Conducting

Literature Review
A very brief overview
 About Me
– Dr. Merza Abbas
– Assoc. Prof.
– Chairman of Graduate Studies,
Centre for Instructional Technology
& Multimedia
– merza@usm.my, drmerza@yahoo.com
 Achievement?

• Best Thesis/Dissertation Awards

– USM : Ibrahim Jbeili (2004)
– META: Hamidah Maidinsah (2004)

Tumpang syok sahaja

Ibrahim’s Award
Why do a master degree?
• To do a better job
– To teach better: more effectively, more
efficiently, more productively, etc…
– To improve the quality of learning
• To move to better jobs
• Because it is exciting, challenging, etc…
– Because it’s there
Why do a master degree?
• To do a PHD, to be a researcher
• To acquire “constructive” knowledge as
well as “destructive” knowledge
• To learn to deconstruct and/or
reconstruct knowledge (how do you
know what you know is correct?)
• No real applications except for a PHD
or in a research environment
What is a graduate program?
Critical review of paradigms:
PHD
Accept when irrefutable

Critical review of theories:

Master
Accept when “proven”

Grad. Dip/ More skills & theories:

Prof. exams Accept w/o question

Skills & theories:

Bachelor
Accept w/o question

Diploma Skills: Accept w/o question

Structure Paradigm
P
of R
Academic E D
thinking S E
C S
R Theory C
I R
P I
T P
I T
V Model I
E V
E
Res.
Res.

Practice
Structure of Scientific
Revolution (Kuhn, 1970)
Master programs

Paradigm Normal Science

New
Anomalies New Paradigm
Normal Science

Another new
More Anomalies
Paradigm

Doctoral Programs
 Objectivist Paradigm
Theory Focus: Mastery of content/skills

Behaviourist through conditioning and use of

Mental
extrinsic processes
“motivational”processes
are predictable:
External factors
Cybernetic through accumulation
can change of sub-skills
and sub-procedures
internal processes
Cognitive through activation of mental
processes such as schemas,
strategies, & metacognition
 Constructivist Paradigm
Theory Focus: reasoning skills & science
process skills

Mental through inquiry and solving

Development real-life problems
Mental processes
are not predictable:
Humanist Knowledge is private &&
through meaningful
is personally
purposeful learning
constructed
Social through scaffolding,
learning cooperative/collaborative learning,
 What is a
thesis/dissertation?
• Report of a scholarly investigation
– Proof of theory-practice mastery
– Genuine & Original thought/argument
• Document to pass a sentence
– Verify/fine-tune theories, models, practice
– Reject/Debunk paradigms, theories, models
 What is in a
thesis/dissertation?
• Chapter 1: Introduction
– Problem Statement
– Research Questions
– Hypotheses, etc
• Chapter 2: Literature Review
• Chapter 3: Research Methodology
• Chapter 4: Results / Data Analysis
• Chapter 5: Discussion & Conclusions
Skills for Research & Thesis
Writing Draw & apply reasonable conclusions

Organize & analyze expt. data

Plan & conduct controlled expt.

Generate logical predictions

Recognize & state Alt. H & Theories

Sense & state causal question

Describe nature accurately

Dari Lawson (1995)

 Literature Review
• What is it?
• What is it for?
• Where do we start?
• How do we do it?
– Quantitative research
– Qualitative research
• How do we know we’ve done a good job?
• Worked example(s)
 Literature Review:
M.Ed. Evaluation Form
• Perkaitan Sumber yang disoroti
dengan masalah kajian.
• Terdapat teori/model untuk
menyokong masalah kajian.
• Sumber yang disoroti adalah terkini
dan mencakupi skop kajian.
 What is it?
• High quality overview
– Clarity, Flow, Relevance, Recency,
Empirical focus, Independence
• With technically accurate citations
and references
– List all articles cited in text,
– Cite all articles listed in reference
– Use the APA standard.
 What is it for?

• Support for ideas in Chapter 1

• Elaboration of ideas in Chapter 1
• Reference for discussion and
conclusions in Chapter 5
– Must be thorough, exhaustive, & up-to-
date
Where do we start?
• Choose a paradigm
• Problem Statement (3-5 pages: tentative cause
& effect statements)
– Problems = anomalies
– Choose a suitable theory/model
– Identify Independent Variables (IV)
– Identify Dependent Variables (DV)
– Identify Moderator Variables (MV)
• Write clear Research Questions
– How will the IVs affect the DVs among the MVs?
– Develop the Hypotheses
• Derive a Title from the Research Questions
• Tip: RQ = Summary of Problem Statement
 Information Processing
Model
Learning: process of Executive
Encoding
E and decoding Motivation
Control
N
Stimuli/Knowledge items
V
into
I meaningful structures
Response
Rusing various
Muscles cognitive
Generator
O strategies
N
M
E Short Term/ Long
Sensory Working Term
N Senses
Register Memory Memory
T
 Piaget’s theory
Existing
• Learning: Schema in
equilibrium
process of
resolving New Information
cognitive causes disequilibrium

conflicts Assimilation

Self-regulation
Accomodation

New Schema
in equilibrium
 How do we do it?
• Expand from the Title
– Expand concepts to content outline
– Use cause and effect structure
• Expand from the Research Questions
• Expand from the Problem Statement
• Take note of the
– Academic Pecking Order
– Sources of Knowledge
– Who else has done this, in what paradigm, with what
subjects, & with what results: go to ASKERIC, Google, etc.
• Tip: Hypotheses are summaries for Lit. Review.
The Academic Pecking
Order
Innovators

Developers
No name
dropping,
Reporters
padding
Please!
Students
 Sources of Knowledge

• Experience
• Authority
• Deductive Reasoning
• Inductive Reasoning
• Scientific Thinking/Research
(Empirical studies)
 Inductive Scientific Deductive
Reasoning Reasoning
Thinking
Begins with Begins with a
specific theory that
observations explains an
event
Detects forms
patterns & hypotheses
forms to test
Forms tentative
Collects data/
hypotheses
observations
to test
to test H’thesis

Concludes with Confirms

a new theory
original theory

Dari Sopiah Abdullah (2004)

 How do you know you’ve
done a good job?

• Does the review support every

hypothesis?
• Does the review support Chapter 5?
• Up-to-date, thorough, exhaustive,
original?
• Can be turned into a book / a monograph?
Tuckman’s (1999) criteria
• Context
• Magnitude (number of references)
• How empirical & up-to-date
• Connectedness to the problem
• Well-organized?
• Establish significance?
• Convincing argument?
 Let’s try an example
• Paradigm
• Variables
• Research Questions
• Title
• Literature Review Outline
How to improve learning?
Thank you