DIALOG

About DIALOG:

DIALOG is a multidisciplinary database.  It “pioneered the online information industry in the early 1970s, delivering content from the world’s most authoritative sources.”¹ Currently, DIALOG is a part of ProQuest and it continues to offer its users access to full text journals covering a wide variety of industries.  Additionally, ProQuest Dialog provides three search functions, Basic, Advanced, and Command Line searches. 

Search Query:

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

Since, this is a multidisciplinary database I did not need to change my search query.  Nevertheless, I did have to select an appropriate industry for my query.  Thus, I began my search by selecting Education as my Industry.  Then I prepared and executed an advanced search based on the following concept analysis of my search query:         

	Facet 1	Facet 2
Concept	·         high school dropout rate ·         graduate rate	learning disability

I used the following Boolean search statement (natural language):

• Hits = (learning disabilities and high school dropout rate) or graduate rate)) 
• 530,656 hits were retrieved.

I then added the following limiters:

• Full text
• Peer reviewed
• Language – English
• Source type – scholarly journal
• Publication date – 2010- 2014
• Location – United States (US)

The number of hits was reduced to 482. 

I noticed that this search only considered my terms as keywords, thus the result list contained a lot of irrelevant items.  In order to find a relevant hit from this result list I would have to look at all 482 hits.  Consequently, I decided to conduct a second search limiting my search field to subject and using a new Boolean statement; Hits= SU: (learning disabilities) and (high school dropout rate).  I used the following limiters:

• Full text
• Language – English
• Date range - 2010-2014.

145 hits were retrieved.

   
Best Hit:

Command Line Search:
Another search interface that this database allows its users to employ is called a command line search.  A command line search allows an experienced user to create a precise search using operators to combine different fields that targets the users search terms.  Unlike the advanced search, the command line search does not provide the user with search boxes or search field drop down menus. 

After looking for a relevant hit in the first four pages of my first search, I noticed that this search had been skewed by the word “rate”.  Therefore, in the command line search I conducted a search using the following Boolean search statement:  hits = SU: (learning disabilities) and IF: (high school dropout).  28 hits were retrieved.  I then narrowed the search by date range 2000-2014, to 15 hits. 

 Best result:

 What I learned: Content

Liana Gonzalez is arguing that the effectiveness of special education programs is questionable given current dropout rates in special education.  Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the variables that contributed towards predicting graduation potential in special education, so that a solution can be found.  Gonzalez was able to identify which distinguishing factors promote the graduation potential of this population.  The results were made possible because this study investigated the largest sample of subjects (at the time of the study). 

This study’s strength lies in the fact that the hypothesis was tested by a quantitative component, as well as a qualitative component.  The mixed-methodology model was used to analyze the main themes yielded by the quantitative and qualitative components.  Gonzalez only offers a conclusion after analyzing both components as a whole.  Additionally, unlike prior research in this area, the quantitative component of this study looked at the school records of a large number of subjects, 573 students.  Although, the qualitative component only consisted of the responses of 15 students, Gonzalez noted that this amount was sufficient because saturation occurred after the fourth interview, for that reason generalization is acceptable.  

Conversely, one of the drawbacks of this study is Gonzalez’s apparent bias towards the implementation of inclusive settings over self-contained settings for students with SLD and EBD.  This study focused on educational setting as a main question.  Although, the study does not find a statistical significant difference between an inclusive and a self-contained setting, Gonzalez constantly refers to the benefits of an inclusive setting; while giving very little merit to the benefits of a self-contained setting.  This bias is further highlighted by Gonzalez’s own admission that as a veteran special education teacher she prefers when SLD and EBD students are placed in an inclusive setting.   She also noted that due in part to current laws which affect education; most of the students in this sample were in inclusive settings.  This may underestimate dropout rates in special education since generally students with disabilities placed in inclusive settings are more likely to be academically successful than those in self-contained settings.  Another challenge that Gonzalez noted was that the setting where the study took place (Miami Dade) employs the least accurate method used to calculate dropout rate.      

Ultimately, this study found that in order to promote the graduation potential of students with SLA or EBD, their academic success must be facilitated.  One way to enable their academic success is to place these students in inclusive settings because, this setting was found by this study to positively promote academic success, which is the only significant predictor of graduation within this population of students.  

What I learned: Searching

The first search in the advanced search interface yield a very high number of hits with very low precision, most of the hits were irrelevant to my query.  By limiting the field search to subject in the second search, I was able to reduce the number of hits and increase the precision of the search.  That said 145 hits is still a substantial amount of items to have to look through in order to find relevant information.  In contrast, the command line search initially yield 28 relevant hits which I was then able to further reduce to 15 hits.  Additionally, while in my previous searches I was able to evaluate the relevancy of the items by simply reading the titles, in the command line search I had to read the abstracts in order to determine which item was the best.  Moreover, the best hit found during the command line search is to date the most informative article that I have found about my query. 

Reflection:
I am highly satisfied with this database. I like that this database is straight forward. I found all the features easy to find and well defined.  If a user wants to limit the search he need only click on the available limiters, including limiting the number of database searched in each query.  Conversely, if a user wants to expand the search, then this database allows users to employ truncation operators.  This database also contains a user friendly help page that can help first time users to successfully navigate the database. 

Reference List:

1.  “SEARCH. FIND. SHARE.” ProQuest Dialog. Accessed October 13, 2014. http://media2.proquest.com/documents/dialog_overview_brochure.pdf

2. Gonzalez, Liana. 2010. "Class Placement and Academic and Behavioral Variables as Predictors of Graduation for Students with Disabilities." Order No. 3470218, Florida International University. Accessed October 13, 2014. http://ezproxy.twu.edu:2048/docview/744522596?accountid=7102.