Enhancing Student Literature Reviews

through Journal ClubFaith Agostinone-Wilson

Associate Professor of EducationGeorge Williams College

What is “Journal Club?”O Journal Club is a form of community

review and evaluation of research that involves some form of public presentation

O It has its origins in the biological sciences and medical fields

O In most Journal Clubs, students are responsible for summarizing a set number of peer-reviewed articles per week

O These reviews are presented orally where students gather to discuss results

Rationale behind Journal Club

O The amount of newly published research is too large to keep up with by one’s self

O Students’ individual research topics may also overlap, making the communal review of research a useful, time-saving device

O By reviewing and evaluating quality studies, students learn how research is conducted & how articles are structured

O By presenting to others, accountability is introduced

Why I Chose to Introduce Journal Club to EDU 7010O Main reason: I was tired of reading poor quality

literature reviews! O A good portion of the sources I was seeing were

not primary, even though they might be peer reviewed

O Students were also waiting until the last minute to put together their literature review drafts

O This often led to choppy, running abstracts rather than synthesized literature reviews

O Students were struggling with how to most efficiently process the information they needed from research articles

Journal Club Ground Rules

O 1. Everyone uses the same summary template which is copied and pasted onto the Moodle forum, no uploads in order to facilitate quick reading

O 2. All research must be primary source (i.e. the persons who wrote the article also conducted the research)

O 3. All research must be scholarly and peer reviewed O 4. Minimum of 3 article reviews posted per week; 5

per week for the most aggressive scheduleO 5. Students may review the same article as

someone else but the summary has to be uniqueO Dissertations are eligible for review!

Journal Club Template

Journal Club Moodle Page

Journal Club Forum

Journal Club Entry

Typical References Page: Pre-Journal Club

O Eadie, D. (2007). Hiring a Board-Savvy Superintendent. American School Board Journal , 46-47.

O Eadie, D. (2008). Prescription for Success. American School Board Journal , 46-47.O Ghezzi, P. (2008). Joy When the Job's a Perfect Fit. School Administrator , 10 -17.O Glass, T., & Franceschini, L. (2007). The State of the American School

Superintendent: A Mid-Decade Study. Lanham, MD: American Association of School Administrators.

O Hargreaves, A., & Fink, D. (April 2004). The Seven Principles of Sustainable Leadership. Educational Leadership , 8 - 13.

O Harris, S., Lowery, S., Hopsen, M., & Marshall, R. (Spring 2004). Superintendent Perceptions of Motivators and Inhibitors for the Superintendency. Planning and Changing , 108 -126.

O Jenkins, C. (Spring 2007). Considering the Community: How One Rural Superintendent Perceives Community Values and Their Effect on Decision Makin . The Rural Educator , 30.

O Kidder, R. M. (May 2008). Moral Rudders and Superintendent Values. School Administrator .

O Kowalski, T. J. (April 2005). Evolution of the School Superintendent as Communicator. Communication Education , 101 117.

O Leithwood, K., Seashore, L., Anderson, S., & Wahlstrom, K. (2004). How Leadership influences Student Learning. The Wallace Foundation , 1 -15.

Typical References Page: Post-Journal Club

O Burns, M. K., & Sterling-Turner, H. E. (2010). Comparison of Efficiency Measures for Academic Interventions Based on Acquisition and Maintenance. Psychology in the Schools, 47(2), 126-134. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

O Cantrell, S., Almasi, J. F., Carter, J. C., Rintamaa, M., & Madden, A. (2010). The Impact of a Strategy-Based Intervention on the Comprehension and Strategy Use of Struggling Adolescent Readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(2), 257-280. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

O Christle, C. A., & Schuster, J. W. (2003). The Effects of Using Response Cards on Student Participation, Academic Achievement, and On-Task Behavior During Whole-Class, Math Instruction. Journal of Behavioral Education, 12(3), 147-165. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

O Coyne, M. D., Zipoli, R. r., Chard, D. J., Faggella-Luby, M., Ruby, M., Santoro, L. E., & Baker, S. (2009). Direct Instruction of Comprehension: Instructional Examples from Intervention Research on Listening and Reading Comprehension. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 25(2-3), 221-245. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

O Daly III, E. J., Persampieri, M., McCurdy, M., & Gortmaker, V. (2005). Generating Reading Interventions Through Experimental Analysis of Academic Skills: Demonstration and Empirical Evaluation. School Psychology Review, 34(3), 395-414. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Typical Literature Review Excerpt: Pre-Journal ClubO Studies have shown that superintendent’s

evaluations that have excellent ratings have fallen from 69.1% to 59.4% (Glass & Franceschini, 2007). The decline is blamed on our current state of high stakes testing. NCLB is placing more and more political pressures on school boards and superintendents are looking for more ways to increase achievement with the same or less funding. The size of the district has an influence on a superintendent’s evaluation. Large school districts of 25,000 students or more tended to evaluate their superintendent as excellent at a larger rate than smaller school districts (1,000 students or less) (Glass & Franceschini, 2007).

Typical Literature Review Excerpt: Post-Journal ClubO As Table 2 demonstrates, with the exception of DeJardins

(2003), researchers found that increased socio-economic status (SES) or household income (HHI) and/or level of parental education were positive predictors of increased bachelor's degree completion rates (Adelman, 1999; Bahr, 2009; Bosick, 2005; DesJardins, 2003; Dowd, 2004; Ishitani, 2006; Kim, 2007; Porchea, 2010; Trusty, 2004). Moreover, with the exception of DesJardins (2003), admissions test scores and/or high school grade point averages were also positively related to 4-year degree completion (Adelman, 1999; Bahr, 2009; Bosick, 2005; DesJardins, 2003; House, 1999; Ishitani, 2006; Porchea, 2010). Porchea (2010) found that the probability of obtaining a 2-year degree or transferring to a 4-year institution increased by at least 50 percent for each standard deviation increase in standardized achievement scores.

Student ReactionsO Most students find the 3-5 article per week

schedule a challenging goal at first & gripe!O Some students have found they did not like

their original topic selections after @8-10 articles yet they could switch early with minimal time loss

O Even though Journal Club is challenging, students view it as a useful assignment that helps them formulate their dissertation drafts

O Paraphrasing and synthesis is easier with the Journal Club set-up

Interested in Joining Us?

O Please use the JC101 Moodle page as part of your classes!

O Log in to Moodle and search for Journal Club under Non-academic Resources/Miscellaneous

O Course key: journalO Or email fwilson@aurora.edu and I’ll

enroll you as an instructorO You can then enroll your students and

create a space for your classes’ forums