Education Field Program: Dance & Music Education Resources

This guide is designed to complement the 9 Challenge Workshop for Field Programs in Education. For more help, please contact the Education Liaison Librarian, Hope Power @ 778.782.4359  or hpower@sfu.ca 

Step 1. Analyse your research question:

Let's say you want to examine the following question:

How does dance education contribute to cognitive development in young people?

First, identify the main concepts: dance education; cognitive development; young people

Next, brainstorm some synonyms or related terms for each concept:

• Dance education: movement; physical education; dance
• Cognitive development: brain; higher-order thinking skills, academic achievement
• Young people: youth, teens, secondary school students [if you are searching Education journals or databases, this concept may not need to be explicitly stated]

Step 2. Combine your search terms into a search "string":

Combine your concepts with AND: dance education AND cognitive development

Combine your related terms with OR: cognitive development OR brain

Then combine both into a search string: (dance education or movement) and (cognitive development or brain)

[Note: use brackets around your related "OR" terms if there is only one search box]

Now you're ready to look for journal articles!

Step 3. Search the ERIC database for journal articles on your topic:

From the library website, click on "Journal articles & databases" (Under FIND) and select "E" from the alpha list. Scroll down and click on "ERIC" then choose "ERIC (EBSCO)" and click "Connect." If you are off-campus, you will be prompted for your SFU user name and password at this point.

Enter your search, e.g.,

dance education or movement
AND
cognitive development or brain

will yield over 500 results. Click on the "Refine search" tab and select "Journal articles." [Also try the "Documents" option; see steps 2 and 4 of the 9 Challenge Workshop.]

Step 4. Use the descriptors (or subject headings) to focus your results:

What we have done to this point is a keyword search, meaning that the database looks for your search terms anywhere in the articles, but the articles found may not be specifically about these topics.

Look at the terms in the yellow box to the left of the articles. These are descriptors, or official terms, in the ERIC database. Do you see any that match (more or less) the ones in your search? By clicking on one, you will add it to the search, limiting the results to articles that are specifically about that concept. Try it. You can do this as many times as appropriate.

For example, if you click on "cognitive development", then "movement education", and limit your results to journal articles, you will winnow your results from 500+ to 15! Be careful not to limit yourself too much.

You can use descriptors in another way. From your original search results, choose one good article, click on the title, and click a suitable descriptor from the ones assigned to that article. You will see a list of results specifically about that one topic. You can then add in more terms as you see fit. [See Step 5 in 9CW.]

Step 5. Use the ERIC thesaurus:

Follow Steps 6 and 7 in 9CW. For a sample search, enter "dance" in the Browse box. Click on "dance education" to expand it. Then tick both "dance education" and "movement education" and click the ADD button. Do the same for the second concept: cognitive. Then combine the searches. You should get 30-50 results.

Step 6. Save the articles you like:

Click the ADD button next to each article that you like. Then click on the "Folder has items" link at the top of the results on the right. Tick each article you wish to save/email, then save them or email them to yourself by clicking the link and filling in the required information.

Step 7. Look for books in the library catalogue and have them mailed to you:

From the library website, select "Books, journals, ..." under FIND and enter a search. Keep it fairly simple to start, e.g., dance and cognitive .

Click on any titles you like to see if the book is in and where it is located. (Note the subject headings for further searching.) To take advantage of our Telebook service, click on the REQUEST button at the top of the page, fill in your information and, under "Choose a pickup location" select "Telebook."

Step 8. Beyond ERIC--other Education databases:

Follow Step 8 in 9CW. CBCA Education is a good database for Canadian information. Web of Science is an excellent database; under "set limits" remove the tick next to "Science."

For databases specific to music and dance, go to "Journal articles & databases" and check the subject listings for Dance, Arts Education, and Music.

And don't forget to ask for help if you need it. Click on Ask a Librarian on the library homepage to see your options, or send me an email.