how to help students with research

Ten tips to help students develop better research skills

• 30 August 2019
• 9 minute read

By Chia Suan Chong for EtonX

The skill of conducting research is an extremely useful life skill that can help students gather and analyse information, build knowledge, think critically and exercise their mind. It is a skill that benefits students beyond their academic life and enables students to understand the world around them better.

The wealth of information available to us and the ease of accessing it via our phones or laptops may make research seem like a straightforward task. But the sheer volume of sources and the dangers of fake news and media misrepresentation require students to develop the right skills to find what they are looking for. By teaching students to plan their research and judiciously consider the information they get, students can become better decision makers and influencers who can convincingly put forward an argument whether at school or in the workforce.

You might not yet offer research skills training for students (if you do, you might want to consider the EtonX Research Skills course ), but here are ten things that you can do in your day-to-day lessons that can foster better research skills.

1. Encourage curiosity

Curiosity is a strong desire to know things and is a powerful driver of learning. Curious students will naturally ask questions that demand answers.

This hunger for knowledge can see students stepping outside their comfort zone and learning about the unknown. It is also said that curious people are better listeners and are more open to listening to other people’s ideas and perspectives, and not just their own.

What you can do

So, encourage questions, allow time for exploration and help students to enjoy the journey, and not just the destination.

2. Prioritise learner autonomy

Instead of presenting students with information on a platter, have students find out for themselves and get them to draw their own conclusions.  This may take a lot more time than simply spoon-feeding them with information, but the process will teach students to think for themselves, especially if you consider the fact that a lot of the information we impart to students may no longer be accurate or relevant by the time they are in the workforce.

So, the next time a student asks you a question, ask them one right back and have them find things out for themselves. The answer might just be a lot more memorable that way.

3. Vary the ways students find out about things

Do your students turn to Professor Googl e every time they need to find out about something? Do they tend to click on the top answers that their favourite search engine presents them with and be satisfied that they’ve done their research on the topic?

Find opportunities to show students why relying on the same research method and resource can produce skewed results. There are a plethora of publications, search engines, online search methods that can inform students about what’s been previously explored.

Encourage students to find out about things via a range of resources, including ones they are less familiar with. Then get them to build upon this existing knowledge by applying it to their context, conducting surveys, experimenting, or speaking in detail to someone of interest.

4. Help students exercise focus and practise goal-setting

  While it might be more straightforward finding out about the circumference of the earth or how food is digested in the human body, larger questions might require a more extensive research plan.

When confronted by the complexity of the different stages needed to piece together information about a topic, students might feel lost and not know where to start. During the process of their research, they might encounter other interesting pieces of information that might distract them and get them sidetracked. Having a main goal and smaller goals along the way can help them to stay focused.

Use the SMART model when helping students to set goals.

Goals, whether big or small, should be:

M easureable

A chievable

T ime-bound

In your day-to-day lessons, encourage your students to practise setting mini goals and encourage them to fulfill them one at a time. And if your students start to get a bit overwhelmed, guide them along each stage and help them to focus on the smaller parts.

5. Have students practise time management

Do your students constantly complain that they have no time? Do they often come to class without having done their homework? Bad time management skills can impact badly when managing projects and doing extensive research.

In addition to goal setting (see above), students can better manage their time by learning to plan and by eliminating time-wasters (How many times have you heard students say ‘ I don’t know ’ when you asked them how they’d spent their weekend?)

Get students talking how they spend their time and ask them to draw a pie-chart or a table depicting how their time is being divided during the week. Have them commit to set deadlines and get students working in teams so that a delay by one individual will impact on the other team members.

It is only with practice can we eliminate those bad habits and work on improving our time management skills.

6. Help students with reading strategies

The idea of research often puts some people off because it suggests ploughing through reams of academic texts and trying to make sense of what’s been written.

But reading can be made easier once we understand that the strategies we employ in reading for research purposes should not be the same as the ones we use to read a novel.

To begin with, we are less likely to read each word on every page. We might skim the text for gist, or scan it for specific information. We might use it to build on our existing knowledge on the topic or look for emerging themes.

The next time your students read in class, set them tasks that ask them to choose a reading strategy and that hone their skimming and scanning ability.

7. Have students experiment with different note-taking methods

Some students choose to highlight chunks of texts in different colours, some choose to summarise chapters that they’ve read, and others copy out only what is relevant to their research question.

Then there are Mind Maps, Sketch Notes, the Cornell Method, the outlining method, the charting method, etc. Whatever the method, a good note-taking strategy can help students better absorb the information and retrieve it when needed.

