1. Conducting your MA research

2. What can I show you? How to break down the process of research What resources are available over the internet How to access these resources How to search effectively

3. Research Process What am I looking for? How will I find it? Planning your search strategies Where do I start Search for information… and find it! What do I do with the information I find

4. What am I looking for? Research on your particular area of interest Journal articles Books Reports (Ofsted, DCSF etc.) Other such as news/newspaper articles, radio shows, TV programmes Why? Demonstrate a knowledge of relevant previous research Identify areas that might require further research Locate your research within the context of previous work Develop an understanding of particular methodologies

5. How will I find them? Middlesex Library Resources – Athens access Subject association websites and journals Other websites: Teachernet, Ofsted etc. Academy Library Local Library

6. Before you begin your search… Identify key words and terms to ensure you search effectively Remember to use Boolean and/not/or as well as “_” for specific terms How will you limit your search? Date ranges Subject UK publications Peer-reviewed articles only?

7. Where do I start? Middlesex University Library website (http://www.lr.mdx.ac.uk/) Click Electronic Resources – Athens - Login Log in to MyAthens and from here open the following databases Sage Journals Online EBSCOhost (Education Research Complete) Informaworld

8. Online Journals: MyAthens These databases will search across a huge range of journals, theses, conference proceedings and ebooks Remember to narrow your searching using the relevant tools Specify the subject or database when available Search specific journals Boolean search operators

9. Demo… I thought it would be useful to demonstrate how to access these resources http://www.lr.mdx.ac.uk/

10. Other Online Journal Databases British Education Index (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/bei/) is a UK-maintained, searchable database with access to free, full-text collections of journals. Directory of Open Access Journals (http://www.doaj.org/) provides access to open access journals. Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.co.uk) will search for journal articles and link to open access if available. Intute(http://www.intute.ac.uk) is a very useful portal providing links to pre-selected websites on a range of academic subjects. Also provides links to online journals too. AERA SIG Communication of Research (http://aera-cr.asu.edu/ejournals/) list of open-access journals related to education (US-based).

11. Other online resources TES www.tes.co.uk TeacherNethttp://www.teachernet.gov.uk/ Ofstedhttp://www.ofsted.gov.uk/ DCSF http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/ National Strategies http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk Academic Researchers’ Blogs

12. Library Resources Subject association publications/journals Books

13. Once I have found an article (or information) Read the abstract to get an idea of what the article is about Save/print a copy of the full-text (if possible) Organise your articles into folders if relevant Make sure you have the full reference, including the database from which the article was found and date accessed (for your bibliography)

14. Library Subject Guides Check the Library Subject guides available at http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/ Identifies ways in which to begin your research Databases Library catalogues Journals Literature searching Internet sources