Education: Schools Direct/PGCE
Complete Primo support
How to use Primo to renew your book loans, request a book that's currently on loan to someone else, and to understand how Primo works. Any questions, please contact Kate.
How to pick the right source
- How to pick the right source of information to save timeTutorial from the Open University which encourages you to think about why you need the information you are seeking (purpose) so you can go to the best source to find it.
Web sources
The easiest way to find a book is to search on Primo. Type in the author's name, title of the book or search by keywords. Limiting your search to books, journal titles etc from the drop down menu will help narrow down your results.
Make a note of the class number so you can find the book on the shelf.
You may also wish to browse the shelves but remember that not all books will be in the same location as some will be relevant to other subjects too.
Where to find books in the Library
The Education books are mostly to be found on Level 2 of the Library. The Dewey decimal classification numbers for education subjects are:
- 370 Education
- 371 School management; special education; alternative education
- 372 Primary/Elementary education
- 373 Secondary education
- 374 Adult education
- 375 Curriculum
- 378 Higher education
- 379 Government regulation, control, support
Check out our tutorial on the Library classification System
As well as physical books the Library also has a number of ebooks. Whilst ebooks are designed to be read online you can save/download sections (within copyright guidelines) and occasionally you will be able to download books for a either a 1-day 'check out' or sometimes permanent download to keep.
How to find ebooks
Search Primo (title/author recommended) and limit to 'full text online'. Or, see the direct links to ebook collections below:
- Ebook central (Proquest) This link opens in a new window Library Ebooks covering all disciplines. These ebooks offer online viewing not permanent download.
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- Taylor & Francis eBooks This link opens in a new windowLibrary eBooks covering all disciplines. Tip: Filter on the left side of search results to ‘show content I have access to’. These books can be downloaded to keep.
- Blackwell Reference Online This link opens in a new window Collection of handbooks, reference and companion texts covering the humanities and social sciences.
- Ebook collection (EbscoHost) This link opens in a new window Library Ebooks covering all disciplines. TIP: change 'Select a Field (optional)' to 'TX All Text Fields' to search inside the books These ebooks offer online viewing not permanent download.
To find the most up to date research you will need to search for research papers, often published within academic journals. Sometimes your lecturer may suggest a particular journal. Often journals may have a particular focus e.g. British journal of Special Education so articles will have a focus on learning difficulties and inclusion so can be very useful when you are looking at a particular topic.
How to find journals:
- Follow links in your module reading lists
- Look up the title of a journal in Primo e.g. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning and follow the link to browse within
- Search across a publisher of lots of journals e.g. Taylor & Francis using the link below
- Search a database (see next tab) which hold millions of articles from many different publishers of journals
- Taylor & Francis Online This link opens in a new window Multidisciplinary journal publisher with a strong focus on the social sciences. Please note, not every title is within our collection.
- Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window
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Publisher of scientific, technical and medical scholarly literature.
- Community Care InformUseful title for anyone studying children and young people. You will need to click on the Shibboleth link, then choose Plymouth University to see full text on and off campus
- Optimus Education InsightSENCO update magazine. You will need to sign into Primo first for the link to work.
What are journals?
Check out this short video for more information on what a journal is Check out this short tutorial on using journals
Individual Journals
These journals can be accessed individually via a search in Primo with a Username and Password
Databases include books, journal and magazine articles and conference proceedings. As well as general databases there are also subject specific databases helping to ensure your search is more relevant. You may also consider looking at particular collections of journals. These databases are indexes -where we subscribe to the full text a link will be available but please note these tools search outside of our full text collections and not every hit will be full text.
To search for relevant articles simply type in your keywords (see choosing your keywords in education for help choosing these).
Finding journal articles
The databases below can be searched for journal articles.
- British Education Index This link opens in a new window A key index of British journal articles, it covers all aspects of education from preschool to higher education including special needs.
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- Child Development & Adolescent Studies This link opens in a new window Produced by NISC providing references to the current and historical literature related to growth and development of children through the age of 21.
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- Educational Administration Abstracts This link opens in a new window Subject coverage includes educational administration, educational leadership, educational management, educational research, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline.
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- Education Abstracts This link opens in a new window Subject coverage includes adult education, multicultural/ethnic education, teaching methods and much more.
