The field of education is rich with scholarship, leading to an extensive array of publications and writings for researchers to explore. Being clear about the specific types of articles and writings you need can streamline the research process and enhance your effectiveness as a student-researcher. Library search platforms and Google Scholar host a wide range of articles, including those aimed at practitioners as well as research-based studies. Understanding the distinction between these two types of articles is important when completing assignments.
Practitioner articles are found in trade publications targeted at professionals working in the education sector. These articles are typically authored by educators and, occasionally, by researchers, with the primary audience being fellow practitioners. Characteristics of practitioner articles include:
On the other hand, research-based articles are exclusively published in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. These articles may adopt qualitative methods, providing descriptive insights, or quantitative approaches, focusing on statistical or data-driven analysis. The structure of research-based articles is often formulaic, employing a scientific tone and specialized terminology. Authored by scholars and researchers, these articles are intended for an academic audience, contributing to the theoretical and empirical foundations of the education field.
Distinguishing between practitioner and research-based articles is essential for navigating academic resources effectively, enabling researchers to align their inquiries with the most relevant and authoritative sources.
In addition to practitioner and research-based articles, action research represents a unique and valuable category within educational scholarship. Action research is a methodology that combines systematic inquiry with the goal of informing and changing practices in a particular setting, such as a classroom or school. It is typically conducted by educators themselves, who seek to improve their teaching strategies, address specific challenges, or enhance student learning outcomes. Action research articles document these efforts, detailing the problem addressed, the methodology employed, the actions taken, and the results of those actions. They often provide a reflective analysis of the process and outcomes, making them highly practical and directly applicable to educational practice. Unlike traditional research articles, action research studies are characterized by their cyclical, iterative process and their immediate relevance to classroom and educational settings, offering insights that are both research-informed and grounded in practical experience.
| Practitioner Journals in Education | Action Research Journals in Education |
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Try searching Education Research Complete and selecting "trade publication" from the publication type menu (advanced search). |
Try using "Action Research" as a keyword in your database searches. Education Research Complete is a great database to start with. |
Full-text coverage of scholarly research in all areas of education, including curriculum instruction, administration, policy, funding and related social issues. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education and testing.
Education database containing over 1.5 million records of journal articles, research reports, curriculum and teaching guides, conference papers, dissertations and theses, and books. Coverage includes materials from 1966-present.
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Index with abstracts of education articles from more than 200 peer-reviewed journals. Topics include, but are not limited to, Curriculum Development, Literacy Standards, Pedagogical Research, Instructional Media, Language Arts, Science & Mathematics, School Administration, and Higher Education.
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Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
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Measurements Yearbook™ (MMY) provides users with a comprehensive guide to over 2,000 contemporary testing instruments. Designed for an audience ranging from novice test consumers to experienced professionals, the MMY series contains information essential for a complete evaluation of test products within such diverse areas as psychology, education, business, and leadership. All MMY entries contain descriptive information (e.g., test purpose, publisher, pricing) and edited review(s) written by leading content area experts.
Digital collection of over 3.8 million dissertations and theses, many available in full text. Materials come from over 3,000 academic institutions, with content from 1861-present.
PsycTests is a research database that provides access to psychological tests, measures, scales, surveys, and other assessments as well as descriptive information about the test and its development and administration.