研究不一定是可怕的
艾米丽·赫尔夫特，M.Ed., Ed.S.
嘘!
Does the thought of engaging with formal academic journals give you the scaries? Or maybe the process of locating legitimate re搜索 (aside from LCIRT's newsletter, of course!)把你吓坏了? Many folks feel intimidated or overwhelmed when it comes to reading and interacting with scientific re搜索, 但是没必要害怕!
Engaging with and staying abreast of re搜索 in the world of education and neurodiversity is an incredibly important skill. These fields are always evolving as we further explore our world, 了解更多关于人类大脑和行为的知识, 并在问题出现时解决问题(你好AI)!). 研究 can help us understand where we've been, where we are now, and where we are headed. It leads to informed decisions that are more likely to result in the outcomes we want. 和, 在合乎道德和有意的情况下, 它改善了我们的教室, 学校, 社区, 一步一个脚印地走向世界.
听起来很不错，对吧?
So where can you start when it comes to diving into the world of re搜索? A quick Google 搜索 seems easy and might yield hundreds of thousands of hits on a particular topic. 和 while there is endless information at your fingertips on the world wide web, 也没有限制的数量 *管理信息系统*information running amok out in the wild, from websites, to YouTube, to TikTok (now * *的 可怕的!). For this reason, we recommend that folks try to engage with literature found in *的同行评议期刊* 只要有可能, as least as a starting point to better understand concepts that are truly supported by science. This is because these types of publications require careful vetting of the content they publish, 包括研究本身的设计, 本文中包含的背景信息, 统计分析用于产生结果的统计分析, and the interpretation and implications of the data generated by the study. 换句话说, someone has done a lot of the heavy lifting around the legitimacy of what is being written about so you mostly don't have to! Ins茶d, you can devote your brainpower to reading, understanding, and learning.
但是艾米丽! 我吓得僵住了! These types of journals give me the creeps—they are so formal and intimidating!
我的食尸鬼朋友, I am here to tell you that you have nothing to fear when it comes to engaging with re搜索—you can do it! 如果你不确定从哪里开始, follow my concrete suggestions for starting your regular re搜索 consumption journey below (inspired by the wonderful 莎莉•斯科特, Director of 研究 at the Association on Higher Education and Disability). 你很快就会从紧张的耐莉变成自信的卡莉. (没什么? 我试着.)
- Identify one journal that aligns with your field or particular interest. Yep-just一! 你可能已经从同事那里知道了一些, or there may be one affiliated with your specific profession (for example, 学校心理学评论 对于学校心理学家来说， 《亚洲博彩平台排名》 对于特殊教育工作者，或者 《亚洲博彩平台排名》杂志 残疾人士资源办公室专业人员). 如果你是所在领域管理组织的成员, 例如NASP或AHEAD, your membership likely comes with access to their affiliated journal—win-win!
- Do a little bit of digging to find some information on your journal-of-choice's publication cycle. 这一点可以在期刊的网站上清楚地标注出来, or it may be something you can determine based on prior publications. The most common publication cycle is quarterly (4 times per year), 但是期刊有各种各样的形式, 大小, 和周期.
- Based on the frequency of publication, mark a 15-minute regularly recurring meeting on your calendar. 是的，只要15分钟. 看吧，我就说你能行的!)当这个会议出现在你的日程表上时, 把所有其他任务放在一边, 喝杯咖啡, 茶, 或者其他小款待, 并找到您所选期刊的最新一期.
- During your 15 minutes, read through just the titles of all the articles, and then their abstracts. An abstract is your TL;DR (Too Long; Didn’t Read) for each article. 它简要地概述了这项研究的内容, as well as a snippet of the results and conclusions drawn from the study. 这种方式, you can quickly consume the latest surface-level information in the issue (a huge bang for your buck when it comes to your ROI), while also deciding if any of the articles are worth putting more time and effort into reading in more detail.
- 如果有一篇文章真的引起了你的兴趣:
- Catalogue it in some type of database where you can slowly start to amass your expertise. 常见的选项包括Zotero, Mendeley, 和尾注, 但即使是Excel或谷歌电子表格也可以. (查看 一些工具的简要比较 来自华盛顿大学St. 路易，如果有帮助的话.)
- Block off 30 minutes on your calendar in the next few weeks to read this article more carefully. Guard this time sincerely—it's a realistic chunk of time to invest and a great change of pace from some of the other activities you do in your daily work. If you're feeling overwhelmed when you sit down to actually read the article itself, we suggest focusing on the introduction/literature review if you're more interested in a one-stop-shop collection of re搜索 on the topic; or the discussion section, where the authors will talk about their interpretation of the findings from the study. (看看这个 期刊文章信息图的解剖 from California State University Dominguez Hills if you'd like to learn a bit more about each section.)
- 注意本文的一个要点并将其添加到您的数据库中. Then, share it (or something else you learned) with a colleague, friend, or even a family member. This helps you commit information to memory in addition to spreading re搜索 knowledge. 万岁!
- 重复每个发布周期.
就是这样! 当你参与到这个过程中, 你会在这个练习中变得更加流利, 确定该领域的趋势, 开始认识作者和专家, and learn lots of new things to share with your colleagues and put into practice. 你知道的越多，你知道的就越多! 和 the more you know, the more motivated you'll be to learn more. 这是一个非常棒的循环.
没那么可怕，对吧?
快乐的研究!