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The Literature Review

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Title: The Literature Review


1
The Literature Review
2
The Importance of the Literature Review in
Research
  • Borg Gall (1989) state, Although the
    importance of a thorough review of the literature
    is obvious to everyone, this task is more
    frequently slighted than any other phase of
    researchOften the insights gained through the
    review will save as much time in conducting the
    research as the review itself required.

3
Why Review the Literature?
  • to identify gaps in the literature
  • to avoid reinventing the wheel (at the very least
    this will save time and it can stop you from
    making the same mistakes as others)
  • to carry on from where others have already
    reached (reviewing the field allows you to build
    on the platform of existing knowledge and ideas)

4
Why Review the Literature?
  • to identify other people working in the same
    fields (a researcher network is a valuable
    resource)
  • to increase your breadth of knowledge of your
    subject area
  • to identify seminal works in your area
  • to provide the intellectual context for your own
    work, enabling you to position your project
    relative to other work

5
Why Review the Literature?
  • to identify opposing views
  • to put your work into perspective
  • to demonstrate that you can access previous work
    in an area
  • to identify information and ideas that may be
    relevant to your project
  • to identify methods that could be relevant to
    your project

Source Bourner, T. (1996) 'The research process
four steps to success', in Greenfield, T. (ed),
Research methods guidance for postgraduates,
Arnold, London.
6
Era 1 in Literature Reviews
  • Go to the library, look in paper indexes,locate
    the journal and read it

7
Era 2 in Literature Reviews
  • Go to the library, use computer-basedindexes,
    locate the journal and read it

8
Era 3in Literature Reviews
  • Use your home computer, access indexes
    electronically, if the journal is not on-line, go
    to the library, locate the journal and read it.

9
How to Find Information
  • Go to the Library and wander around
  • Not the most efficient but interesting

10
Finding Information
  • Use electronic indexes

11
Approaches to the Lit Review
  • Start with more global secondary sources
  • Encyclopedias
  • Yearbooks
  • Handbooks of Research
  • Scholarly books

12
Examples of Secondary Sources
  • The Encyclopedia of Educational Research a four
    volume set that looks at various facets of
    education. Most entries have detailed
    bibliographies.

13
Additional Secondary Sources
  • Handbook of Research on ______
  • Teaching
  • Early Childhood Education
  • Educational Administration
  • Language Development
  • Curriculum
  • Math Teaching and Learning
  • Multicultural Education
  • Music Teaching and Learning
  • Science Teaching

14
Additional Secondary Sources
  • Review of Research in Education Published
    annually, generally focuses on 2-3 areas
  • Review of Educational Research published
    quarterly, contains latest research, has
    extensive bibliography
  • Scholarly books in the area of your interest

15
Primary Sources
  • Original works (journal articles, research
    papers)
  • More current than secondary sources
  • Specialized indexes are used to find the articles.

16
ERIC
  • Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC)
  • Established in 1966 by the U.S. Department of
    Education
  • Sixteen different clearinghouses review and
    summarize research
  • One clearinghouse focuses on just adult, career
    and vocational education

17
ERIC
Produces two major products
  • CIJE (Current Index to Journals in Education)
  • Over 900 educational journals are indexed.
  • This is published in hard copy and electronically.
  • RIE (Resources in Education)
  • Non-journal documents
  • Research conference papers
  • Technical reports
  • Curriculum projects
  • RIE is published in hard copy and electronically

These documents are called fugitive literature or
gray literature because they are not widely
disseminated or easy to obtain!
18
Searching ERIC
  • It might be wise to spend a few minutes looking
    at the ERIC Thesaurus to find the terms used to
    catalog items before searching.
  • For example teaching effectiveness is not a
    term used, but teacher effectiveness is.
  • It is best to start broad and then narrow the
    search by using and in your searches.
  • agricultural education and teacher
    effectiveness

19
Searching ERIC
  • You can search by title, key terms, author,
    journal name, etc.
  • Most indexes allow similar searches

20
Finding ERIC Documents
  • Journal articles can be found in the journals in
    which the were published (CIJE)
  • Other documents have a ED number such as
    ED131188. This refers to a microfiche that can
    be retrieved and read at the NCSU or other major
    university libraries using a microfiche reader.

21
AGRICOLA
  • AGRICOLA (AGRICultural OnLine Access) is a
    bibliographic database of citations to the
    agricultural literature created by the National
    Agricultural Library and its cooperators.
    Production of these records in electronic form
    began in 1970, but the database covers materials
    in all formats, including printed works from the
    15th century.

22
AGRICOLA
  • The records describe publications and resources
    encompassing all aspects of agriculture and
    allied disciplines, including animal and
    veterinary sciences, entomology, plant sciences,
    forestry, aquaculture and fisheries, farming and
    farming systems, agricultural economics,
    extension and education, food and human
    nutrition, and earth and environmental sciences.

23
AGRICOLA
  • Contains journal articles, extension
    publications, experiment station documents, and
    similar resources.
  • There is a little overlap between ERIC and
    AGRICOLA in agricultural and extension education.
  • It is better to have an overlap than a gap.

24
Dissertation Abstracts International
  • Nearly all doctoral dissertations written in
    North America are indexed in DAI.
  • You can search by topic, author, university,
    topic and several other terms.

25
The Education Index
  • If you are looking for articles published prior
    to 1981 you may need to go to the library and use
    a paper index titled The Education Index. Most
    electronic indexes have not gone back in time to
    index the earlier journals.
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