Research Guides: Elementary Education: Welcome

Welcome

What's This?

This guide lists resources and tools that will help you to do academic work and research on elementary school teaching, and use the materials you find.

What If I Need Help?

Contact Ash Lierman at lierman@rowan.edu !

Need Help with the Praxis Exams?

We have many test prep books, flashcards, and practice exams for the Praxis Core and for various Praxis II examinations, both in the library and online! This guide lists them, plus some reliable and helpful free online resources for preparing:

Praxis Prep Materials for Education Students

Guided Lesson Plan Builder

This step-by-step tool from the library has a blank lesson plan template to download, and informational resources on how to complete each section as you move through the pages.

Building a Lesson Plan

Find Scholarly Articles

The best way to access scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles from Rowan University Libraries is through our databases. Databases are self-contained online tools that provide large searchable collections of articles and other materials. They may contain articles from a large variety of subjects, or focus on only one subject.

Below are some key databases specific to Education, as well as a few other tips and tools.

Best Bets for Education Articles

ERIC This link opens in a new window
ERIC is considered the top database in Education, provided by the U.S. Department of Education. Its focus is supporting teaching practice in K-12 education, although it covers other aspects. It includes mostly scholarly journal articles and reports from government agencies.
ERIC indexes articles (identified as "EJ") and documents (identified as "ED") on all aspects of education. This version of ERIC is provided on the EBSCO platform.
Education Source This link opens in a new window
Education Source is also a major education database. It overlaps with ERIC, but each covers some areas better than the other, and searching both is highly recommended. As well as scholarly journal articles, some book chapters and dissertations are also included.
Provides full text, indexing, and abstracts for thousands of education journals, books and education-related conference papers. Coverage spans all levels of education and includes educational specialties such as multilingual education, health education, and testing.

NOTE: You can search both these databases at once!

Open either ERIC or Education Source (it doesn't matter which).
Click the Choose Databases link above the search boxes at the top of the screen.
Ensure that both ERIC and Education Source (and any other databases you wish to include) are checked in the list.
Click OK. Now when you search, you will get results from both databases simultaneously.

Tip: Getting articles

If you don't see a Full Text link below the article citation, look for a button labeled "Get it!" This application will check for access to the full text of the article within the library's subscriptions.

If a message is displayed indicating that we don't have access, choose the Campbell Library Interlibrary Loan Request link to order the article through our Illiad online system.

Google Scholar

You may prefer to use Google Scholar to find scholarly articles, and that's okay too! Just make sure that you can access the articles you find, by linking Google Scholar to Rowan University Libraries' resources.

From the Google Scholar home page, click the button in the top left with three horizontal lines:
Select Settings.
In the Settings area, click the option in the left navigation that says Library links.
In the search box marked Show library access links for (choose up to five libraries):, search for Rowan University.
An option should appear below the search box that reads "Rowan University - FullText@RowanUniversity" with a check-box next to it. Click the check-box so it is selected.
Click Save in the lower right.

Now when you search in Google Scholar from this browser, your results should link directly to full text of each article, courtesy of Rowan University Libraries.

Find Articles and More by Teaching Subject

This page links to library resources that are useful for teaching in different subject areas.

Art & Music Teaching Articles and Resources

Journal Articles

Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new window
Scholarly articles in the field of art.
Provides full text plus abstracts and indexing of an international array of peer-selected publications covering fine, decorative, and commercial art. Coverage dates: Indexing 1984+, Abstracting 1994+, “select” Full Text 1997+
Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Journal articles for the study of music.
Indexing and abstracts for many international music periodicals with some coverage from 1874. Subjects include history, education, performance, composition, theory, ethnomusicology, popular music.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window
Journal articles on music.
A product of the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale. RILM Abstracts is a comprehensive music bibliography features citations, abstracts and subject indexing.

