Education Full Text, ERIC and a number of other databases include a subject specific thesaurus of terms that relate to the content on those databases. A thesaurus allows you to browse for subject terms you can use to search the database. Please try thesauri for yourself. Certainly consulting a thesaurus is not be a bad way to initiate research on a topic. In my experience though, using the terms that you are aware of that pertain to the subject of your research works well. Often newer research topics are not part of an existing thesaurus so you have to use keywords In order to find relevant material. If you experience difficulties finding items on your topic, browsing the thesaurus might prove helpful. You might also want to add synonyms to your search and consult a reference librarian.