Watch how your students take notes the next time you’re in class. See if you can persuade them to experiment with a different note-taking method.

8. Use every opportunity to foster critical thinking skills

When conducting research, students need to be able to identify credible sources, understand the differences between opinion and fact, analyse arguments, and know when they are being manipulated.

In other words, students need to be equipped with critical thinking skills.

Find every opportunity for students to practise their critical thinking skills and get students to question the information they get on a day-to-day basis.

Read my previous article here to find out more about how we can help students implement the skills of critical thinking.

9. Cultivate self-awareness

As well as being aware of other people’s subjective opinions, it is important that we help students to also be aware of their own subjectivity. We are all brought up with a certain view of the world, along with certain biases.

In order to analyse information objectively, we need to help students reflect on their beliefs and attitudes and encourage them to open their minds to other perspectives and ways of looking at things.

The next time your students share their opinions or feelings about a topic, ask questions and get them to expand on what they’ve said. Without being confrontational, help them to cultivate an awareness of the foundations upon which they filter the information they receive.

10. Offer opportunities for students to share their findings

You’ve got your students to ask questions and they’ve found some answers. What do they then do with the answers?

Perhaps they share it with their group members or they write it up in a report that only their teacher gets to read. Either way, the long journey seems to end in an anti-climatic fashion with the assumption that the learning achieved from having done the research is enough to satisfy the students.

Giving students the space and platform to present their research and share their findings can be crucial to sustaining the motivation for future research projects. It also gives others the chance of benefitting from the student’s hard work and might inspire them them to do the same.

The next time students come back with answers, consider having them present it in front of the class, share it with the school, record a podcast or write it up for a class blog or a school newsletter. If the extent of the research they’ve done is proportionate to the audience who benefit from those findings, the students are going to be more likely  to embark on future research projects.

There are multiple research skills that can be practised through encouraging students to take on different stages of research in your classroom. And by spotting these opportunities for practice, you’ll be helping your students develop some essential life skills that will enhance their ability to answer those questions that life might throw at them.

If you deem research skills to be of importance to your students, you might also consider getting them to dedicate some time to a course focusing specifically on Research Skills, like this one by EtonX .

• Research Skills

50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills

Please note, I am no longer blogging and this post hasn’t updated since April 2020.

For a number of years, Seth Godin has been talking about the need to “ connect the dots” rather than “collect the dots” . That is, rather than memorising information, students must be able to learn how to solve new problems, see patterns, and combine multiple perspectives.

Solid research skills underpin this. Having the fluency to find and use information successfully is an essential skill for life and work.

Today’s students have more information at their fingertips than ever before and this means the role of the teacher as a guide is more important than ever.

You might be wondering how you can fit teaching research skills into a busy curriculum? There aren’t enough hours in the day! The good news is, there are so many mini-lessons you can do to build students’ skills over time.

This post outlines 50 ideas for activities that could be done in just a few minutes (or stretched out to a longer lesson if you have the time!).

Learn More About The Research Process

I have a popular post called Teach Students How To Research Online In 5 Steps. It outlines a five-step approach to break down the research process into manageable chunks.

This post shares ideas for mini-lessons that could be carried out in the classroom throughout the year to help build students’ skills in the five areas of: clarify, search, delve, evaluate , and cite . It also includes ideas for learning about staying organised throughout the research process.

Notes about the 50 research activities:

• These ideas can be adapted for different age groups from middle primary/elementary to senior high school.
• Many of these ideas can be repeated throughout the year.
• Depending on the age of your students, you can decide whether the activity will be more teacher or student led. Some activities suggest coming up with a list of words, questions, or phrases. Teachers of younger students could generate these themselves.
• Depending on how much time you have, many of the activities can be either quickly modelled by the teacher, or extended to an hour-long lesson.
• Some of the activities could fit into more than one category.
• Looking for simple articles for younger students for some of the activities? Try DOGO News or Time for Kids . Newsela is also a great resource but you do need to sign up for free account.
• Why not try a few activities in a staff meeting? Everyone can always brush up on their own research skills!

• Choose a topic (e.g. koalas, basketball, Mount Everest) . Write as many questions as you can think of relating to that topic.
• Make a mindmap of a topic you’re currently learning about. This could be either on paper or using an online tool like Bubbl.us .
• Read a short book or article. Make a list of 5 words from the text that you don’t totally understand. Look up the meaning of the words in a dictionary (online or paper).
• Look at a printed or digital copy of a short article with the title removed. Come up with as many different titles as possible that would fit the article.
• Come up with a list of 5 different questions you could type into Google (e.g. Which country in Asia has the largest population?) Circle the keywords in each question.
• Write down 10 words to describe a person, place, or topic. Come up with synonyms for these words using a tool like  Thesaurus.com .
• Write pairs of synonyms on post-it notes (this could be done by the teacher or students). Each student in the class has one post-it note and walks around the classroom to find the person with the synonym to their word.

