Welcome to the OISE Library’s Critical Search Skills for Graduate Students! This series is designed for graduate students in education and social sciences who want to level up their literature searching skills while striving for critical and responsible information practices. Coffee and tea will be provided.
You can attend these sessions individually or as a complete series—choose the ones that best meet your searching needs.
This is Session 1: Turning Great Ideas into Effective Search Questions.
Translating your broader subject interests into a refined search topic and question is often the first step of a research assignment. This process can set the tone for the rest of your searching process, but to set ourselves up for success there are several different variables that we want to consider at the graduate level.
In this session, we outline steps to help you balance these variables, while designing search strategies which are:
- Informed by the research landscape: Choose topics that are relevant, current, and critical!
- Manageable and feasible in their scope: Develop search parameters that align with assignment criteria and timelines!
- Genuinely of interest to you: Choose topics that will keep you engaged and motivated throughout your searching!
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Gather information on trends, debates and gaps in your research areas to inform the development of your search questions.
- Refine the scope of your search questions while identifying defined criteria.
- Navigate preliminary searches, using strategies to critically assess and efficiently skim your initial findings.
- Confidently bring your own identities, interests, and expertise to your research topics.
If you have any questions or accessibility needs, please contact Mackenzie Blanchett at mackenzie.blanchett@utoronto.ca. We kindly ask that you provide as much advanced notice as possible.
Additional sessions: Check out the other sessions OISE Library’s Graduate Search Skills Series!
- Session 2: Fundamentals of Strategic Searching (Monday, February 10 OR Friday, February 14)
- Session 3: Untangling AI in the Literature Search Process (Tuesday, March 04 OR Friday, March 07)
- Session 4: Implementing a Critical Citation Practice (Tuesday, March 25 OR Friday, March 28)