JSTOR

 

About JSTOR:

JSTOR is a multidisciplinary digital library that contains over 1500 full text academic journals, as well as books and primary sources.¹  JSTOR is also considered an online archiving database for academic journals.  It is currently a part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization.²   

Search Query:

• Is there a correlation between students that are identified as having a learning disability and the high school dropout rate?

Search 1- I created this concept analysis for my search using natural language: 

	Facet 1	Facet 2
Concept	high school dropout rate	learning disability

Boolean search statement using natural language:

Set 1 = (learning disabilities and high school dropout rate)

484,373 hits were recalled using the terms in set 1. 

I then added the following limiters:

• Item type – article
• Date Range – 2013-2014
• Languages – English
• Discipline – education

1,387 hits were recalled after applying the limiters. 

I found that the most relevant hit from this search was the article entitled “Equity or Marginalization? The high school course-taking of students labeled with a learning Disability.” This article addressed the original query because it focused on the impact of learning disability on students in high school.  The rest of the articles in the first two pages of the result list address the impact of learning disability on students in college or were completely irrelavant to my query.  

Search 2: Due to the number of generated hits I refined my second search by using the search strategy Successive Fractions Search.  

Boolean search statement using natural language:

• Set 1 = (learning disabilities)
• Set 2 = (graduation rate or high school dropouts)
• Hits = (learning disabilities) and (graduation rate or high school dropouts)

6071 hits were recalled using the terms in set 1.  

20 hits were recalled using the terms in set 1 and set 2. 

I started the search with the broadest term set, learning disabilities for the database JStor.  6071 hits were recalled using the terms in set 1. I also added the following limiters:

• Item type – article
• Languages – English
• Discipline – Education and Psychology

The articles recalled had a wide range of topics, such as reading disabilities, special education and reading intervention research.  20 hits were recalled using the terms in set 1 and 2. Set 1 and set 2 were also limited to item type – article, languages – English and Discipline - Education and Psychology.  This result list was more precise; almost all of the articles were relevant.  I believe that the article entitled “A Look at High School Programs as Perceived by Youth with Learning Disabilities” provided the most relevant information. 

 

 

What I learned: Content

I learned that students with identified learning disabilities are at a higher risk of dropping out of school early, than their general education peers.  As a result of dropping out of school these students face a number of negative outcomes in adulthood such as, higher rates of unemployment.  This study suggests that educators need to focus their intervention programs on services and educational settings that help students with learning disabilities become productive adults.  The students in this study defined productive adult-hood as “a better job, an adequate education, and a better life in general.”  Furthermore, they believe that how the teacher interacts with them is a key factor in creating an educational setting which will enable them to succeed.  They want “teachers who offer individual help, let students know they care about them, explain things on an individual basis if necessary, and include hands-on activities in their lessons.”  Therefore, educators must create intervention programs that allow the teachers the flexibilities that they need to meet the individual student’s needs, rather than try to conform the needs of the individual students to an aggregate identified need.       

 

What I learned: Searching

I learned that this database does not contain a thesaurus, thus it does not offer a safe and helpful entry point into an unfamiliar subject.³   That said, I found this database to be very user friendly especially for a naive searcher, because it provides fool proof drop down menus that shapes a naïve search into a more precise valuable search.

Reflection:

I conducted a Successive Fractions Search and it did produce a more precise results list. However, I believe that I could have arrived at the same result list by simply filling in the Advanced Search Menu fields. This finding has led me to believe that this database contains internal controls that are in place to help amateur users. In addition to being user-friendly to naïve users, it is a multidisciplinary database. Therefore, it is a good database in which to begin your research.

 

Reference List:

1.      “Databases A-Z List.” Texas Woman’s University. Accessed September 19, 2014. http://www.twu.edu/library/databases-descriptions-a.asp

2.      “JSTOR about.” JSTOR. Accessed September 19, 2014. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2072/about

3.      Bell, Suzanne.  2012.  Librarian’s guide to online searching.  3rd Ed. Santa Barbara CA: Libraries Unlimited. p.25