• Explore how to search Google using your voice (i.e. click/tap on the microphone in the Google search box or on your phone/tablet keyboard) . List the pros and cons of using voice and text to search.
• Open two different search engines in your browser such as Google and Bing. Type in a query and compare the results. Do all search engines work exactly the same?
• Have students work in pairs to try out a different search engine (there are 11 listed here ). Report back to the class on the pros and cons.
• Think of something you’re curious about, (e.g. What endangered animals live in the Amazon Rainforest?). Open Google in two tabs. In one search, type in one or two keywords ( e.g. Amazon Rainforest) . In the other search type in multiple relevant keywords (e.g. endangered animals Amazon rainforest).  Compare the results. Discuss the importance of being specific.
• Similar to above, try two different searches where one phrase is in quotation marks and the other is not. For example, Origin of “raining cats and dogs” and Origin of raining cats and dogs . Discuss the difference that using quotation marks makes (It tells Google to search for the precise keywords in order.)
• Try writing a question in Google with a few minor spelling mistakes. What happens? What happens if you add or leave out punctuation ?
• Try the AGoogleADay.com daily search challenges from Google. The questions help older students learn about choosing keywords, deconstructing questions, and altering keywords.
• Explore how Google uses autocomplete to suggest searches quickly. Try it out by typing in various queries (e.g. How to draw… or What is the tallest…). Discuss how these suggestions come about, how to use them, and whether they’re usually helpful.
• Watch this video  from Code.org to learn more about how search works .
• Take a look at  20 Instant Google Searches your Students Need to Know  by Eric Curts to learn about “ instant searches ”. Try one to try out. Perhaps each student could be assigned one to try and share with the class.
• Experiment with typing some questions into Google that have a clear answer (e.g. “What is a parallelogram?” or “What is the highest mountain in the world?” or “What is the population of Australia?”). Look at the different ways the answers are displayed instantly within the search results — dictionary definitions, image cards, graphs etc.

• Watch the video How Does Google Know Everything About Me?  by Scientific American. Discuss the PageRank algorithm and how Google uses your data to customise search results.
• Brainstorm a list of popular domains   (e.g. .com, .com.au, or your country’s domain) . Discuss if any domains might be more reliable than others and why (e.g. .gov or .edu) .
• Discuss (or research) ways to open Google search results in a new tab to save your original search results  (i.e. right-click > open link in new tab or press control/command and click the link).
• Try out a few Google searches (perhaps start with things like “car service” “cat food” or “fresh flowers”). A re there advertisements within the results? Discuss where these appear and how to spot them.
• Look at ways to filter search results by using the tabs at the top of the page in Google (i.e. news, images, shopping, maps, videos etc.). Do the same filters appear for all Google searches? Try out a few different searches and see.
• Type a question into Google and look for the “People also ask” and “Searches related to…” sections. Discuss how these could be useful. When should you use them or ignore them so you don’t go off on an irrelevant tangent? Is the information in the drop-down section under “People also ask” always the best?
• Often, more current search results are more useful. Click on “tools” under the Google search box and then “any time” and your time frame of choice such as “Past month” or “Past year”.
• Have students annotate their own “anatomy of a search result” example like the one I made below. Explore the different ways search results display; some have more details like sitelinks and some do not.

• Find two articles on a news topic from different publications. Or find a news article and an opinion piece on the same topic. Make a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences.
• Choose a graph, map, or chart from The New York Times’ What’s Going On In This Graph series . Have a whole class or small group discussion about the data.
• Look at images stripped of their captions on What’s Going On In This Picture? by The New York Times. Discuss the images in pairs or small groups. What can you tell?
• Explore a website together as a class or in pairs — perhaps a news website. Identify all the advertisements .
• Have a look at a fake website either as a whole class or in pairs/small groups. See if students can spot that these sites are not real. Discuss the fact that you can’t believe everything that’s online. Get started with these four examples of fake websites from Eric Curts.
• Give students a copy of my website evaluation flowchart to analyse and then discuss as a class. Read more about the flowchart in this post.
• As a class, look at a prompt from Mike Caulfield’s Four Moves . Either together or in small groups, have students fact check the prompts on the site. This resource explains more about the fact checking process. Note: some of these prompts are not suitable for younger students.
• Practice skim reading — give students one minute to read a short article. Ask them to discuss what stood out to them. Headings? Bold words? Quotes? Then give students ten minutes to read the same article and discuss deep reading.

