialized thesaurus, which serves as a structured vocabulary resource, providing a standardized set of terms and descriptors that have been curated to categorize and index educational content. By utilizing the ERIC Thesaurus, users gain the ability to streamline their search queries effectively and get the most relevant results. The ERIC Thesaurus helps researchers bridge the gap between diverse educational terminologies used across different regions or academic disciplines, enabling users to discover pertinent literature that might have been elusive without standardized terminology. It can also be a fascinating glimpse into the dynamic landscape of education, demonstrating how terminology has changed in the field over time, adapting and incorporating new terms and concepts as the field progresses.
In conclusion, the ERIC education database is an indispensable tool for researchers seeking to explore, engage, and contribute to the field of education. Given that it is a resource that also has a freely available version online, it is important for future educators to become familiar with it so that they can continue to draw upon it as an essential resource tool in the future.
0 Comments.