Finding research papers

It can be reasonably straightforward to find research papers online.  In this post I’ve outlined where you might find such papers, and how you can get copies of them.

1. Open Access papers and other sources

There is an open access movement slowly spreading through the journal world.  Whilst not all journals are open access, some do provide access to papers without charge to the reader. The downside is that their ‘impact rating’ tends to be lower and so academics may avoid publishing in them.

This website is a directory of open access education journals.  There are probably far more journals there than you will ever want to look at, but you might spot a few that look interesting.

There are other sources of educational research, and this helpful blog post from SUPER contains a number of links to research papers and information.  http://schooluniversitypartnership.wordpress.com/access-to-research/

2. Searching.

Avoid the temptation to use a standard search engine to look for research.  Instead make Google Scholar your friend.

This allows you to search for articles in scientific journals, and cuts out the blogs, news articles and general clutter that a standard search engine would return.

As with all search engines, the more specific you are the more helpful the results are likely to be.  There is also an advanced search query which allows you to be more specific about what you want to include or exclude from your search.

So for example, if I want to find out about the research into gender equality in STEM subjects, then I would get the following results:

On the right of the picture you can see that some of the articles are available as a pdf – and if you click on that link it will take you directly to the paper.

Narrowing your search:

You can use the search fields on the left hand side of the page to narrow your search to a specific time range, or since a particular year and only look at more recent papers.  

You can also remove citations, which removes references to papers of interest in books or other papers.

3. Getting the paper
What if you've found a paper that looks interesting, but which isn't shown as a pdf in your search results?

The first thing to do is to read the abstract on the journal homepage.  This should be a summary of what the researchers did, and what they've found.  There will often be enough detail for you to decide if you actually want to read the paper.  Some journals will also allow you to 'look inside' which provides a longer extract of the article.

 

If the abstract looks interesting, then you will want to get hold of the paper.  However, I suspect that you, like me, might balk at paying £29.95 to read it. Thankfully, you don't need to pay.

Every article will have a link to the authors and their email address. It is a simple matter to choose one of the names - probably the first one* - and contact them by email to politely ask for a copy of their paper.

I have found that, when emailed, researchers are more than happy to send you a pdf copy of their article, and sometimes will send other possibly relevant papers. 

So there you have it.  An easy way of getting hold of research papers, even if you don't have university access.


*The order in which the names are written on a research paper is a complex matter of hierarchy depending on who did what.  Exactly how the order is determined depends on the research field, but in general, the person named first did most of the work, and the person named last is the professor or principal investigator.

Working Scientifically

Recently I've been talking with secondary school teachers about the quality of science enquiry that can take place in primary classrooms. I've become more aware of what goes on in primary classrooms because I've been working on a course for primary science specialists.  I have developed sessions on physics subject knowledge (up to KS3), and with colleagues have linked this to activities that take place in the primary classroom.

In the previous national curriculum, science enquiry became a strong focal point in primary classrooms, with a lot of good practice being developed.  The Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM) and also the Primary Science Teaching Trust have highlighted what good primary science can look like. 

In the new National curriculum, scientific enquiry has been subsumed into 'working scientifically'.

‘Working scientifically’ specifies the understanding of the nature, processes and methods of science for each year group. It should not be taught as a separate strand. These types of scientific enquiry should include: observing over time; pattern seeking; identifying, classifying and grouping; comparative and fair testing (controlled investigations); and researching using secondary sources. Pupils should seek answers to questions through collecting, analysing and presenting data.

pg 3, Science Programme of Study, 2014

I know that a lot of work was done by the primary science community, including the ASE, to ensure that the definition of science enquiry in the new NC was not limited to 'fair tests', but included a range of different ways of doing science.  If you are interested in looking at these ideas in more detail then the ASE publish a book called 'It's not fair...or is it' which is worth a read.

Looking further through the programmes of study, working scientifically is defined in more details for each of the key stages.  So in lower KS2 (years 3 and 4) we find that children  "... should draw simple conclusions and use some scientific language, first, to talk about and, later, to write about what they have found out."  In upper KS2 (years 5 and 6) children "... should select the most appropriate ways to answer science questions using different types of scientific enquiry… Pupils should draw conclusions based on their data and observations, use evidence to justify their ideas, and use their scientific knowledge and understanding to explain their findings."

In good primary science lessons this happens.  Children choosing their own equipment, devising a method, thinking about controlling variables, taking measurements and drawing conclusions from their experiments. 

If you haven't had chance to visit a primary science lesson recently (or at all), I would recommend that you try to do so - especially if you have a PSQM primary school near you.  You might be surprised by what you see.

And then the children enter secondary school, and often this level of independence disappears.

Looking at the statement about what children should be doing in years 5 and 6, many secondary teachers that I have been working with have been struck by the similarity in description between the new primary national curriculum and the marking descriptors for controlled assessment.  

That set me wondering if there were some interesting ideas for enquiries that could also be used as part of the preparation, or even as investigations, for controlled assessment.

A few years ago (when it was still coursework) I was involved in moderating for an exam board.  At the moderation training, we were told to expect to see a wide variety of different investigations.  In reality, I saw a very narrow range of experiments: resistance of a wire, osmosis using potato chips, and the thiosulfate cross.

On one of my courses (small advert!), I do a session on physics enquiry, where we look at different investigations that students could carry out and I thought that perhaps this could be developed further to reflect the changes to the national curriculum from 'How science works' to 'Working scientifically'.  I also wanted to incorporate some of the skills that I'd seen in primary science.

It's a physics course, so I asked my physics minded twitter followers if they had any good examples of experiments used for controlled assessment tasks or investigations that went beyond the ubiquitous resistance of a wire.  

I wanted examples where students would have more freedom about what they might investigate, where the science was perhaps not straightforward. 

Some of the suggestions were of quite straightforward experiments, but I could see that it might be possible for students to design their own method, choose suitable equipment and take data that could be interpreted using their GCSE science knowledge (with perhaps a bit of stretch).

Suggestions given included:

• Ray box and several thermometers with bulbs painted different colours to investigate heat absorption
• Rolling ballbearings down curtain tracks to measure efficiency
• Hookes Law with springs or plastic bags (or use strawberry laces to examine creep)
• Different ways to measure g
• Dropping cupcake cases or parachutes
• 2 beakers of hot water wrapped in paper towels and one is kept wet to investigate evaporation (video of a similar experiment but with bottles and a towel)
• Looking at how power changes with time, doing step-ups on and off benches
• Voltaic piles
• Conduction rods
• Windmills -
• Solar panels

These last two were from the Gatsby SEP Innovations in Practical work series.  They produced a series of booklets on a variety of different topics which included a lot of practical work and also worked with Mindsets online to develop equipment that can be used in science investigations.  The booklets are all available as downloadable PDFs .

With the eventual demise of controlled assessment, I hope that teachers will be able to include a wider variety of practical work.  But as you can see, there is quite a lot of practical work that can be done which will fit into the controlled assessment model - especially if that includes an investigation.