I "may" have picked my articles for my OU essay can anyone comment on whether they are acceptable for acedemic work?

[KatyMac]

The firt is from OFSTED

& the second is here not sure what it i actually but I really like it

My question is

I have to place me & my organisation within it's environment & the issues it (& I) is/are facing
Then I pick 2 articles and use theories relate to the articles
Then I use those theories to relate back to where the organisation & I currently are

I think.....maybe?

Does it work?

bump

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Yes to the first, no to the second. It is A) not published, B) not a reputable site. It helps if you can find a government agency/a site with excellent standing (NSPCC/Barnardos). I'd find another second one.

It is published - It's called Leading Practice in Early Years Settings

Do I have to buy it?

You need the ISBN number etc for the references, you can't get away with the unpublished version off a site. If you ask the Uni library they can get it for you for free or they may have a copy.

The first site (Ofsted) is best practice rather then a theory isn't it?

Yep - I could link it to Maslow & also to enpowerment with Kinlaw? and look at monitor & evaluation and control loops?

TBH I am not quite sure what an "article" is

A journal. You need to use these, they are more up to date then books. You can access them through your Uni password on the Uni site.

Kind of like the Lancet/British Medical Journal if you are doing medicine. There are alot that relate to each course.

The OU library is very hard to navigate

Umm. Are you registered with a Uni? You should be able to access theirs.

Only Open University, can I register with anyone else?

What problem do you have with the OU library? Do you search specific databases? I found that the easiest route to what I wanted.

Do you not attend your local Uni for some lectures???

Is there an OU librarian who can help you to navigate the library, or an online tutorial about using it? I do think you need to get to grips with it, otherwise your work will suffer.

Not with the OU scrooged, no. The OU is the university you are registered with.

I would agree that you do need to get to grips with the library.

How/why would you want to search specific databases

This is my first piece of work at this level -- so I am struggling a bit

The suggested articles are not relevant to Early Years or the issues we have

So are books any good or can it only be articles in periodicals?

KM, really hope this message doens't upset you, it's meant to be helpful, hope it is!...the thing is that at this level, you are working in specific topics, so the stuff you need to read is written for specialists and collected in specialist journals, on the whole it's not of interest to general readers, also it's expensive to produce so they limit access (e.g. via university libiraries) so they can charge for it (the university, not you). So the journals tend to be accessed through specialist databases.

Having said all that a really good starting point IMO is Google Scholar. Have you used it? At the top left of the Google home page, there is a link saying 'more' - click on that, then search for Early Years via the Google Scholar home page.

This is only an initial short cut - you need to make the OU librarian your best friend.

It's usually books and articles. But I'm interested that your description of the essay seems to suggest specifically articles - perhaps to increase students' familiarity with the main journals in your field? I wouldn't know. What are the learning outcomes for the module/essay?

What level are you working at?

I used databases because they had a good range of published resources from my subject area. We had guidance on this from our course team.

Have you tried Academic Search Premier (IIRC)? You can enter keywords and it will come up with a list of articles for you to look at. It takes in a pretty wide range of journals and subjects.

What is the guidance in the assessment booklet with regards to the literature search you need to do?

Sorry, I needed to eat.
Books can become outdated quite quickly so I wouldn't use on which is older then 8 years old. Journals are more up to date, they are published monthly. They are good for best practice and they are really good for showing that you have researched the area rather then going through a few books. You will be expected to use a few journal articles anyway, they are just better. You can go through past journals to find what you need.

Sorry, I remember the OU being affiliated with local Uni's.

"the OU librarian" is this a person or a search engine?

I do understand - but as a novice I am finding it very hard to find out:
a)what information is available
b)how to access it
c)Whether it is relevant
d)whether it is acceptable to use

I found that 2nd article on google scholar - then I found the book it is from/for

We got a book with about a dozen 'articles' in it

But at the tutorial the tutor suggested finding our own unless something in the book was exactly what you needed

TBH the stuff in the book is not relevant to my organisation in any way - so I am off on my own

'Leadership in Early Years' is proving very difficult to find articles about