Quick Information

Grove Art Online This link opens in a new window
Scholarly art encyclopedia covering global art and architecture from prehistory to present.
Grove Music Online This link opens in a new window
Collection of encyclopedias and other quick information sources about music.
Acomprehensive compendium of music scholarship offering a continuously updated cross search of the full texts of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians 2nd edition (2001), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (1992), The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz 2nd edition (2002), The Grove Dictionary of American Music (2013), the Oxford Dictionary of Music, and the Oxford Companion of Music.
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
An encyclopedia on all aspects of music history and music-related topics.
This is a continuously updated online version of the former historically significant print references: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, and The Grove Dictionary of American Music. Articles include biographies, bibliographies, composers’ works lists, and illustrations. It includes numerous “tools and resources,” or indexes, for accessing the textual and musical content as well as links to related sites, sound archives, illustrations.

Images and Recordings

Art Images for College Teaching
Art Images for College Teaching (AICT) is a personal, non-profit project of its author, art historian and visual resources curator Allan T. Kohl . AICT is intended primarily to disseminate images of art and architectural works in the public domain on a free-access,
free-use basis to all levels of the educational community, as well as to the public at large.
Artcyclopedia
A guide to art on the Internet. 8,700 artists listed, 2,600 art sites indexed, over 100,000 links
Image Collections and Online Art
An extensive classified list of links to online image websites compiled by the University of Michigan School of Art & Design

American Music (Music Online) This link opens in a new window
Audio recordings of historical American songs.
American Music is a history database that allows people to hear and feel the music from America's past. The database includes songs by and about American Indians, miners, immigrants, slaves, children, pioneers and cowboys. Included in the database are the songs of Civil Rights, political campaigns, Prohibition, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, anti-war protests and more.
Classical Music in Video (Music Online) This link opens in a new window
Video recordings of classical music performances and master classes.
Contains performances of all forms of classical music, including major orchestral performances by leading orchestras, plus chamber music, oratorio, and solo performances, along with masterclasses and interviews with master teachers from around the world.
Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Streaming audio of music recordings in many genres. If you cannot use this resource, please try again later. There is a limit on the number of users at one time.
Provides streaming audio of music recordings, with genres including classical, jazz, folk, and some non-western world music.
Popular Music Library This link opens in a new window
Audio recordings of popular music from around the world.
Contains a wide range of popular music from around the world, including hundreds of thousands of tracks from major genres in pop music, including alternative, country, Christian, electronic, hip-hop, metal, punk, new age, R&B, reggae, rock, soundtracks and many more.

English Teaching Articles and Resources

Journal Articles

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles in a broad range of academic disciplines, including English literature.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Journal articles on language, linguistics, and literature.
Contains millions of citations from journals & series, as well as book publishers, dating back to the 1920s. The indexed materials coverage is international, and includes titles and full-text links from J-STOR and Project Muse, Wiley-Blackwell and Taylor & Francis. Subjects consist of literature, language and linguistics, folklore, film, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Listings on rhetoric and composition and the history, theory and practice of teaching language and literature are also included.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
JSTOR can also be searched simultaneously using the advanced search feature on the Project Muse page.

Quick Information

Literature Resource Center (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Search for quick, reliable information about literature and authors.
Includes access to content from Contemporary Authors Online, Contemporary Literary Criticism Select, Dictionary of Literary Biography Online, and a variety of other online sources of literary criticism and biography.
Middle Search Plus This link opens in a new window
Potential readings for middle school students, such as magazine articles, biographies, and historical essays.
Includes primary source documents, reference books and an image collection.
NoveList K-8 This link opens in a new window
Helps find books for children appropriate for their reading level and interests.
Parents, teachers, and librarians can also find tools to teach with books and engage young readers.

Health and P.E. Teaching Articles and Resources

Journal Articles

Health and Medicine (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Scholarly articles and book chapters, pamphlets, and videos on health topics.

Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance
Find articles in a major scholarly journal in physical education.

Public Health Database This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles, reports, and more on public health topics.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
A major database of scholarly journal articles on all medical and related scientific topics.
Comprises citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
SPORTDiscus with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Journal and news articles on sport & exercise science, physical education, and related areas.
Provides access to articles on sport & exercise science, sport management, physical education, physical, occupational & recreational therapy, kinesiology and human movement studies, sport psychology, leisure studies, and sport law. Full-text articles dating back to 1985.

