Early Childhood

• Resources
• Research strategies
• Writing and citing

Resources for Early Childhood

• Definitions, facts, figures and overviews
• Books and more
• Subject readings
• Journal articles
• Internet sites
• Related resources
  • Curriculum resources (CRC collection)
  • History of Australian education and welfare
  • Teaching resources and support (Internet links)

Early Childhood definitions, facts, and overviews

• Dictionaries help you to define your keywords
• Encyclopedias help you to get an overview of your topic and provide more information than a dictionary
• Handbooks and manuals provide figures and facts

Online dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks

Print dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks

To find additional reference items

1. Search the Library Catalogue
2. Select advanced keyword search
3. Combine a broad keyword AND the word dictionar**
   
   education AND dictionar**
   
   early childhood AND encycloped**
   
   
4. To retrieve variations of your keyword use the truncation symbol **
   
   e.g. educat** will retrieve educate, educated, education and educational

Need help? Ask a question.

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Early Childhood books and more

Search the Library Catalogue to find books, videos, CDs

If you know the exact title

1. Select title search
2. Type in the exact title
3. Check the location, call number and status boxes to find the item in the Library collection

If you don't have an exact title OR only have a topic area

1. Select advanced keyword search
2. Type in keywords from your topic
3. Combine your keywords with AND to find catalogue records that contain all of your keywords
   
   e.g. child development AND early childhood
   
   
4. To retrieve variations of your keyword use the truncation symbol **
   
   e.g. educat** will retrieve educate, educated, education

Catalogue search tips:

• Too many hits? Add another keyword e.g. child development AND early childhood AND curriculum
  OR
  Use the limit functions in advanced keyword search e.g. limit by publication date, format, location
• Found a useful title? Click on the subject headings to find similar material
• Studying at a different UOW campus? Use an advanced keyword search and limit by location

Need help? Ask a question.

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Early Childhood journal articles

Search a database to find journal articles, book chapters, conference papers and research reports (add newspaper articles if appropriate)

Try these first (5 database max - delete extra rows if not needed - faclib to choose order - either alphabetical or importance)

Complete list of Education databases

Found a useful reference?

Some databases do not provide the fulltext of the article. To locate these articles, you will need to search the catalogue to determine if the Library holds the journal title(s) either in print or electronically on another database.

Database search tips:

• Break your topic into keywords and/or phrases. The search strategy worksheet will help you
• Consider alternative keywords or spelling variations
• To narrow your search combine your keywords with AND to find records that contain all your keywords
  
  e.g. children AND health
  
  
• To broaden your search combine your keywords with OR to find records that contain either of your keywords
  
  e.g. health OR hygiene
  
  
• Use truncation to retrieve variations of your keyword. Symbols vary between databases
  
  e.g. teach* retrieves teacher, teaching.
  
  
• Found a useful reference? Use the subject headings to find similar material
• Use library database tips or the database help screens for tips on how to search

More information: Finding Journal Articles Tutorial

Need help? Ask a question.

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Early Childhood Internet sites

It is important to critically evaluate all information found on the Web.

Try the following sites as a starting point.

• Research and teaching
• Health and safety
• Teaching resources
• Government departments
• Search engines
• Directories
• UOW Sites

Research and teaching

• Australian Early Childhood Association
  AECA is a non-profit organisation that acts in the interests of children from birth
  to eight years of age and for older children in outside schools hours care. It is also a publisher of early childhood literature and publications
• Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting (CEEP)
  provides publications and information to the worldwide early childhood and parenting communities.
  
• Early Childhood Educators' and Family Web Corner
  The links on this site include a section called Teacher Pages, an index of links to information on a number of topics to do with Early Childhood.

Health and safety

• Child and Youth Health
  Parenting, Child and Youth Health are the focus of this site which provides links very useful for classroom teaching.
• Early Childhood Care and Development
  This site provides links to international resources about young children 0-8 years of age.

Teaching resources

• Education World Early Childhood Centre
  Includes activities, lesson plans and a number of topical headings about Early Childhood.
• Little Explorers Picture dictionary
  An online picture dictionary with links to other teachng resources
• Idea Box
  Early childhood education and activity resources
• Kindergarten Connection
• Teaching Strategies
• Training Wheels
• Welcome to Children's House in Cyberspace

Government departments

• Board of Studies New South Wales Australia
  The Board of Studies site provides all NSW syllabi online, as well as other relevant curriculum information.
• Childcare Program - Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services
• Childcare in Queensland
  Provides insight into how one Australian State Government manages its childcare system

Search engines

Search engines create databases using computer programs called 'spiders', 'robots' or 'crawlers' that trawl the web and other Internet sites and return results to the database.

Try these first:

• Google Scholar
• Other search engines and directories

Directories

Directories organise Internet resources by subject. The information provided in directories is created, arranged and maintained by people rather than machines.

WWW Virtual Library

• Google Directory: Early Childhood
• Yahoo Education Directory: Early Childhood

UOW sites

• Faculty of Education
• Early Childhood Education
• Curriculum Resources Centre (CRC)

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Last reviewed: 29 October, 2007