Conducting Literature Review

Conducting Conducting Literature Review Literature Review

A very brief overview A very brief overview

About Me – Dr. Merza Abbas – Assoc. Prof. – Chairman of Graduate Studies,

Centre for Instructional Technology & Multimedia

– merza@usm.my, drmerza@yahoo.com

Achievement?

• Best Thesis/Dissertation Awards – USM : Ibrahim Jbeili (2004) – META: Hamidah Maidinsah (2004)

Tumpang syok sahaja

Ibrahim‛s Award

Why do a master degree? • To do a better job

– To teach better: more effectively, more efficiently, more productively, etc…

– To improve the quality of learning • To move to better jobs • Because it is exciting, challenging, etc…

– Because it‛s there

Why do a master degree? • To do a PHD, to be a researcher • To acquire “constructive” knowledge as

well as “destructive” knowledge • To learn to deconstruct and/or

reconstruct knowledge (how do you know what you know is correct?)

• No real applications except for a PHD or in a research environment

What is a graduate program?

Diploma

Bachelor

Grad. Dip/ Prof. exams

Master

PHD

Skills: Accept w/o question

Critical review of theories: Accept when “proven”

More skills & theories: Accept w/o question

Skills & theories: Accept w/o question

Critical review of paradigms: Accept when irrefutable

Paradigm 

Theory 

Model 

Practice 

Structure of 

Academic thinking 

P R E S C R I P T I V E 

Res. 

D E S C R I P T I V E 

Res.

Structure of Scientific Revolution (Kuhn, 1970)

Paradigm

Anomalies New Paradigm

Normal Science

New Normal Science

Another new Paradigm More Anomalies

Master programs

Doctoral Programs

Objectivist Paradigm

through activation of mental processes such as schemas, strategies, & metacognition

Cognitive

through accumulation of sub-skills and sub-procedures

Cybernetic

through conditioning and use of extrinsic “motivational”processes

Behaviourist

Focus: Mastery of content/skills Theory

Mental processes are predictable:

External factors can change

internal processes

Constructivist Paradigm

through scaffolding, cooperative/collaborative learning,

Social learning

through meaningful & purposeful learning

Humanist

through inquiry and solving real-life problems

Mental Development

Focus: reasoning skills & science process skills

Theory

Mental processes are not predictable:

Knowledge is private & is personally constructed

What is a thesis/dissertation?

• Report of a scholarly investigation – Proof of theory-practice mastery – Genuine & Original thought/argument

• Document to pass a sentence – Verify/fine-tune theories, models, practice – Reject/Debunk paradigms, theories, models

What is in a thesis/dissertation?

• Chapter 1: Introduction – Problem Statement – Research Questions – Hypotheses, etc

• Chapter 2: Literature Review • Chapter 3: Research Methodology • Chapter 4: Results / Data Analysis • Chapter 5: Discussion & Conclusions

Describe nature accurately 

Sense & state causal question 

Recognize & state Alt. H & Theories 

Generate logical predictions 

Plan & conduct controlled expt. 

Organize & analyze expt. data 

Draw & apply reasonable conclusions 

Skills for Research & Thesis Writing

Dari Lawson (1995)

Literature Review • What is it? • What is it for? • Where do we start? • How do we do it?

– Quantitative research – Qualitative research

• How do we know we‛ve done a good job? • Worked example(s)

Literature Review: M.Ed. Evaluation Form

• Perkaitan Sumber yang disoroti dengan masalah kajian.

• Terdapat teori/model untuk menyokong masalah kajian.

• Sumber yang disoroti adalah terkini dan mencakupi skop kajian.

What is it? • High quality overview

– Clarity, Flow, Relevance, Recency, Empirical focus, Independence

• With technically accurate citations and references – List all articles cited in text, – Cite all articles listed in reference – Use the APA standard.

What is it for?

• Support for ideas in Chapter 1 • Elaboration of ideas in Chapter 1 • Reference for discussion and

conclusions in Chapter 5 – Must be thorough, exhaustive, & up-to-

date

Where do we start? • Choose a paradigm • Problem Statement (3-5 pages: tentative cause

& effect statements) – Problems = anomalies – Choose a suitable theory/model – Identify Independent Variables (IV) – Identify Dependent Variables (DV) – Identify Moderator Variables (MV)

• Write clear Research Questions – How will the IVs affect the DVs among the MVs? – Develop the Hypotheses

• Derive a Title from the Research Questions • Tip: RQ = Summary of Problem Statement

Information Processing Model

Motivation Executive Control

Long Term

Memory

Short Term/ Working Memory

Sensory Register Senses

Muscles

E N V I R O N M E N T

Response Generator

Learning: process of Encoding and decoding

Stimuli/Knowledge items into meaningful structures

using various cognitive strategies

New Information causes disequilibrium

Piaget‛s theory • Learning:

process of resolving cognitive conflicts Assimilation

Existing Schema in equilibrium

Accomodation

New Schema in equilibrium

Self-regulation

How do we do it? • Expand from the Title

– Expand concepts to content outline – Use cause and effect structure

• Expand from the Research Questions • Expand from the Problem Statement • Take note of the

– Academic Pecking Order – Sources of Knowledge – Who else has done this, in what paradigm, with what

subjects, & with what results: go to ASKERIC, Google, etc. • Tip: Hypotheses are summaries for Lit. Review.

The Academic Pecking Order

Innovators

Developers

Reporters

Students

No name dropping, padding Please!

Sources of Knowledge

• Experience • Authority • Deductive Reasoning • Inductive Reasoning • Scientific Thinking/Research

(Empirical studies)

Concludes with a new theory

Deductive Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning

Forms tentative hypotheses

to test

Detects patterns &

forms

Begins with specific

observations 

Confirms original theory 

Collects data/ observations 

to test H’thesis 

forms hypotheses 

to test 

Begins with a theory that explains an 

event 

Scientific Thinking

Dari Sopiah Abdullah (2004)

How do you know you‛ve done a good job?

• Does the review support every hypothesis?

• Does the review support Chapter 5? • Up-to-date, thorough, exhaustive,

original? • Can be turned into a book / a monograph?

Tuckman‛s (1999) criteria • Context • Magnitude (number of references) • How empirical & up-to-date • Connectedness to the problem • Well-organized? • Establish significance? • Convincing argument?

Let‛s try an example • Paradigm • Variables • Research Questions • Title • Literature Review Outline

How to improve learning?

Thank you Thank you Thank you