Quick Information

Health and Wellness (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Reliable information on diseases, treatments, and other health-related topics.

Sports Nutrition Care Manual
Online access to the complete Sports Nutrition Care Manual via Rowan University Libraries.

Anatomy.TV This link opens in a new window
3D images and videos of human anatomy and physiology. Please note that this resource supports five users at a time.
Provides 3D images of different anatomical regions as well as functional anatomy videos and diagnostic imaging with labels. With the 3D interactive models of human anatomy, users can zoom, rotate and peel away layers to educate and communicate with an ease and directness that was never possible with print.
e-Anatomy: human anatomy, medical imaging and illustrations This link opens in a new window
An anatomical database providing more than 3,000 images of the human body.
Provides cross-sectional, gross, and radiological anatomy derived from various types of medical imaging, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans.

Social Studies & History Teaching Articles and Resources

Journal Articles

America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present.
Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles in world history outside North America.
Abstracts and some full text of journal articles, citations to books, and dissertations on the history of the world (excluding North America) from 1450 to the present.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles in a broad range of academic disciplines, including history and other social sciences.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
JSTOR can also be searched simultaneously using the advanced search feature on the Project Muse page.
Social Science Database This link opens in a new window
Scholarly articles in a variety of social science journals.
Covers core disciplines across the social sciences including sociology, social work, anthropology, politics and other areas, featuring journals from several countries, facilitating multidisciplinary research and providing researchers with a variety of perspectives.

Quick Information

African-American History This link opens in a new window
Online encyclopedia of African-American history.
Features thousands of cross-referenced entries, covering the entire spectrum of African-American history over the past 500 years.
American History This link opens in a new window
Online encyclopedia of American history.
Spans more than 500 years of political, military, social, and cultural history, highlighting the important people and events of the American experience. Includes biographies, events and topics, primary sources, timelines, images and videos, maps and charts. All full text.
American Indian History This link opens in a new window
Online encyclopedia of the history of the American Indian.
Offers access to more than 600 Native American groups and over 15,000 years of American Indian culture and history.
American Women's History Online This link opens in a new window
Online encyclopedia of the history of women in the United States.
Covers the important people, events, legislation, and issues relevant to the study of women's history in the United States. Includes biographies, events and topics, primary sources, time-lines, images and videos, maps and charts. All full text.
Modern World History Online This link opens in a new window
Online encyclopedia of modern world history.
Covers the people, places, and events in the broad expanse of history from the mid-15th century to the present.

Primary Sources

History Vault This link opens in a new window
Archival collections documenting topics in eighteenth- through twentieth-century American history.
Subjects include African American studies, women’s studies, history, political science, military and diplomatic history, immigration.

Primary Sources by Subject
Extensive list of primary source databases

Spanish Teaching Articles and Resources

Journal Articles

Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Bilingual (English and Spanish) database of newspapers, magazines and journals from and about communities of color.
An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Coverage begins in 1990.
Informe Académico (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Spanish and Portuguese-language scholarly journals and magazines both from and about Latin America.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Journal articles on language, linguistics, and literature.
Contains millions of citations from journals & series, as well as book publishers, dating back to the 1920s. The indexed materials coverage is international, and includes titles and full-text links from J-STOR and Project Muse, Wiley-Blackwell and Taylor & Francis. Subjects consist of literature, language and linguistics, folklore, film, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Listings on rhetoric and composition and the history, theory and practice of teaching language and literature are also included.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles in a broad range of academic disciplines, including languages and literature.
Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journal articles in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
JSTOR can also be searched simultaneously using the advanced search feature on the Project Muse page.

Quick Information

Referencia Latina This link opens in a new window
Spanish-language general reference resource.
Literature Online This link opens in a new window
Works of poetry, drama and prose, with journal articles and criticism about them.