All students can benefit from learning about plagiarism, copyright, how to write information in their own words, and how to acknowledge the source. However, the formality of this process will depend on your students’ age and your curriculum guidelines.

• Watch the video Citation for Beginners for an introduction to citation. Discuss the key points to remember.
• Look up the definition of plagiarism using a variety of sources (dictionary, video, Wikipedia etc.). Create a definition as a class.
• Find an interesting video on YouTube (perhaps a “life hack” video) and write a brief summary in your own words.
• Have students pair up and tell each other about their weekend. Then have the listener try to verbalise or write their friend’s recount in their own words. Discuss how accurate this was.
• Read the class a copy of a well known fairy tale. Have them write a short summary in their own words. Compare the versions that different students come up with.
• Try out MyBib — a handy free online tool without ads that helps you create citations quickly and easily.
• Give primary/elementary students a copy of Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Citation that matches their grade level (the guide covers grades 1 to 6). Choose one form of citation and create some examples as a class (e.g. a website or a book).
• Make a list of things that are okay and not okay to do when researching, e.g. copy text from a website, use any image from Google images, paraphrase in your own words and cite your source, add a short quote and cite the source. 
• Have students read a short article and then come up with a summary that would be considered plagiarism and one that would not be considered plagiarism. These could be shared with the class and the students asked to decide which one shows an example of plagiarism .
• Older students could investigate the difference between paraphrasing and summarising . They could create a Venn diagram that compares the two.
• Write a list of statements on the board that might be true or false ( e.g. The 1956 Olympics were held in Melbourne, Australia. The rhinoceros is the largest land animal in the world. The current marathon world record is 2 hours, 7 minutes). Have students research these statements and decide whether they’re true or false by sharing their citations.

Staying Organised

• Make a list of different ways you can take notes while researching — Google Docs, Google Keep, pen and paper etc. Discuss the pros and cons of each method.
• Learn the keyboard shortcuts to help manage tabs (e.g. open new tab, reopen closed tab, go to next tab etc.). Perhaps students could all try out the shortcuts and share their favourite one with the class.
• Find a collection of resources on a topic and add them to a Wakelet .
• Listen to a short podcast or watch a brief video on a certain topic and sketchnote ideas. Sylvia Duckworth has some great tips about live sketchnoting
• Learn how to use split screen to have one window open with your research, and another open with your notes (e.g. a Google spreadsheet, Google Doc, Microsoft Word or OneNote etc.) .

All teachers know it’s important to teach students to research well. Investing time in this process will also pay off throughout the year and the years to come. Students will be able to focus on analysing and synthesizing information, rather than the mechanics of the research process.

By trying out as many of these mini-lessons as possible throughout the year, you’ll be really helping your students to thrive in all areas of school, work, and life.

Also remember to model your own searches explicitly during class time. Talk out loud as you look things up and ask students for input. Learning together is the way to go!

You Might Also Enjoy Reading:

How To Evaluate Websites: A Guide For Teachers And Students

Five Tips for Teaching Students How to Research and Filter Information

Typing Tips: The How and Why of Teaching Students Keyboarding Skills

8 Ways Teachers And Schools Can Communicate With Parents

10 Replies to “50 Mini-Lessons For Teaching Students Research Skills”

Loving these ideas, thank you

This list is amazing. Thank you so much!

So glad it’s helpful, Alex! 🙂

Hi I am a student who really needed some help on how to reasearch thanks for the help.

So glad it helped! 🙂

seriously seriously grateful for your post. 🙂

So glad it’s helpful! Makes my day 🙂

How do you get the 50 mini lessons. I got the free one but am interested in the full version.

Hi Tracey, The link to the PDF with the 50 mini lessons is in the post. Here it is . Check out this post if you need more advice on teaching students how to research online. Hope that helps! Kathleen

Best wishes to you as you face your health battler. Hoping you’ve come out stronger and healthier from it. Your website is so helpful.

Comments are closed.

• Research Guides

Improving Student Research

10 ways to improve student research.

• Evaluating Research
• PIL Studies

The following tips for faculty to help students successfully complete research assignments are based on the results of studies conducted by Project Information Literacy (PIL), an ongoing national research project that examines undergraduate student research practices. PIL’s methodologies have included a survey of over 8,000 students from 25 U.S. college campuses, including Temple; a content analysis of 191 course-related research assignment handouts from 28 campuses; and student discussion groups at 7 campuses.