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- Environment Complete This link opens in a new window Research database covering environment related disciplines. Many hits will be full text and the SFX button will check other hits for full text via Primo.
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- JSTOR This link opens in a new window JSTOR is a multi-disciplinary journals archive.
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- PsycINFO This link opens in a new window The key index to international literature in psychology and related disciplines, covering 1967 to the present day.
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- Scopus This link opens in a new window Scopus is a journal indexing and abstracting database with citation metrics from Elsevier. It covers international research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities (with a growing coverage of book chapters).
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- SocINDEX This link opens in a new window SocINDEX with Full Text is a sociology and social science research database. It provides full-text, peer-reviewed sociology journals covering many subjects including gender studies, criminal justice, social psychology, racial studies, religion and social work. It also covers elements of international relations and world politics.
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- Web of Science This link opens in a new window Major research database of the worlds top Science & Technology journals and conference proceedings with some additional Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities coverage. Includes research tools e.g. citation reports and cited reference searching.
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What is a database?
This short animation explains what a database is This short video explains what a library database is
What is the School Experience Collection?
If you are training to teach, you can use the School Experience Collection: books and teaching materials for use with primary and secondary pupils. The collection has been assembled for over 40 years and includes some items of historical interest. Some of the collection is used to support modules on children’s literature, including a collection of picture books.
If you are going on placement, you will need to be able to find materials to take with you to support your teaching and also the school which may not have a library. The aims of this guide are:
- to help you become more effective in finding materials for school experience
- to be aware of what other material in the library can support school experience
- to find cross curricular resources for school experience
More information on the School Experience Collection & how to use it
More resources for working in schools
- InterED This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Lesson plan ideas, news, reports and features for teachers and education professionals working in early years, primary and secondary education.
The library holds a very small amount of DVDs which are kept on the shelves alongside the books however most recordings of TV programmes can now be accessed online via BoB:
- Box of Broadcasts (BoB) This link opens in a new window BoB is a shared online off-air TV and radio recording service for UK higher and further education institutions.
- Education in videoEducation in Video is the first online collection of streaming video developed specifically for training and developing teachers.
Newspapers are great for up to date topical or local opinions on events. However it is important to remember that newspapers are written for profit so will use attention grabbing headlines and are often factually incorrect. Often papers have a political affiliation and this may bias their interpretation of events. As newspapers are aimed at the general public the coverage is usually too shallow for academic purposes.
Newspapers are great for up to date topical or local opinions on events. However iSo always verify information found in a newspaper article.
Currently you can search back issues of newspapers, including local papers, through a database called Lexis ('news' tab). The Times Educational Supplement is also available here.
- Lexis Library This link opens in a new window Covers UK legislation and a wealth of case law, news, company, market research and directory sources.
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There is a wealth of information available on the web and some of this may be useful for your assignments. You can search for websites using a search engine such as Google or Bing however often this can overwhelm you with results. To improve your results think about the using the advanced search settings - you can specify words to include/ exclude and limit by type of website.
Useful websites for Education
- Education Research Toolkit A free downloadable toolkit from the NFER to help researchers find education-based research on the internet.
- National Foundation for Educational Research NFER is the UK’s largest independent provider of research, assessment and information services for education, training and children’s services.
- Joseph Rowntree Foundation The JRF works for lasting change for people and places in poverty, communities where everyone can thrive and a more equal society. It funds and publishes research on social issues.
- British Educational Research Association The British Educational Research Association is a member-led organisation dedicated to supporting educational researchers and promoting high quality research in education. It seeks to enhance the field of study, the growth of public knowledge and critical understanding, and the application of findings for the improvement of educational policy and practice
- NASEN Website for promoting the development of children and young people with special educational needs
- Teachernet Archive The archive of content that was previously available via the Department for Schools, Children and Families website
Sources of statistics on the web
- UK Data Service This link opens in a new windowKey economic and social data, both quantitative and qualitative, spanning many disciplines and themes.
Login to Existing Users>choose Plymouth University
- Office for National StatisticsEconomics and social statistics
- OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new windowOECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics plus analysis and data.
- UK National Statistics Publications HubFull text reports available via a search
Adult & FE learning related websites
- Adult Learning and SkillsArchived material
- InfedA website specialising in the theory and practice of informal education, social pedagogy, lifelong learning, social action, and community learning and development.