Reviewing the

Literature
Key Concepts

– Functions of Literature Reviews

– Designing and Constructing a Literature Review

Slide 2 Educational Research by John W. Creswell. Copyright ©2002 by Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Literature Review in a
Quantitative Study
– Documents the importance of the research problem at the beginning of the
study
– Supports the theory or explanation used in the study
– Foreshadows the research questions
– Provides an explanation for the results in other studies and in the theoretical
prediction at the end of the study.

Slide 3
Literature Review in a
Qualitative Study
– Documents the importance of the research problem at the beginning of the
study
– Does not foreshadow the research questions (which are broad in scope to
encourage participants to provide their own views)
– Is used to compare and contrast with other studies at the end of the study

Slide 4
Designing and Conducting a
Literature Review
– Identify key terms
– Locate literature
– Read and evaluate the relevance of the literature to your
topic
– After selection, organize the literature into a coherent
picture of studies and documents on your topic
– Write a review by developing summaries of the literature
Slide 5
Identifying key terms

– Write a preliminary “working title” for the project and select two
or three key words that capture the essence of the project
– Pose a short general research question that you would like to
answer in the study
– Look in a thesaurus of terms to find words that match your topic
– Scan the contents in your library stacks and the table of contents
of educational journals

Slide 6
 Locate the Literature:
Classification
Low standards
of
Early Stage Material
Sources
Ideas appear
to ensure quality first

Indexed Publications

Journal Articles

Books

High standards Ideas appear 10+

Summaries
to ensure quality years after
initiation
Slide 7
Locate the literature: Examples of
Sources

– Stacks in the library

– Databases (general literature, research literature)
– Encyclopedias
– Summaries
– Dictionaries and glossaries of terms
– Handbooks
– Statistical indexes
– Reviews and syntheses

Slide 8
Evaluating the relevance of the
literature: Questions to ask

– Topic relevance: Is the literature on the same topic as

your proposed study?
– Individual and site relevance: Does the literature
examine the same individuals and sites you want to
study?

Slide 9
Evaluating the relevance of the
literature: Questions to ask

– Problem relevance: Does the literature examine the

same research problem as you propose in your study?
– Accessibility relevance: Is the literature available in your
library or can it be downloaded from a web site?

Slide 10
Organizing the literature

– Copy and file materials

– Construct a Literature Map

Slide 11
Procedure for constructing a
Literature Map

– Identify key terms for the topic and put them at the top
of the map
– Sort studies into topical areas or “families of studies.”
– Provide a label for each box which will become a heading
for the review
– Develop the map on as many levels as possible

Slide 12
Procedure for constructing a
Literature Map

– Draw a box toward the bottom of the figure that says

“my proposed study”
– Draw lines connecting the proposed study with other
branches of the literature

Slide 13
 Literature Map
The need for teaching programs
to be culturally responsive
Study Abroad U.S.
Programs Bennett, 1995; Eastman, Programs
Smith, 1991; Grant 1994; Noel,1995

Personal insights Possible Personal insights

of preservice teachers improvements of preservice teachers
Attitude toward
Study Abroad
Friesen, Kang Martin, Rohrlich , Cockrell, Placier
McDongall, 1995; 1991; Stachowski, Cockrell, Middleton
King, Young ,1994
Mahan, Stachowski, 1991 1991 1999, Goodwin, 1997
Kea, Bacon, 1999

Need for further study: Conventional

Non-English Speaking Cultures Programs Cross-Cultural
Predominately English Programs
Speaking Countries Colville-Hall
Question: Do short-term study
Mahan, Stachowski, 1990; abroad programs in non-English Macdonald, Cooper, Beare
Quinn, Barr, McKay, speaking cultures help create Smollen, 1995; Thorman, 1990;
Jarchow, Powell, 1995;
cultural responsiveness in Rodriguez, Larke, Wiseman,
Vall, Tennison, 1992 Sjostrom, 1995; Bradley, 1990
preservice teachers?
Vavrus, 1994

Slide 14
 Circular Literature Map
Need for Further Study
Non-English Speaking Cultures
Question: “Do short term study abroad programs
in non-English speaking cultures help create
cultural responsiveness in preservice teachers?

Study Abroad U.S. Programs

Program
Conventional Programs
Preservice Teachers Personal Insights of
Attitudes Toward Personal insights of Teachers (Cockrell,
(Friesen, Kang,
Study Abroad Preservice Teachers Placer, Cockrell,
McDougall, 1995)
(King, Young 1994) (Friesen, Kang, Milleton, 1999
McDougall, 1995)

Predominately English
Speaking Cultures Cross-Cultural Program
(Maha, Stachowski, (Cooper, Beare,
1990) Thorman, 1990)

Slide 15
Writing a review of the literature

– Identify and summarize each study in an “abstract” that highlights important

elements
– Write out complete citations for the summaries with headings that use
appropriate style manual formats
– Write the review using writing strategies related to the type and extent of the
review

Slide 16
Quantitative and Qualitative
Abstracts
Quantitative Qualitative
– The research problem – The research problem
– The hypothesis or – The central phenomenon
research questions
– The data collection
– The data collection
procedure
procedure
– Findings
– Results of the study
Slide 17
Literature review

– Why is it important to review already available information when

preparing for a research?
It prevents you from duplicating work that has been done before.
It helps you to find out what others have learned and reported on
the problem you want to study. This may assist you in refining your
statement of the problem.
It helps you to become more familiar with the various research
methods that might be used in your study.
It should provide you with convincing arguments for why your
particular research project is needed.