Teaching Systematic Thinking and Problem Solving through Database Searching, Synthesis and Analysis.

Teacher education faculty and library reference services personnel collaborated to introduce teacher education students to the use of modern technological resources and to encourage systematic thinking processes to address pedagogically based educational problems. Undergraduate students enrolled in an educational psychology class piloted the project. They were instructed in the use of the ERIC Database on CD-ROM, focusing on the ERIC Thesaurus, parsing, use of Boolean operators, limiting citations, and printing. Critical thinking concepts and systematic planning in decisionmaking were discussed in two subsequent classroom sessions. The students were asked to define and investigate an instructional problem, develop a rationale, construct research strategies, compile descriptors, search the ERIC database, and connect relationships of citations to their educational topic or problem. They reviewed the citations, summarized the data, drew conclusions, and cited recommendations and potential solutions to the problem. The final product consisted of a modified annotated bibliography. A survey of student perceptions of the project indicated that the students understood the potential of their exposure to the concepts of critical thinking, applications of systematic planning, and technological applications. They placed a high value on their instructional activities and were interested in having more such activities in their undergraduate preparation. (MAH)