STEM Teaching Articles and Resources

Journal Articles

ACM Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Academic journal articles in computer science.
Full text of articles published by ACM (the professional organization for computer scientists) and bibliographic citations from major publishers in computing.
MathSciNet This link opens in a new window
Academic journal articles on mathematics.
Contains references, abstracts, and reviews from mathematical journals, conference proceedings, books, and dissertations.
PubMed This link opens in a new window
A major database of scholarly journal articles on all biology and biomedical topics.
Comprises citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scholarly articles in all sciences, as well as tools for looking up how often articles have been cited.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Scientific journal articles with data on who has cited them.
Provides immediate data on who has cited research papers, covering high impact journals, including Open Access journals, conference proceedings, and current and retrospective coverage in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, with coverage to 1900.

Quick Information

SciFinder-n (CAS) This link opens in a new window
CAS database of chemical substances, reactions, and journal literature. Registration required.
Register Here. After registering, please always access SciFinder-n from here and not from the confirmation email.
SciFindern allows you to explore the journal and patent literature for information about chemical substances and reactions and chemistry-related research topics. You must register and create your own account and password to use this database, which is for academic, non-commercial use only (see license agreement for details). Full text access is available for those journals to which we have electronic subscriptions.
Science Online This link opens in a new window
Online encyclopedia for the sciences.
Presents a broad range of scientific disciplines through extensive essays, videos, diagrams, definitions, biographies, and experiments.
Anatomy.TV This link opens in a new window
3D images and videos of human anatomy and physiology.
Provides 3D images of different anatomical regions as well as functional anatomy videos and diagnostic imaging with labels. With the 3D interactive models of human anatomy, users can zoom, rotate and peel away layers to educate and communicate with an ease and directness that was never possible with print.
e-Anatomy: human anatomy, medical imaging and illustrations This link opens in a new window
An anatomical database providing more than 3,000 images of the human body.
Provides cross-sectional, gross, and radiological anatomy derived from various types of medical imaging, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) scans.

Find Books

Find Books at Rowan Libraries and Other Universities

Library Search
Search for books, e-books, media (DVDs, music recordings and scores, etc.) and more in Rowan University Libraries.

To access e-books, click the title of the book in your results, and then click any of the links in the "View Online" section.

For physical books, find the call number below the book title in your results, and use it to locate the book on the shelf.
Interlibrary Loan
Use this free service to get articles and books that are not in Rowan's libraries. ILLiad is best for articles and other electronic materials, and EZ Borrow is best for books and other physical materials.

Also note that Library Search actually searches for books and journal articles simultaneously, unless you narrow your search to only books, via the menu options on the left side of the screen.

Call Numbers

How to Read and Use a Call Number
From the University of Michigan Libraries.

L -- Education (General)
LA -- History of education
LB -- Theory and practice of education
LC -- Special aspects of education
LD -- Individual institutions - United States
LE -- Individual institutions - America (except United States)
LF -- Individual institutions - Europe
LG -- Individual institutions - Asia, Africa, Indian Ocean islands, Australia, New Zealand, Pacific islands
LH -- College and school magazines and papers
LJ -- Student fraternities and societies, United States
LT -- Textbooks

Find Media, Lesson Plans, and Activities

The resources on this page include both library and open web resources providing instructional media, materials, professional development resources, and more.

Guided Lesson Plan Builder

These step-by-step tools from the library have blank lesson plan templates to download, and informational resources on how to complete each section as you move through the pages.

The Teaching Channel

Video library including real-world demonstrations of teaching practices in the classroom, as well as professional development video with teaching best practices, recommendations and ideas, and more. Search for a topic, or click the Filters button to browse lists of topics, by subject areas, or by grade level.

Teaching Channel This link opens in a new window

Includes videos of teaching examples and guidance from real educators and classrooms, lesson ideas, teaching concepts, and best practices.

Campus Resources

Learning Resource Center-South
A partnership with the New Jersey Department of Education Office of Special Education, the LRC-South offers materials and resources that support the education of students with disabilities. Members of the Rowan community can join the LRC-South for just $2.00 per year. Browse the Resource Lending Library online for instructional materials available to borrow, or visit the LRC-South for training, workshops, tools for producing your own educational materials, and more.

