Learning from the Future Via Guided Browsing
By Andrew K. Shenton
The role of forward chaining – which takes place by identifying papers that cite sources which have proved useful to us – has long been recognised in the literature. Indeed, over thirty-five years ago, Ellis (1989) noted its value when researching the information behaviour of adult social scientists. In the paper era, the process was onerous, however, and meant the tedious consultation of cumbersome and highly specialist citation indexes only available in university libraries. Ellis himself acknowledged at the time that the method was “less widely used and understood” than alternative information-finding strategies. Much has changed in recent years, though, with the development of online tools. Whilst some of those necessary for forward searching remain out of reach to students at school, Google Scholar, which can facilitate the process, is accessible to all.
My earliest attempts to employ Google Scholar’s features in order to uncover instances where a particular paper of interest had been cited subsequently came about when, in support of my application for a Higher Doctorate, it was necessary to examine how my own published work had been used by others. As I spotted connections between the issues about which I had written and the matters investigated by authors of later, related papers, I realised that in addition to finding out about the impact of my own research, I was gaining inspiration as to where future work that I might undertake could be concentrated. I started to think, too, how forward citation searching might be of help to Sixth Formers doing independent learning for their Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).
Around halfway into the students’ research work, at the point when many were beginning to lose momentum as a result of exhausting what they had initially regarded as their most promising sources, I presented the method within the more general framework of “snowballing” (Shenton and Wood, 2019). This involves learners exploiting discoveries they have already made in their searches to uncover further sources. They may, for instance, track down works by contributors to a video they might be watching or follow up the references listed in a paper they have found useful. The latter may be considered backward – or retrospective – citation searching; an alternative approach is to explore where the item of interest has itself been referenced subsequently. This strategy is largely ignored in many frameworks for teaching independent learning skills.
Whilst, for example, the “information skills curriculum” proposed by Marland (1981) and the model of Guided Inquiry presented by Kuhlthau et al (2015) note the value of backward searching, the forward equivalent goes unacknowledged. In terms of the FOSIL Cycle, it is not difficult, however, to envisage it forming an element within the “Investigate” stage (Toerien, 2018). When used in conjunction with footnote-chasing, forward citation searching often took my students to a new level of scholarship. Not only did it prompt the youngsters to engage more fully with academic literature; it also encouraged them to see how older writers had affected the thinking of their more recent counterparts, and on occasion led the learner to identify broader schools of thought on their subject.
In the years immediately before my retirement, I took a keen interest in the experiences of my Sixth Formers when they applied forward citation searching. Some of their efforts yielded no significant results, frequently because the future paper’s territory was too far removed from that of the student’s topic, but in circumstances where worthwhile information was retrieved, the new sources were seen to
offer verification of a fact or idea presented in materials that had already been accessed;
enable the individual to recognise a misconception that had arisen in their own understanding;
help the learner broaden their understanding in relation to a particular issue;
provide a better example in terms of a matter known by the individual to be important;
highlight the pertinence of an area whose significance the youngster had not previously appreciated;
form useful background reading, although none of the content was sufficiently relevant for the learner to cite the source in their work.
Whilst I can recall specific instances in which these benefits emerged, I believe it is important that students enter the forward searching process with an open mind, so they themselves can ascertain how the newly-discovered source may help them. I have come to label the method “guided browsing”. The youngsters are “guided” in the sense that they have been directed – albeit as a result of their own earlier endeavours – to further items, but the behaviour is a form of browsing in that they are receptive to any useful insights they can derive from the text, rather than seeking a predetermined outcome. An alternative view would be to emphasise to students individual benefits of the approach, thereby helping them to focus their efforts and demonstrate its likely contribution to their work in concrete ways. I have also described forward citation searching as “learning from the future” because new discoveries are made from papers that were not written when the originally consulted sources first appeared.
There, are, however, certain weaknesses associated with forward citation searching. By no means all the sources initially read by an individual will be cited elsewhere. Some will be too recent and others may be insufficiently scholarly to attract the attention of academics. Moreover, unless it is possible for students to exploit the electronic services made available via a local university library, the range of tools accessible to them for forward citation purposes will be limited. The three major citation indexes highlighted by Bates (2002), for example, are not normally found in schools. Facilities such as Google Scholar must, therefore, be used by the student in conjunction with other methods, including various additional forms of snowballing.
References
Bates, M. (2002) Speculations on Browsing, Directed Searching, and Linking in Relation to the Bradford Distribution. URL: https://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/bates/articles/Searching_Bradford-m020430.html.
Ellis, D. (1989) A behavioural approach to information retrieval system design. Journal of Documentation, 45 (3), pp. 171-212.
Kuhlthau, C.C., Maniotes, L.K. and Caspari, A.K. (2015) Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century, 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, California: Libraries Unlimited.
Marland, M. (ed) (1981) Information Skills in the Secondary Curriculum. London: Methuen.
Shenton, A.K. and Wood, M. (2019) “Snowballing” as a method for finding research sources. Creative Teaching and Learning, 9 (3), pp. 46-56.
Toerien, D. (2018) (Re)purposing the school library. School Libraries in View, 44, pp. 4-8.
This blog was originally posted here: https://www.elizabethahutchinson.com/post/learning-from-the-future-via-guided-browsing