unforth: (Default)
unforth ([personal profile] unforth) wrote2010-01-08 02:59 pm

My Friends with Access to University Library Resources, I Beg Help!

Edit: Problem Solved!! Thanks so much, [livejournal.com profile] akashiver!! :)

Hey everyone - so I'm working on this grant, and I need academic research on the effectiveness of integrating math and science teaching. There's not much of this, surprisingly, given how obvious it is that these two things are connected. One of the main journals I've found is called "School Science and Mathematics." So far I've found listings for no less than three promising articles from this journal. The problem? Only the abstracts are available for free. So I thought I'd put out a request to my academic friends - to see if some of you could take a peak at the online journals available through your various universities, and maybe help me out!

If any of you DO have access to this journal, I thought I'd toss up which articles I was hoping to get a look at:

Articles from the journal "School Science and Mathematics"

Berlin, Donna F. and Lee, Hyonyong. "Integrating Science and Mathematics Education: Historical Analysis." v. 105, n. 1, p. 15 (January, 2005)
Eric Record

Sawada, Piburn, Judson, Turley, Falconer, Benford, and Bloom. "Measuring Reform Practices in Science and Mathematics Classrooms: The Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol." v. 102, n6, p. 245 - 54 (October, 2002)
Eric Record

Judson, Eugene and Sawada, Daiyo. "Examining the Effects of a Reformed Junior High School Science Class on Students' Math Achievement." v. 100, n. 8, p. 419 - 25 (December, 2000)
Eric Record
Any help would be greatly appreciated. If someone CAN get these full-text for me, please e-mail them to me at cphouck@gmail.com (my business e-mail).

Thanks, folks!

[identity profile] akashiver.livejournal.com 2010-01-09 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe that research tends to appear in a different area? Human development? Or within math itself?

[identity profile] unforth.livejournal.com 2010-01-09 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, to the best of my knowledge, pretty much ALL educational research and related topics get logged into the governments database at www.eric.ed.gov. (Eric) Everything in there gets an abstract, and a shocking amount of it is also available full text, and it's all free. In my opinion, one of the greatest free online resources available, period. I use it frequently in doing my work, and it generally encompasses topical research that appears in apparently unrelated genres.

To put it in perspective, if I search for key words "science" and "professional development," I'll get 2,792 results; "math" and "professional development" I get 466; "science" and "math" and "professional development," only 244. However, if I search for what I'm REALLY looking for - "STEM" and "professional development" (STEM is the name for integrated science, technology, engineering and math education), I only get 44 results.

When you toss in that the majority of these pertain to the training of pre-service rather than in-service teachers...(that's across the board, actually)...

Sigh.

Though the sad truth is that if they DID appear in another area, there'd be little enough I could do about it, as I don't know about a good database that's free that indexes those topics where I could look. Maybe if I had to do this more often and had more time, I'd look in to it. As it is, the document written from this research has to completed tomorrow, so that's that. :)