Resources from Teacher Professional Organizations

National Education Association's resource library
Classroom resources from the National Council of Teachers of English
Classroom resources from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Free resources for non-members are available near the bottom of the page.
Lesson plans from the National Science Teaching Association

Resources from Educational Producers, News Sources, Museums, and National Organizations

Other Online Resources

OER (Open Educational Resources) Commons
Find tree and often adaptable teaching and learning content from around the world.
Kathy Schrock's Guide for Everything
Site rich in classroom tools, lessons, and Kathy Schrock's Guide (formerly DiscoverySchool).
Advancing Excellent Teaching in American Schools
Annenberg Media's multimedia resources help teachers increase their expertise in their fields and assist them in improving their teaching methods. Many programs are also intended for students in the classroom.
4Teachers
Classroom tools, video tutorials, and educational games.
Share My Lesson
A site where professional teachers share lesson plans.
TeachersFirst
Another teachers' site for sharing lesson plans and other resources.
Math and Science K-12 Course Materials
Presentations, assignments, and more for multiple grade levels, from the New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning.
New Jersey History Classroom Materials
From the NJ state government.

Find Education News

A good starting point is to search for your topic in our Newspaper Articles search. (This search can also be accessed from the top bar of an Advanced Search in the main search box on the Campbell Library webpage).

Newspaper Articles search

Collections of Newspapers

These searchable databases all include large amounts of newspaper articles that may be relevant to education.

Chronicle of Higher Education This link opens in a new window
Online subscription to the Chronicle of Higher Education newspaper featuring news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators.
Education Database (1988 - current) This link opens in a new window
Articles from education journals, professional magazines, and news sources.
Subjects include adult education, elementary education, higher education, home schooling, secondary education, special needs education, and teacher education.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Bilingual (English and Spanish) database of newspapers, magazines and journals from and about communities of color.
An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Coverage begins in 1990.

New Jersey Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)
Image-based digitizations of Asbury Park Press (1905-present), Bergen Record (Hackensack) (1895-present), Courier News (Bridgewater) (1961-present), Courier-Post (Cherry Hill /Camden) (1950-present), The Daily Journal (Vineland) (1925-present), Daily Record (Morristown) (1974-present), Home News Tribune (East Brunswick) (1903-present), and North Jersey Herald News (Passaic) (1872-present)

NewsBank Access World News This link opens in a new window
Articles from a large collection of newspapers worldwide.
NewsBank provides full-text information and perspectives from U.S. and international sources, including The Washington Post, Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, Trenton Times, USA Today, London Times, The Economist China Daily (Beijing).
Newspaper Source Plus This link opens in a new window
Provides a full-text digital collection of the world's major news content including several U.S. and international newspapers.
Also includes millions of articles from newspapers and newswires and offers television and radio transcripts and ongoing daily updates from popular news sources.
Philadelphia Inquirer (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
Access to the Philadelphia Inquirer (1860 -2001).
Trenton Times Current and Historical This link opens in a new window
Includes content from the web edition of The Times of Trenton (NJ), 2007-current, and The Trenton Times, 1993-current, as well as fully digitized versions of The Trenton Times, 2018-current, and Trenton Evening Times, 1883-1993.

Cite Sources

Use these tools to organize and cite your sources, and to learn different citation styles.

Citation Management Tools

These are software tools designed to help you save, organize, and cite the sources you find for your research.

Refworks This link opens in a new window
A simple tool that organizes book and article citations and can output bibliographies in many different citation styles. Create a free account with your Rowan email to get started.
RefWorks is an online research management, writing and collaboration tool. It is designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies.

EndNote
Instructions for downloading Rowan-licensed version of EndNote to your Mac or PC. You will need admin access to your computer to download it.

Learn More About Citing

Have an unusual citation problem to solve, or need to learn the mechanics of APA style? These tools provide more information and examples.

Purdue OWL - Online Writing Lab
Detailed guides to citing in APA, MLA, Chicago, and AMA styles, with examples, exercises, FAQs, and instructional materials.

Academic Writer This link opens in a new window
Official resource on APA style. Includes style guides, tutorials, research guides, and templates. Registration required. NOTICE: Database will not work on Internet Explorer or Edge.

APA Publication and Style Manual: Introduction
A Rowan University Libraries guide to tools, resources, and templates for using APA style.