This week, we look across a number of our research databases to sample results on a topic of interest to all of us: college students, stress, sleep, study skills, and success at finals.
ERIC
ERIC is the go-to database for published research on all levels of education. Created and maintained by the U.S. Department of Education, ERIC indexes and provides full text for two types of publications:
- Journal Articles (EJ accession numbers)
Use the Find it! button to locate possible full text or check the library catalog under journal name to locate these. - ERIC Documents (ED accession numbers)
These reports, government studies, and conference papers can often be found in full text online from 1993 – to the present. The U of A Libraries have a large collection of older documents on microfiche; these are in a storage location and can be requested through ILLiad.
ERIC is available on a number of platforms, including from Ebsco, ProQuest, and direct from the U.S. Department of Education. Here are some sample results from searching ERIC for terms such as “college students” and “final exams” and (stress or anxiety or sleep or health):
- Jalongo, M. R., & McDevitt, T. (2015). Therapy dogs in academic libraries: A way to foster student engagement and mitigate self-reported stress during finals. Public Services Quarterly, 11(4), 254-269.
- Glass, A. L., & Sinha, N. (2013). Providing the answers does not improve performance on a college final exam. Educational Psychology, 33(1), 87-118.
- Yu, D. D. (2011). How much do study habits, skills, and attitudes affect student performance in introductory college accounting courses? New Horizons in Education, 59(3), 1-15.
- Nalley, L., & McKenzie, A. (2011). How much is that exam grade really worth? an estimation of student risk aversion to their unknown final college course grades. Journal of Economic Education, 42(4), 338-353.
- Rosenthal, G. T., Soper, B., McKnight, R. R., Price, W. A., Boudreaux, M., & Rachal, C. K. (2010). Do students know if they answered particular questions correctly on a psychology exam? Journal of Instructional Psychology, 37(1), 57-62.
- Dobkin, C., Gil, R., & Marion, J. (2010). Skipping class in college and exam performance: Evidence from a regression discontinuity classroom experiment. Economics of Education Review, 29(4), 566-575.
- Cooley, E., & Toray, T. (1998). Coping in women college students: The influence of experience. Journal of College Student Development, 39(3), 291-295.
- Saenko, V. I. (2005). The superstitions of today’s college students. Russian Education and Society, 47(12), 76-89.
PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES
PsycINFO is the premier index to research on all fields of psychology and related behavioral and social sciences; it includes citations to journal articles as well as books, technical reports, and dissertations. PsycARTICLES is a full-text database of top journals in the field. Both are published by the American Psychological Association and cover research back into the 19th century. A search in PsycINFO for terms such as “college students” and “Test anxiety” and finals turned up articles such as these:
- Putwain, D. W., Daly, A. L., Chamberlain, S., & Sadreddini, S. (2015). Academically buoyant students are less anxious about and perform better in high‐stakes examinations. British Journal Of Educational Psychology, 85(3), 247-263. doi:10.1111/bjep.12068
- Khanna, M. M. (2015). Ungraded pop quizzes: Test-enhanced learning without all the anxiety. Teaching Of Psychology, 42(2), 174-178. doi:10.1177/0098628315573144
- Cohen, M., Ben-Zur, H., & Rosenfeld, M. J. (2008). Sense of coherence, coping strategies, and test anxiety as predictors of test performance among college students. International Journal Of Stress Management, 15(3), 289-303. doi:10.1037/1072-5245.15.3.289
- Moneta, G. B., Spada, M. M., & Rost, F. M. (2007). Approaches to studying when preparing for final exams as a function of coping strategies. Personality And Individual Differences, 43(1), 191-202. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2006.12.002
- Sloboda, J. A. (1990). Combating examination stress among university students: Action research in an institutional context. British Journal Of Guidance & Counselling, 18(2), 124-136. doi:10.1080/03069889000760131
- Griffin, B. W., & Griffin, M. M. (1997). The effects of reciprocal peer tutoring on graduate students’ achievement, test anxiety, and academic self-efficacy. Journal Of Experimental Education, 65(3), 197-209. doi:10.1080/00220973.1997.9943454
Chronicle of Higher Education
While ERIC and PsycINFO mainly cover academic or research articles and publications, the Chronicle of Higher Education is more of a trade magazine for the world of colleges and universities. This weekly offers news, opinion, statistics, and feature articles about every aspect of academe. The Libraries provide a campus-wide license to the Chronicle.
A search for recent articles on finals and stress in the Chronicle found articles such as those below. Most articles are aimed at faculty and administrators, rather than offering study tips to students.
- Bali, M. (2016, April 27). 5 Ways to Make End-of-Semester Grading More Enjoyable. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Zamudio-Suaréz, F. (2016, April 22). A Final Round of Advice for Final Exams. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Cuff, A. J. (2016, January 18). And on the Last Day of Class, We’ll Play Games. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Crider, A. (2015, July 27). Final Exams or Epic Finales. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
- Supiano, B. (2015, May 6). How Exams Improve Students’ Access to Their Brains. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Ebsco EBook Collection
The Libraries subscribe to thousands of books through the Ebsco platform. Not all these books are in the library catalog, yet, so it’s a good idea to navigate directly to Ebsco Ebooks and search for titles of interest to you. You can read these ebooks online or download them to your computer for a limited time for offline reading. A search for “study skills” found titles like the following:
- Doyle, T., & Zakrajsek, T. (2013). The New Science of Learning : How to Learn in Harmony with Your Brain. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing.
- Brown, P. C., McDaniel, M. A., & Roediger, H. L. (2014). Make It Stick : The Science of Successful Learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
- Talbot, C. (2010). Studying at a Distance : A Guide for Students. Berkshire, England: McGraw-Hill Education.
- Moore, S. (2010). The Ultimate Study Skills Handbook. Maidenhead, England: McGraw-Hill Education.
- Petre, M., & Rugg, G. (2010). The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research. Maidenhead, England: McGraw-Hill Education.
- Burnapp, D. (2009). Getting Ahead As an International Student. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education.
- Allan, B. (2009). Study Skills for Business and Management Students. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education.
Good Luck on Finals
But it’s not all about the databases. The Libraries and our campus partners have your back during finals with study breaks and extended hours. Good luck and let us know if we can help in any way!