"Do adult students need specialized help in developing research skills? The answer would have to be, “Yes.” To their credit, adult students tend to have more advanced levels of critical thinking ability (something that is highly dependent on physical maturity) and of what we might call “street smarts.” Life experience has enabled them to become adept at assessing situations, identifying problems, and working toward solutions. All of this should give them a leg up in doing research .....

Yet the research environment most [adults] encounter has changed rather dramatically in the past decade with the rise of complex library catalogs and databases. So too has the very nature of information changed—from a concentration on books and journals to the rise of websites and alternative methods of publication. Thus [adults] do need help in getting their bearings." William Blake, Associate Librarian

Objectives of the Workshop

Participants will:
  • gain an understanding of how to use advanced search tools and thereby  leverage the power of the Internet through the ability to search on interconnected topics simultaneously
  • gain an understanding of digital referencing tools that can support documenting the research materials found
  • gain awareness of the range of specialist databases via the Digital Literacy Research Site (also here via the Library Research site) available for Internet based research and realise the rich range of appropriate resources readily available
  • apply the learning principles in order to structure a research task appropriately
  • become more familiar with the learning principles through applying them to a specific task
  • teachers consider how this knowledge and these skills might impact their teaching
Workshop Preparation and Pre-reading

Please see here for the workshop preparation and pre-reading tasks.