digging into ProQuest Education
I was familiar with ProQuest Education even before I began a Master's at QUT as I used it frequently at the university I attending in the United States almost ten years ago. As I haven't specifically searched it since, I noticed right away that the website had been improved and there were more features available than when I last used it. Contrasting the American database ProQuest with the Australia/New Zealand database A+ Education, I noticed right away how much more user-friendly ProQuest was.
Searching within my existing results
Drop-down menu while I type listing search ideas
I can choose specific years to focus my search on, and see clearly the popularity of the ideas over time
The preview option shows the abstract and some relevant information about the article so I don't have to click on the link to find out more
Created by author
Created by author
Created by author
Created by author
pruning my results
After doing some initial searching, my first step to finding good results was to use some of the special features of ProQuest. I edited the publication date range, and used the "search within" feature which helped me narrow my search even more. Using these features, it was easy for me to get some great results catered to inquiry learning and the English classroom.
Search String Results Comments
(("inquiry learning" OR "inquiry-based learning" OR "inquiry-based") English AND secondary OR "high school") AND (reading AND engagement NOT mathematics NOT science)
24,872
Narrowing my search using "search within" and refining the dates between 2006 and 2016 helped me narrow down from over 57,000 results. I also added NOT science and NOT mathematics, though I noticed that there were still several math and science results, which was frustrating. I did get a good article on English discussions, which though it didn't specifically state it was inquiry-based, seemed to use lots of the ideas from inquiry learning.
("inquiry learning" OR "inquiry-based learning" OR "inquiry-based") English AND engagement NOT science
405
Eliminating the words "high school" and "secondary" from my search narrowed my search significantly. It gave me a good writing workshop article for students K-5 and a reading comprehension strategy that looked interesting.
Although there were some good results, I was still annoyed with the lack of specific information on teaching inquiry learning in the English classroom.
Frustrated, I decided to go back to more basic terms. This proved successful!
Seven of the twenty (especially this one and this one) results on the search page were helpful, the most I've had so far on ProQuest!
1,245
(english OR "english language arts") "high school" "inquiry learning"
refined date to 2008-2016, refined subject matter to "inquiry method"
159
Refining on the search page, I was able to narrow my results even more. Nearly every one of the articles the search brought on the first page were worth looking at.
final thoughts
Trying ProQuest after so many years proved successful, though it took awhile for me to realise I was being overly complicated and how to effectively use the new features. I experienced both positives and negatives using ProQuest, but I'll definitely return for more research later.
Pros
Being an American, it was nice to be able to use the spelling I am used to and terms for English classes I am familiar with (this may be a con for Australian users, however).
Many results with every search.
The refining features I mentioned above were very helpful.
I was logged out several times during my search, but ProQuest keeps a history of your previous searches, making it easy to see where I left off.
Cons
Because it is American, it was frustrating that the ideas weren't local or national to my teaching context.
I didn't start getting results until I started using the advanced searching options, which many people wouldn't have the time or patience to figure out.
I had to manually change the database to ProQuest Education each time it logged me out, which was frustrating.
Created by author
Created by author