Finding Information for your Teaching and Research Work in Teaching and Learning

While most academics will be aware of the key people and information sources in their specific discipline they may be unaware of the people who are writing about teaching and learning in these disciplines. This chapter is aimed at those involved in exploring the topic of teaching andlearning in various disciplines. Librarians will also find it useful in identifying key resources for collection development.The chapter is divided into three sections.Section Planning a literature search describes the process of doing a literature search. There are common steps in executing a literature search across disciplines. However, researching the literature of teaching and learning may necessitate a review of a much broader range of literature than that which academics are familiar with in their own discipline. It can be argued that teachingand learning is in itself a discipline. A body of research relating to teaching and learning has grown up and much of the applications and findings can be applied across disciplines. For example articles in the Journal of Chemical Education, may be relevant for research in other science or indeed in the social sciences or humanities.Section Directory of Resources is a directory of resources. This gives details of resources, includingbooks, journals, websites, conference papers and databases in the area of learning and teaching. The directory is selective rather than exhaustive and draws on a survey of the information needs of education developers carried out by the author in Summer 2004. It is aimed primarily at education developers, new academic staff and experienced academic staff who wish to develop their teaching and learning.Section Publishing your findings/research on your teaching gives brief guidelines on publishing your research are included in this section.The chapter emphasises the vital link between the new lecturer, the experienced lecturer who wants to improve his/her teaching practice and the Librarian.