Literature Reviews

1
Literature Reviews

• Dr. Wayne E. Wright
• Royal University of Phnom Penh

2
Purpose of a Literature Reviews in a Thesis or
Research Report

• To learn what is already known about your
  research topic
• To identify gaps in the literature where more
  research is needed
• To justify to your own study
• Show that little to no research has been done on
  your particular focus (topic, geographical area,
  type of research site, type of students, etc.)
• To show why your study is an important one.
• To demonstrate your skills as a scholar
• You have read and understood the research on your
  topic
• You are able to synthesize the literature and
  identify gaps
• You can justify your own research as important

3
Major Steps in Preparing a Literature Review

• 1. Select a topic
• Modify your topic based on the available
  literature
• 2. Read the selected literature carefully in
  order to get a broad overview
• Pay attention to the relationship of the
  literature to theory
• Establish a specific purpose for your literature
  review
• 3. Take careful notes as you evaluate and
  interpret the literature on your topic
• Adapted from Pan (2004, p. 3)

4
Major Steps in Preparing a Literature Review

• 4. Create a synthesis by reconciling the
  similarities and differences across the different
  studies.
• Determine how the articles in your literature
  review fit together
• Note the implications of the conclusions
• Identifies areas in need of more research
• 5. Write a first draft, get feedback from
  others, and revise or rewrite your review

5
Understanding Different Types of Literature

• Empirical Research -- (Reports of Original
  Research)
• Empirical refers to observation
• Empirical research systematic observation
• Researchers plan in advance
• What or who they will observe
• What specific things they will focus on
• Their purpose for focusing on these things
• How they will observe it
• Quantitative Research
• Experimental and Quasiexperimental designs
• Analysis of large data-sets
• Survey Data
• Qualitative Research
• Observations in social settings, participant
  observation, interviews, focus groups, document
  analysis

6
Understanding Different Types of Literature

• Things to pay attention to in empirical research
  articles
• The research questions and/or hypotheses
• Sampling procedures or Participant selection
• How many were selected?
• Who was selected?
• Why were they selected?
• How were they selected?
• The research site (location)
• The methods used to answer the research questions
• Instruments used for measurement or observation
• Findings
• Conclusions
• Implications
• Limitations
• More research is needed

7
Understanding Different Types of Literature

• Theoretical Articles
• Evaluate existing theories
• Support them
• Oppose them
• Provide new insights or propose modifications
• Important for your theoretical/conceptual
  framework portions of your thesis or research
  report
• Literature review articles
• Explain what we know about a given topic from the
  research literature
• Provide new insights
• Reconcile conflicts
• Identify the gaps in need of more research
• Can be very useful to authors of a thesis or
  research report
• Author already identified the major studies and
  summarized the findings !

8
Anecdotal Reports

• Provide accounts based on the personal
  experiences of the author
• Lack the systematic observations of an empirical
  research article
• Are typically found in books or magazines aimed
  at practitioners (teachers, administrators,
  counselors, etc.).
• Can still be of value in a literature review
• But you should note in the review that it is
  anecdotal

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Other types of literature

• Dissertations and Theses
• Policy Documents and Reports
• Original official policy documents
• Governmental agencies or non-government
  organization reports
• Newspaper or other media reports
• Can provide some factual (hopefully) information
  about topic
• Opinion articles can highlight different views on
  a topic
• May describe (briefly) the findings of research
  on a topic

10
Other Types of Literature

• Reports on professional practices and standards
• May provide information, commentary, and
  evaluations of particular educational issues,
  policies, and practices.
• Book Reviews
• Provides a brief overview and a critical
  evaluation of an academic book
• Should not be used, unless you are unable to get
  a copy of the actual book
• If you use in your literature review, you should
  indicate it comes from a book review and provide
  the full source of the review.

11
Quickly Scanning a New Article

• You should quickly scan an article
• Make sure it is relevant to your research topic
• Figure out how it relates to the other articles
• Get a basic idea of the research questions,
  methodology, and findings
• Steps
• Read the title
• Read the Abstract
• Read all the section headings
• Skim the methodology section to see
• of participants
• Research site
• Methods and instruments used
• Read the conclusion
• If article is relevant, then make time to read it
  take careful notes.

12
Ways to find literature

• Reference list of an article or book related to
  your topic
• Google
• Google Scholar
• Libraries
• Databases

13
Identifying Type of Article from a Reference

• Book
• Webb, L. D., Metha, A., Jordan, K. F. (2003).
  Foundations of American education (4th ed.).
  Upper Saddle River, NJ Merrill- Prentice Hall.
• Book Chapter (in an edited book)
• Wright, W. E. (2003). The success and demise of a
  Khmer (Cambodian) bilingual education program A
  case study. In C. C. Park, A. L. Goodwin S. J.
  Lee (Eds.), Asian American identities, families,
  and schooling (pp. 225-252). Greenwich, CT
  Information Age Publishing.
• Journal Article
• Wiley, T. G., Wright, W. E. (2004). Against the
  undertow The politics of language instruction in
  the United States. Educational Policy, 18(1),
  142-168.

14
Types of Literature you canfind On-Line for Free

• Journal Articles
• Free on-line journals
• Articles posted on-line for free by the authors
  or publishers
• Research reports
• Government
• Non-governmental agencies and organizations
• Policy Documents
• News Articles
• On-line encyclopedia articles (Wikipedia)
• Opinion pieces, policy critiques, fact sheets,
  etc.
• Produced by a research center or think tank
• Produced by inividuals

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Types of Literature you can Find On-line that are
Not Free

• Articles and other research available in
  subscription databases
• Journals
• Publishers may allow you to see the table of
  contents, or an abstract of an article, but you
  must pay to be able to download the article
• Pay per article
• Newspaper and Magazine Articles
• Databases
• Pay per Article
• eBooks
• Can buy and download entire books

16
Types of Literature you Cant Find On-line

• Books
• Book chapters
• Internal policy documents and policy guidelines

17
Practice

• Read Literature Review section from
• Wright, W. E. (2004). What English-only really
  means A study of the implementation of
  California language policy with Cambodian
  American students. International Journal of
  Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 7(1), 1-23.
• Pay attention to
• What type of research is reviewed
• How the reviewed is organized
• The different ways of talking about the
  literature
• How the different articles are pieced together
  and synthesized
• How the literature review sets up and justifies
  the authors study

18
Practice

• The Education of Girls
• Scan the relevant parts of the research article
• Determine the best way to classify (group) the
  articles
• Discuss how the findings of each article
  contribute to our understanding of girls
  education
• Identify some gaps in the literature
• Discuss some research studies that could be
  conducted to address these gaps.