LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAI SAN FATT M20102001024

THONG SHEAU PYNG M20102001021

CHOO CHEE SENG M20102000932

Mr J is in his first year as a teacher at a secondary school. He is teaching history to students who did not graduate from high school but now are trying to obtain a diploma. He sincerely wants to be a good teacher, but he is having trouble getting his students interested in the subject. As he is only history teacher in the school, the other teachers are not much help. He wants to get some ideas, approaches and strategies he might use. He decides to do search of literature review.

Questions

• What is a Literature Review ?

• Why is this literature of review is necessary?

What Is A Literature of Review ?

• Is an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars related directly to the thesis. (Taylor ,2008)

• Is a reference to documents which contain of information, ideas and methodology related to the title of research.(Chua, 2006)

• Is a summary of journal articles,

books and other documents that

describes the past and current

state of information.

• A body of research information

related to the research problem.

Advantages of Literature Review• Providing a context for the research study

- understand the present and predict the

future

- deeper understanding

- enhance knowledge

• Time saving

- comes early

- comprehensive report done

by others

• More specifically limiting and

identifying the research problem and

possible hypothesis.

- more focus

- helps to establish a good hypothesis

• Providing possible research design

and methodology procedures that

may be used in the research study.

- qualitative, quantitative - experimental - non-experimental - learn other educators compose

research studies

• Inform the researcher of what has already been done in the area.

- research problem

- hypothesis

- fresh, overlap

• Providing a backdrop for interpreting the

results of the research study

- develop skills ( interpret data )

• Suggestions for possible modifications by

expert author.

- finding, theory, evidences

- opinion and suggestions

SOURCE OF LITERATURE REVIEW

1. No First hand account / info

2. Provide expert complilations, analyzes, and interpretation of primary info

SECONDARY SOURCE

Secondary source Details

Reference Book Handbook, yearbook, encylopedia

Review of literature Compilation / critiques of research

Scholarly Book Analyist certain topic

Magazine / Newspaper article More subject to bias & error

Multimedia (DVD, VCD, CD, tape)

Documentery, practice guides.

Commonly Used Secondary Sources

Source Description

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF EDUCATION RESEARCH

•Over 300 topic

HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH ON TEACHING

•Longer articles•Most written by specialist education researchers

NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF EDUCATION YEARBOOK (NSSE)

•Each book have 10-12 chapters•Publish every year

REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

•Publish 4 times a year

REVIEW OF RESEARCH IN EDUCATION

•Publish every year

HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH :1.CURICULUM2.SOCIAL SCIENCE STUDIES3.TEACHER EDUCATION

•Professional Association / organization publish

Commonly Used Secondary Sources

Source Description

SCHOLAR BOOK – SINGLE THEME BOOKS

•Much insight topic’s nature & history.•Author’s interpretation of other’s work.•Author’s biases are evident.

SCHOLAR BOOK - TEXTBOOKS •Treat many topics (contrast wf single theme book).•Depict history, stages, rends of topics

SCHOLAR BOOK - BOOK IN PRINT

•Books are recently published / have to stood the test of time.•Not available quickly at university libraries•Inter-library loan can help to get

MAGAZINE / NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

•Most up-to-date.•Carefully evaluate the accuracy & completeness.

PRIMARY SOURCE

Source Details

Professional Journals Report of Research

Reports Many research findings 1st published

Dissertation University student research

1. Researchers report of their studies or findings

SPECIFIC DIRECTORIES OF PRIMARY REFERENCES

DIRECTORY DETAILS

EDUCATION RESEARCH INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)

•Widely used.•‘Thesauraus of Descriptive’•‘Current Index to Journals in Education(CIJE)’•‘Resource in Education (RIE)•ERIC online (online version)

PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS

•Journal, technical reports, monographs.•Published monthly.•Psychological aspect of teaching, learning, counseling, children development, & learning process.•PsycINFO (online version)

CHILDREN DEVELOPMENT ABSTRACT & BIBLIOGRAPHY

•Childhood development & early childhood education.

