Guides: EDUC 2301: Introduction to Special Populations: Research Report

On a weekly basis, find a scholarly, peer-reviewed article about how teachers make accommodations for students (K-12 classes) with a specific disability that the course is focusing on at the time. Submit a report that includes:

The purpose of the study,
The problem, and
The findings.

What Does Peer-Review Mean?

CAPOW Handout
Is My Source Scholarly
From the Undergraduate Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Currency	What is the publication date or last date updated? Is the content timely, useful, and valid for your information need?
Authorship	Who wrote the content? What makes that individual author or organization qualified to write it? What other information about the author is included? Who sponsored the content?
Purpose	Is the purpose of the content to inform, to entertain, or to promote a product or service? Who is the intended audience? Does the information seem credible? If so, can you check the information against another resource (i.e. book, journal article, newspaper, etc.) for credibility?
Objectivity	Is content biased? Are opinions balanced or does the author have an agenda? How does the bias influence the information?
Writing Style	Does the information contain a bibliography, references, or a comprehensive list of sources supporting its theme, topic, or agenda? Is content presented at an appropriate level for an academic research paper? Does the supporting information fit your research need? Is the work complete, or is it a summary of other work?

Scholarly Journals vs. Popular Magazines Checklist

Keywords Activity

Pick out keywords for your weekly question. For example, How do teachers make accommodation for students with attention deficit or hyperactivity disorder?

What are some similar terms to them?

Here is an example of a mind map to help you in this process:

Make note of these terms because they will be useful throughout the semester and your professional career.

You can save these terms in a research log to keep your search strategies organized to reference later. Below is an example of a research log.

Research Log
You are welcome to download this Excel spreadsheet to help you organize your research process and material. Please feel free to tweak the fields as you see fit.

Search Strategies: Boolean Logic

Academic Search Complete
To find more peer-reviewed articles, select all collections by clicking on the collections link above the search box.

Search Results Tips: Use the limiters on the left to help narrow your results.
1. Full-Text, to have the complete article. There are teasers in our collection.
2. Scholarly, to help weed out the popular and trade articles.
3. Publication date range, change it to the last 10 years to get the most recent scholarly communication and trends in education.
ERIC
Comprehensive education databases includes summaries or abstracts of articles and some full-text of education-related reports.
JSTOR
Complete historical full text of all issues of scholarly journals in a wide range of humanities and social science fields.
Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection (EBSCO)
Nearly 575 full-text publications including some 550 peer-reviewed journals in psychiatry psychology and related fields.
Teacher Reference Center (EBSCO)
Coverage on key education topics such as assessment continuing education current pedagogical research curriculum development instructional media language arts literacy standards science/mathematics and more for K-12 Teachers.

How to Log In

Write your Report in MLA Style

MLA Documentation Guide
Learn where to place and format the bibliographic information for a Works Cited page. Includes example citations of various types of information.

MLA Style Center: Quick Guide
Click on the Get Started button to practice the creating Works Cited citations.

Visual Guide to MLA, 8th edition, with MS Word Help