Topic: Peer-reviewed sources and how to find them
Learning Outcomes: Students will be able to:
List the key elements of a peer-reviewed article
Apply this knowledge to example articles for their own research
Find relevant articles using a pre-determined research question
Identify where to go on the Library website to start their search for different situations (such as Research Guides, databases, etc.)
Materials needed: Publications (“Graduate Journal of Harvard Divinity School”, “Archivaria”, National Geographic Secret Societies, and “Image” Magazine), PowerPoint, cell phones, magnetic Boolean operators
Scenario: This is a one and a half-hour lesson designed for first-year students at a university, which in this case will be UBC. (For the purposes of this assignment, I will only demonstrate the first 30 minutes of the lesson.) It will be their primary introduction to conducting library research at UBC. Since students will be first years, they will likely be around 18-20 years old, and if they have conducted research projects before, they would be in a limited context. The assumption will be that students have little to no understanding of these concepts.
PART 1
Brief introduction about myself, review what topics will be covered in the lesson
Why not Google?
Ask students their thoughts first, then show them pros/cons list.
Explain the elements of a peer-reviewed article
Introduce “what did you LEARN (language, experts, authority, reviewed?, no [or few] pictures)?” mnemonic device
Run through AAA+R (article title, author, abstract, article text, references)
Article observations activity 1
Students will be split up into groups and each group will be given a different publication to look at. After discussing it with their groups, they will share their observations and what kind of publication they think it is.
Article identification activity 2
After learning what makes a publication scholarly, students will be shown photos of articles found online. The room will be split into “scholarly” and “non-scholarly” (demonstrated on the PowerPoint), and then students will move to the side of the room to show what kind of source they think it is
Article identification quiz
Students will participate in a review quiz in Kahoots where they will be encouraged to ask questions if they are unsure about a particular source.
PART 2
How to find scholarly articles
Quick explanation of Google pros/cons. Use Kahoots quiz to gauge where students are and address results as they appear. If one question looks like it has conflicting answers, have students think-pair-share and bring findings to the group. (No more than 2 minutes each.)
Guided research question activity
Introduce sample research question to students. Write it on the board, and have students identify key words in the question and circle them on the board. Ask them to list any synonyms related to the question. Write them on the board.
Starting the search
Lead students to library website. Ask what they would do, knowing the key words for their search. Using their suggestions, use Summon to demonstrate a search to demonstrate number of possible results.
Guided searches
Give pairs of students a slip of paper with different instructions on each. For example, one will show students how to find departmental LibGuides. One will ask students to search in a particular database. Students will have a couple of minutes to work on these in pairs before coming back and discussing their findings with the group.
PART 3
What are Boolean operators?
Explain Boolean operators and what they do using PowerPoint
Group Boolean activity
Give students a research question by writing it on the board, together, and using the magnetic Boolean operators, give the students what kind of results you’re looking for in a search, and have them tell you which ones to use. Leave a “key” of all of the operators on the board, and be sure to leave spaces between the words of the research question for magnets.
Paired Boolean activity
Give the group a different research question. Leave it on the PowerPoint. Split the class into pairs, and give them particular results you want from a search. Have them work together to determine what kind of search they should do.
Leave space for students to ask questions, and encourage them to reach out. Leave contact information. “When in doubt, reach out!”
Approach: The goal with this lesson is to maximize student learning in a minimum amount of time. To do so, I have tried to break down the lesson into logical steps, with repeated reminders of key concepts (as repetition is often the core of learning new subjects), and a group quiz to evaluate student learning at the end of the lesson.
My main goal with the PowerPoint and introduction to the lesson is to give students a question to fall back on during their research process: “What did I LEARN?” with the hopes of laying the foundation for critical engagement—ideally critical information literacy, one day—with the materials they will be researching. It’s also a phrase that students will hear often throughout their lives, so the goal is that they will be reminded of this mnemonic device frequently. The goal with the “quadruple-A + R” acronym is to further reinforce these concepts. I want students to apply and then reinforce their learning quickly, which is why I placed the activity immediately following the introduction of the elements of a peer-reviewed article. This will also hopefully boost student engagement and interest.
The first activity will be hands-on: students will be given several different kinds of materials ranging from popular magazines to peer-reviewed journals. In groups of 2 or 3, they will discuss what they notice about the materials—anything from advertisements to authors. They will then share their findings with me, and I will affirm their thoughts, course-correct if necessary, and answer any questions they might have.
For the second activity, students will be shown a slide with a photo of an article, and will be asked to go to one side of the room or the other to indicate whether or not the article is a scholarly source. The hope is to engage students visually and kinetically with a topic that is usually not either of those things.
To end the lesson, there will be a “lightning round” quiz, where students will see a question on the PowerPoint and simply shout out the answers. Since research is a process, I decided to use a group quiz instead of a more individualized evaluation so that 1) students could learn from their peers, and 2) if there are any shy students they would still have the opportunity to engage without feeling put on the spot. I will end the presentation with another earworm for students to remember: “When in doubt, reach out” and the Library’s contact information.