Note: This is the third of a seven-part series exploring possible integration of AI into the research process.
Resource: Students may use this Step 3: Searching for Sources Template to help guide their work. Revise as needed for your classroom.
So far, we’ve checked off two boxes of the research process in defining the task and developing a preliminary plan by gaining some general background knowledge.
The third step builds off the first two, and in some ways, it will feel for students like they’re finally beginning to conduct actual research after laying the groundwork for their task and plan.
Specifically, in Step 3, students will be searching for sources that contain information relevant to their research task and align with sections of their preliminary outline. Ultimately, their task here is to locate high-quality content that supports their research question.
Before students can do this, however, they must identify their possible sources. In other words, what research options do they have before them? Then, once they have those possibilities in hand, they must decide which of those best align to their research needs. From there, they actually begin the task of locating sources that contain accurate and quality information.
Identify possible sources.
Students need to first identify their possible sources.
Students might be drawn to the easy button here, tempted to either query AI or do a Google search. It’s important to steer them away from both of these options for a while. Instead, have them think critically and ask the questions: “What kind of information do I need? Who would be most likely to know it? Where would that information be published?”
School library media specialists are invaluable resources for all steps of the research process, and that is particularly true at this stage. They are experts in the area of research and can help students identify their options and guide them toward determining which of those options might yield the best results.
Media specialists can provide students with a curated list to review, or they might guide them through a class brainstorm in order to generate that list together. Ultimately, both approaches should bring students to a list of source options that are vetted for overall credibility.
As they are introduced to each source type, students should critically question its authorship. They should ask, “Who is creating the information in this type of resource, and what gives them expertise?”
Beyond credibility, students should determine what kind of information they may find in each type of resource.
The final list of the most credible content types will likely include resources such as:
- Books and eBooks: These are great for finding established knowledge and going deeper.
- Reference sources: This option goes beyond the traditional encyclopedia and can help students find statistics and other related data specific to their topic.
- Library databases: Such databases provide access to some of the most trustworthy resources, including vetted articles, newspapers, magazines, and scholarly sources.
- Government agencies: These are ideal for statistics, laws, public health information, demographics, scientific data, and official reports.
- Universities and research organizations: Here, students can often find research studies and expert analysis.
- Museums, archives, and historical societies: These are helpful for historical documents and artifacts.
- Primary sources: These are sources that reflect direct, firsthand experience with an event or occurrence, such as speeches, letters, photographs, interviews, surveys, court decisions, or historical documents.
- Reputable news organizations: Such organizations can offer information about current events and contemporary perspectives.
- Professional organizations: These sources can offer specialized information within a field.
- Experts or interviews: When expertise or a direct perspective is needed, these can come in handy.
If students don’t have access to a media specialist, and if the teacher is looking for support, AI can be a helpful collaborator during this stage of the process. For instance, students, or the teacher, might ask an AI tool to help identify which sources are most likely to be good, credible matches for their research topic. That prompt might look like:
“I’m researching how climate change is affecting agriculture in Minnesota. Generate a list of credible sources I should look for. Consider possible government agencies, research organizations, primary sources, databases, and other source categories that might contain credible and useful information about my topic.”
Here, AI is helping students brainstorm a source map and answer the research question: “Where should I look?”
Decide which sources are best.
Once students have identified possible source categories, the next question becomes: “Which ones are most likely to provide the strongest evidence for my particular research question?”
As students work to narrow their list, it’s important for them to understand that one type of resource is not always superior for every topic. While students should be starting with generally trustworthy source types, a key task in this step is to determine which of these credible sources are the best matches for the information they need. They must be able to understand and predict what types of information each resource will likely contain and whether or not that information will be relevant to their research task.
For instance, a government report might be an excellent source for statistics but unfit for understanding public opinion. A newspaper might provide contemporary reactions but not enough depth for understanding decades of research. Again, students need to develop an understanding of what type of information each resource is most likely to offer and then choose those that best match their own research needs.
Rather than looking for one perfect source, students should think about building a collection of complementary sources. For example, a student researching teen social media use might eventually decide upon using government statistics, a research study, a reputable news article, interviews, and survey data. Each of these contributes something different.
