Understanding And Describing Evidence

Assessment item 1:- Understanding and Describing Evidence.

The topic that I have chosen is Critical Reflection in Adult Education.

Sourcing relevant information led me to various locations and mediums including electronic databases, internet search engines and libraries.

DATABASES

On-line searches of databases were interesting and informative as a new medium that I’ve never ventured into. Using the computer at the UWS library and at home I entered the ERIC and Proquest Education Complete databases and gained information as follows.

• Access UWS library Voyager front page

• Click on database

• Scroll file to ERIC and click go

• This opens the Webspirs Netscape page

• Tick the ERIC database 1992-2000 and click search

• 1. Typed in вЂ?critical reflection’ in вЂ?words anywhere’ and highlight вЂ?English’

• 229 results displayed

• 2. Typed in вЂ?adult education’ and click search

• 11949 results displayed

• Clicked to вЂ?Advance Search’ and combined my search which narrowed it down to 25 results for вЂ?Critical reflection’ and вЂ?adult education’. Three relevant examples are-

1. Brookfield, Stephen D. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. Jossey-Bass.

2. Stein, David. (2000) Teaching Critical Reflection. Myths and Realities No. 7.

3. Brookfield, Stephen. A Critical Definition of Adult Education. Adult Education Quarterly; v36 n1 p44-49 Fall 1985.

Another database accessed was вЂ?Education Complete вЂ"Proquest’.

ERIC can also be accessed directly on the internet via http://ericacve.org/

INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES

Several search engines were used to varying degrees of success as shown below.

1. www.anzwers.com.au

• Click in directory on вЂ?Reference and Education’

• Click in next directory вЂ?Education’

• Click in next directory вЂ?Adult Education’

• Go to вЂ?Powersearch’ and type in вЂ?critical reflection’ then search

• 2143 returns were displayed

• Condensed my search by typing вЂ?critical reflection’ and вЂ?adult education’ in the вЂ?word filter’.

• 24 returns were displayed

A relevant item was

Jossey-Bass: Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher by Stephen D. Brookfield

Jossey-Bass 350 Sansome Street San Francisco, CA 94104 Phone: 415.433.1740 Fax: 415.433.0499 email: webperson@jbp.com www.josseybass.com Ð'© 1997-2000 A Wiley Company Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher Stephen D. Brookfield Praise for this

http://www.josseybass.com/catalog/isbn/0-7879-0131-8, 14267 bytes, 2001/01/24

2. www.edna.edu.au (Education Network Australia)

• Went to вЂ?search’ in the directory and typed in вЂ?critical reflection and adult education’ and clicked search.

• 13 results were found called вЂ?EdNa News and Views’ of which all were Published documents.

• After opening several of these documents I could not find any that was of real relevance.

• Any attempt to condense my search by changing country, phrase or area of search brought back no results.

Other sites accessed were-

• www.google.com

• www.altavista.com

• www.yahoo.com

LIBRARY SEARCH

The UWS library and the Miller TAFE library were used.

1. UWS library Voyager catalogue.

• Guided keyword search, typed вЂ?critical reflection’

• 3715 entries displayed

• Typed вЂ?critical reflection and adult education’ in search for a вЂ?phrase’ and вЂ?keyword anywhere’

• 1 entry returned.

• Mezirow,