Reviewing the literature

Reviewing the literature

1. Literature review

   • A written summary of documents that describes the past and current state of information on the topic of your research study.
   • Why it is necessary?
     • 1. To document how your study adds to the existing literature
       • 2. To convince that you know about the literature of your topic and can summarize it
         • 3.Provide evidence that educators need your study
           • 4. Builds research skills
             • 5. Reading helps you learn how others compose their research studies

2. In Qualitative studies...

   • The authors mention the literature at the beginning of the study but do not discuss the literature extensively at the beginning of a study
     • This allows the views of the participants to emerge without being constrained by the views of others from the literature.
     • In qualitative inquiry, researchers do not make predictions about findings. They are more interested in whether the findings of study support or modify existing ideas and practices advanced in the literature

3. In Quantitative studies...

   • Researchers discuss the literature at the beginning of a study
     • It justifies the importance of the research problem
     • Provides a rationale for the purpose of the study and research questions or hypotesis
     • The authors include this in a separate section titlet "Review of the literature"
       • They incorporate the literature into the end of the study comparing the results with the expectations made at the beginning of the study

4. What are the five steps in conducting a literature review?

   • 1. Identify key terms
     • To begin the research by narrowing the topic to a few key terms using one or two words or short phrases.
       • Preliminary “working title” and select some key words in the title that capture the central idea
       • Short, general research question that you would like answered in the study
       • Use words that authors report in the literature.
       • Look in a catalog of terms to find words that match the topic.
       • from the last 7 to 10 years, look for key terms in titles to the articles.
   • 2. Locate literature
     • Use Academic Libraries, primary and secondary sources, different types of literature
       • Primary source literature consists of literature reported by the individual(s) who actually conducted the research or who originated the ideas
       • Secondary source literature is literature that summarizes primary sources. It does not represent material published by the original researcher or the creator of the idea
   • 3.Critically evaluate and select the Literature
     • Is it a good, accurate source?
     • Is it relevant?
   • 4. Organize the literature
     • Reproducing, downloading and filing
       • Make copies of the articles, scan the articles, or download the articles (as html or pdf fi les) and develop some system to easily retrieve the information.
     • Taking notes and abstracting studies
       • Take notes on the information so that a summary of the literature is available for a written review. It is often an informal procedure in which the researcher identifies important ideas about the article or material
     • Constructing a Literature Map
       • Is a figure or drawing that displays the research literature (e.g., studies, essays, books, chapters, and summaries) on a topic.
   • 5. Write a Literature Review
     • Using a style manual
     • Writing Strategies
     • Concluding statement of the review
       • In a Quantitative Study
         • Documents the importance of the research problem at the beginning of the study
         • Provides evidence for important components of the model to be tested
         • Provides evidence for the research questions
         • Provides an explanation for the results at the end of the study by citing other studies and by returning to the theoretical predictions
       • In a Qualitative Study
         • Documents the importance of the research problem at the beginning of the study
         • Does not foreshadow the research questions (which are broad in scope to encourage participants to provide their views)
         • Is used to compare with the fi ndings of the present study at the end of the study