At this point in the process, AI can act as a decision-making thought partner. A student might prompt it with one of the following:
“I’m researching whether later school start times improve student outcomes. I’m considering the use of news articles, school district reports, student surveys, medical organizations, and academic studies. Compare the strengths and limitations of these source types for answering my research question.”
“My research question is: [insert question]. Here are the types of sources I plan to use: [insert list]. What important perspectives or kinds of evidence might I be missing?”
This is a subtle but important role for AI. AI isn’t deciding, “This is your source.” It is helping the student think, “Which types of resources would provide the evidence that would make my research stronger?”
Locate quality resources.
With the large source list narrowed down, students are now ready to move on to the third part of this task: locating quality resources. You could also rephrase this as locating quality resources from within the narrowed list of possible sources they’ve curated.
For instance, students may have determined that information databases will likely provide them with the best and most credible content. Based on that decision, students would go to the database they have identified and begin conducting research within that chosen database.
At this point, students begin what feels like the type of research they’re more familiar with conducting. They are looking for specific articles, documents, and other data within a research tool like a database. This is also the place where many traditional information-literacy and research skills become critically important. These skills include identifying key words, crafting a search string, and using filters in a purposeful way.
As students work through this process, they should reference the preliminary work they did earlier, drawing from the key words and topics in their preliminary outline and initial notes. Ultimately, students will need to find content that supports each of the sections in their preliminary outline. In many ways, that outline becomes their research to-do list.
This part of the process is another place where AI can be a useful research partner. If students get stuck, they can give an AI tool their research question, preliminary outline, or one section of that outline and ask it to suggest additional key words, synonyms, related terminology, and search phrases.
For example, a student researching the impact of social media on teenagers might begin with terms like “social media” and “teenagers.” AI could help expand that vocabulary to include such terms as adolescents, social networking, digital media, mental health, well-being, or other related concepts. Students can then enter those terms back into their library database, search engine, or other trusted research tool.
AI can also help students develop and refine search queries. They might prompt the AI with, “Here is my research question. Give me several different keyword searches I could try in a library database.” Alternatively, if their initial searches are not producing useful results, they might explain what they’re finding and ask AI to suggest different terminology or strategies for narrowing or broadening the search.
The important distinction here is that AI is helping students search for the information rather than becoming the information source itself. Students still need to conduct the searches, open the original resources, evaluate each for credibility, read them, and determine whether the information in them actually supports their research questions.
As students dig into the best resources they’ve found, they should also practice searching sideways rather than just forward. This means looking for clues within the selected resources that might lead them to other related materials. For instance, if students find an excellent source, they should look at its references, look for studies it cites, search the author’s name for other work on the topic, and identify important terminology used in the article.
AI can support this part of the process as well. A student might provide AI with the title, abstract, or key terminology from a strong source and ask, “What additional concepts, research, organizations, or search terms should I investigate based on this?” The student can then use those suggestions as new leads as they search through trusted databases and other information sources.
Again, this is, in many ways, a continuation of the general reading that students did at the beginning of the process. This makes sense since research is not linear but cyclical. Students should get in the habit of continually looking for new clues in their research that may lead them to even better resources in the future. One strong source often becomes a doorway into several others, and AI can help students notice and pursue some of those doorways without replacing the critical work of finding, reading, and evaluating the sources themselves.
In summary, there are three main parts to the third step, Searching for Sources:
- Determine: Where might credible information exist?
- Decide: Which kinds of sources would provide the strongest evidence?
- Locate: What search strategies will help me find the best individual resources?
Throughout this and other steps of the research process, the goal for using AI isn’t to outsource the research. Rather, the goal is to use AI to empower students so that they become more strategic researchers themselves.
AVID Connections
This resource connects with the following components of the AVID College and Career Readiness Framework:
- Instruction
- Rigorous Academic Preparedness
- Opportunity Knowledge
- Student Agency
- Insist on Rigor
- Break Down Barriers
- Align the Work
Extend Your Learning
- Teaching Students How to Identify Credible Sources (Trevor Muir via Edutopia)
- Harvard Guide to Using Sources (Harvard College Writing Program)
- ChatGPT (OpenAI)
- Claude (Anthropic)
- Gemini (Google)
- Copilot (Microsoft)
- Gemini Notebook (Google)