Click on the link in each tip to see the research findings that support the recommendation.

1. Encourage students to consult with a librarian.

2. direct students towards a variety of library resources including print, electronic, and multimedia., 3. suggest specific databases or other library resources by name to students., 4. discuss what constitutes plagiarism as well as the consequences., 5. review criteria for evaluating sources..

6. Define research .

7. Embed a research guide in Canvas or request one from your librarian.

8. break the research assignment into manageable parts., 9. explain how research will be evaluated., 10. collaborate with a librarian to design a research assignment that employs critical thinking..

PIL’s content analysis of research assignment handouts found that only 13% recommended consulting with a librarian. In another PIL survey , 80% of students reported rarely, if ever, seeking help from a librarian with course-related research. Yet 63% of students report frustration due to their inability to find resources ( Context , 3).  Librarians are experts in planning a research strategy, searching for and locating information, and easing frustration with research.  Be sure to recommend that students consult a librarian for assistance with their research.  Even better, provide them with contact information for reference services and/or a subject specialist .

60% of handouts recommended students access materials on the library shelves ( Inquiry , 11).  However, today’s college students are more Web-focused and an increasing percentage of library materials are available digitally.  Direct students towards library resources in a variety of formats and suggest using Library Search to discover them. 

Of the handouts that recommended using online library resources, only a minimal number (14%) mentioned specific databases by vendor or name ( Inquiry , 3).  Temple Libraries have over 700  research databases for all disciplines that can help direct student research, so suggest a few by name to your students.

Only 18% of handouts mentioned plagiarism, focusing primarily on disciplinary actions ( Inquiry , 21). Based on faculty interviews, undergraduate students have trouble understanding what plagiarism is. Take time to define plagiarism for your students, show them how to correctly paraphrase and attribute words and ideas, and refer them to Temple Libraries’ research guide on Citing Sources and Temple University Writing Center’s handouts on plagiarism and using sources effectively.

Only 25% of handouts discussed how to evaluate the authority of sources ( Inquiry , 19) and 49% of students sought their instructor’s help in evaluating sources for research assignments ( Truth , 13).  Review criteria for evaluating sources (e.g. reliability, validity, accuracy, authority, timeliness, and point of view or bias) in the context of your discipline or assignment, so that students learn how and why to select quality sources.

6. Define research.

While a majority of the handouts discussed the mechanics of the assignment (e.g. page length, margins etc.), only “16% of the handouts discussed, clarified, defined, or framed what research meant as it applied to the assignments” ( Inquiry , 26). Interviewed faculty members stated that undergraduates have little knowledge about the research process.  Defining research as it applies to the assignment or discipline gives students the situational context that they lack and that they need ( Context , 9) . Additionally, 63% of students found in-class discussions about how to conduct research helpful ( Lessons , 30).

Interviewed faculty stated that online guides “have the potential to engage students in the research process and allow students to browse as they would in the library” ( Inquiry , 12).  Check out our research guides , get more information on embedding one in Canvas or request a custom guide from your librarian. 

College students find many steps of the research process difficult.  Getting started is problematic for 84%, defining a topic is troublesome for 66%, and narrowing down a topic is challenging for 62% of students surveyed ( Truth , 3.)  So break your research assignment into manageable parts for students (also known as “scaffolding”.)  Require that students turn in a topic proposal, an annotated bibliography, or a draft along the way to the final product.  Students reported that separate deadlines for parts of a paper are helpful (61%), as are instructors’ review of paper drafts (71%) ( Lessons , 30.)

In an earlier PIL study, 12 of 13 students reported frustration determining their professors’ expectations for a research assignment ( Beyond Google ). Be specific and open about how your research assignments will be evaluated.  Provide students with grading rubrics and weight the assignment(s) according to importance of the desired outcome.

About 50% of faculty interviewed discussed their reliance on librarians. "Faculty turned to librarians for teaching students about finding information and planning a research strategy, especially choosing and using appropriate databases, and for creating custom resources, such as pathfinders [online guides], for their course" ( Inquiry , 13). Librarians can also help you design an assignment that will develop your students’ critical thinking and research skills.

• Next: Evaluating Research >>
• Last Updated: Jan 12, 2021 1:21 PM
• URL: https://guides.temple.edu/improving_research

Temple University

University libraries.

See all library locations

• Library Directory
• Locations and Directions
• Frequently Called Numbers

Need help? Email us at [email protected]