SPECIFIC DIRECTORIES OF PRIMARY REFERENCES

DIRECTORY DETAILS

DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS INTERNATIONAL (DAI)

•Doctoral dissertation from USA & Europe

SOCIAL SCIENCE CITATION INDEX (SSCI)

•Education, social science, & behaviour science

DIGITAL DISSERTATION •Doctoral & master dissertation

WORLD WIDE WEBNAME WEBSITE FEATURES

Alta Vista http://www.altavista.com •Locating obscure facts•Offers best field search capabilities

Excite http://www.excite.com •Locating current news articles•Information about travel

Google http://www.google.com •Good place to go first•Very detailed directory

Hot Bot http://www.hotbot.com •Search multimedia files•Locate websites by geography

Lycos http://www.lycos.com •Offer very website reviews•Search multimedia

Teoma http://www.teoma.com •Very good reviews•Easy use

Libralians’ index to internet

http://lii.org

Locating Secondary Source

•Encyclopedia•Yearbook•Handbook•Scholarly book

Library Catalogue

(OPAC)

Locating Secondary Source

•Magazine•Newspaper•Journal•Dissertation

1st floor Tuanku Bainun Library

Locating Secondary Source

•DVD•VCD•Tape•VCR tape•Audio Visual Area

Top floor Tuanku Bainun

Library(Media Dept)

ACTIVITIES/ STEPS INVOLVED IN THE LITERATURE REVIEW

SELECTING STUDIES FOR THE REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

1. Check whether the references are primary(report, articles) or secondary sources(meta – analysis). References for primary sources of research which is most closely related to the research problem can be included

2. When a search is completed, •check 8 to 10 most recent references first• the more recent the reference, the more current the information (present state of the topic, bibliographies)

SELECTING STUDIES FOR THE REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE (cont’)

3. When has the review reached the point of ‘enough’? The number is determined by the purpose of review or when comes a point at which reviewing more references is going to provide little or no more useful information about the research problemOr when the information in the references seems quite complete in the context of the research problem, the review has reached closure

ASSEMBLING AND SUMMARIZING INFORMATION

1. Determine whether or not the content of the report(articles etc) is relevant to the research problem• if relevant: summarize or put into a usable form• not relevant: deleted

2. Assemble information: •can use programs such as EndNote, Pro Cite, Take Note to categorize information, creating outlines and formatting bibliographies, then imported into a word processor

ASSEMBLING AND SUMMARIZING INFORMATION (cont’)

• prepare a complete and accurate bibliographic entry for each relevant report reviewed. - saves timeBibliographic format: APA, 1994The name(s) of the author(s), the title of the report, facts about publication, inclusive page numbers if periodical

eg:Veldman, D.J.,&Sanford, J.P. (1984). The influence of class ability level on student achievement and classroom behaviour. American Educational Research Journal, 21 (3), 629 - 644

ASSEMBLING AND SUMMARIZING INFORMATION (cont)

3. Prepare an abstract of the report: it is a summary that contains the relevant information from a research report according to specified categories.Generally, it contains certain kinds of information, included: Bibliographic entryProblemSubjectsProceduresResults and conclusions

4. Organizing information: it is grouping of studies to facilitate the writing task

- Can be grouped to categories based on:

• Similarity in the concepts

• Theories of interest

• Methodological similarities among the studies reviewed

• grade of level of teaching involved

• high – inference or low – inference

ASSEMBLING AND SUMMARIZING INFORMATION (cont’)

1. get an overview: make decision about the relevance of the report

2. critical review: intellectual exercise in which the reader must judge the adequacy of the validity of the report

3. writing the review:

•uses abstracts and pieces together.

•contains subheadings , include recent information and should be up to date

INTERPRETING AND USING INFORMATION

4. referencing: adequately referenced

- Can be a footnote at the bottom/ a reference list or bibliography at the end of the chapter or report

- can be done in number of formats:

traditional footnote

author – date eg: Lamb (1995)/

(Lamb, 1995)

author – number eg: Lamb (30:24)

INTERPRETING AND USING INFORMATION (cont’)

5. Preparing the bibliography:

• In alphabetical order according to the name of the primary author (the one listed first)

• Can use software (EndNote, Pro Cite, Take Note) that will put the bibliographic entries in APA style

INTERPRETING AND USING INFORMATION (cont’)

Conclusion• Is the literature up – to – date?(for empirical studies, anything more than 10 years old is usually of historical interest

• Does it cite the major books and articles relevant to the topics?

Conclusion A literature review is not an annotated bibliography. Quality not quantity is what counts most and you will be judged, in part, by how well you select important works for conclusion