Science Education:
Connecting to the Continuing Dialog
Library Research Skills for Education 437

    A literature review helps education practitioners connect published literature and findings, documented in books, journals, reports and other sources, to a particular question.   The inquiry may be broad--what makes a teacher effective?  Or the question can be focused--how does one teach an adolescent with Conduct Disorder  the carbon cycle?

    Finding tools, such as indexing and abstracting databases (ERIC, Education Abstracts) help to describe the literature in a way that makes the research literature navigable.  To arrive at a clear understanding of "what the research tells us" is the goal.  How to identify research-validated practices requires understanding how to use the library and an awareness of the protocols of scholarly and professional communication.

    Conducting a competent and thorough literature review is not only a challenge for students.  A recent editorial, "Designing, implementing, and reporting research: The significant role of literature review" in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (August 1999), made the lament: "...authors do not adequately explain the place of their research in our field's ongoing dialogue about science teaching and learning."   As students learning how to do a credible and thorough literature review,  learning the mechanics of search strategies is the "easy" part; connecting what one finds to the particular environment of our schools and classrooms is real challenge.

     Here are information resources you will find useful as you pursue your understanding of our current  knowledge base about science education.

Information Resources on Science Teaching

Library Catalog, Guides & Research Summaries
ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog--try these Library of Congress Subject Headings; click on S_ICON^SU^SUBJECT^SUBJECTS^^subject button after typing in the subject terms:

mentoring in science
science study and teaching activity programs
science study and teaching curricula
science study and teaching elementary
science study and teaching middle school
science study and teaching secondary
Guides
EDUCATION page on InfoDome, A Research Advisor    http://www.lehigh.edu/~inlib/infodome
Key licensed resources are linked from InfoDome, a Research Advisor and a dynamic database of librarian selected, catalogued web resources are features of InfoDome.  Under construction, Fall 1999.

Research Summaries
Handbook of Research on Science Teaching and Learning  FM-4-NORTH 507.1 H236
ERIC Digests     http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/index/

Example: Planning Science Programs for High Ability Learners

ERIC Clearinghouses
Clearinghouse For Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education       http://www.ericse.org/
One of sixteen ERIC Clearinghouses, look here for guides to information resources in science, environmental studies and mathematics.

Journals (print in brown; links for e-journals)    L=Linderman  Library    FM=Fairchild-Martindale Library 

American Scientist   http://www.amsci.org/amsci/amsci.html       Searchable archive.  Subject lists.
   Also FM-3-SOUTH 505 A512

Chem Tech  http://pubs.acs.org/journals/chtedd/index.html
   Also FM-2-NORTH  660.5 C5176

Environmental Science and Technology    http://pubs.acs.org/journals/esthag/index.html
   Also  FM-2-NORTH 628.5305 E61

Journal of Geography  L-0-UPPER 910.5  J86

Journal of Research in Science Teaching     http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jtoc?ID=31817
   Also   FM-3-SOUTH 507 J86

The Physics Teacher         FM-3-SOUTH  530.07 P578

Science Education      http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jtoc?ID=32122
   Also FM-3-SOUTH 505.1 S416e

The Science Teacher    FM-3-SOUTH  507 S4168


Curriculum Materials Collection, Fairchild-Martindale Library Media Center
A representative collection of textbooks, some with cd-rom companions, for teaching science, mathematics, language arts, social studies, etc.

Science Museums Is there a myrmecologist in the house?
Links to Science Museums with Online Exhibits
http://www-hpcc.astro.washington.edu/scied/museum.html#scimuseum

Videos
The University collections include videos of high quality for instruction purposes and presentation uses.  To browse the videos owned at Lehigh, search ASA, Lehigh's Library Catalog, under the local subject heading  videos [subject] .

For example,  to display descriptive records about our videos about the environment, type into the ASA search box videos environmental studies.  Click S_ICON^SU^SUBJECT^SUBJECTS^^subject    Scan the list and look at the detailed description for the television documentary  "Rachel Carson's Silent Spring," available in the Media Center.

Science Books and Films Online from the American Association for the Advancement of Science  Directorate for Education and Human Resources Programs http://www.sbfonline.com/
Open access to some resources for non-subscribers.  Check out the Best Science Books for Children 1998


Some more web resources you might want to check out:

HOW WOULD I HANDLE THAT?  Using Vignettes to Promote Good Math and Science Education   http://ehrweb.aaas.org/ehr/3_2_2.html#HOW
One of many free online publications from the AAAS.

ScienceNetLinks    http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/
Collection of evaluated web resources which "strives to be a comprehensive home page for science teachers, librarians and others involved in science education."

Third International Mathematics and  Science Study (TIMSS) http://nces.ed.gov/timss/
With data on half a million students from 41 countries, the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is the largest, most comprehensive, and most rigorous international study of schools and students ever.

The  WHY Files: Science Behind the News
An NSF-supported resource from the National Institute for Science Education

Jean M. Johnson
Librarian for Education for Prof. Bodzin's Education 437 Class
9/13/99; rev. 9/23/99, 10/14/99