The Literature Review in 3 Key Steps

1. The Literature Review in 3 Key Steps The “What”, “Why” and “How” of The Academic Literature Review Adapted from Boston University Alumni Medical Library

2. 3 Steps to a Literature Review • A review and quick summary of how to conduct a literature search for your EA Project

3. 3 Key Steps: 1. Start your engines Think of it like doing a Google search for buying a car • What do you want to do? Buy a car, find a particular car, find out how to negotiate prices, etc.? • Key word searches are trial and error and need to be refined/narrowed • Go to your library’s digital search page and choose ACM, IEEE, & ERIC as your search engines • Then start your searches • Expect to get LOTS of results, and then refine and narrow down to get what you really want • Use the “find more articles like this one” feature if available

4. 3 Key Steps: 2. Skim & Select 19 hits from the IEEE search on “interest in computing” + “high school” + “robots” • Skim all abstracts • Select articles of interest to your project • Read those articles • Take notes of important stuff: findings, methods, other prominent studies cited • Devise a system for note taking and managing your references • TIP: Take note of studies that keep coming up in introductions- you want to read these • Visit your library’s website for reference management software- freeware exists (Zotero), and many campuses offer licensed software like (Endnote)

5. 3 Key Steps: 3. Sum it up What does it all mean? • What categories are there? • What is similar to your study? • What is different? • What is known collectively from this literature? • Perhaps: that robotics education is successful, or not, or it depends upon certain factors, or something else? • Why is your study relevant? • The ‘So What?’ question • Perhaps your study: • adds evidence to support robotics education in high schools • has never been done before • replicates other studies but with a different population • ETC…..

6. UNC Charlotte’s Library Resource Page

7. And now the background…….What is a literature review?

8. What is it? A literature review • surveys scholarly articles, books and other sources (e.g. dissertations, conference proceedings) relevant to a particular issue, area of research, or theory. • provides a short description and critical evaluation of work critical to the topic. • offers an overview of significant literature published on a topic. (Lyons, 2005)

9. why CONDUCT a literature review?

10. Why? A literature review can be conducted for a variety of reasons: • For a review paper • For the introduction (and discussion) of a research paper, masters thesis or dissertation • To embark on a new area of research • For a research proposal (Burge, 2005) 5. And last, but not least, for contextual information for your EA Project!

11. Why? Conducting a literaturereviewwill help you: • Determine if proposed research is actually needed. • Even if similar research published, researchers might suggest a need for similar studies or replication. • Narrow down a problem. • It can be overwhelming getting into the literature of a field of study. A literature review can help you understand where you need to focus your efforts. • Generate hypotheses or questions for further studies. (Mauch & Birch, 2003)

12. And for your EA Project: Conducting a literaturereviewwill give you: • Background knowledge of the field of inquiry: • Facts • Eminent scholars • The most important ideas, theories, questions and hypotheses • Knowledge of field-specific methodologies and their usefulness in particular settings (Mauch & Birch, 2003)

13. HoW TO CONDUCT A LITERATURE REVIEW

14. How? Outline of review process: • Formulate a problem – which topic or field is being examined and what are its component issues; • Search the literature for materials relevant to the subject being explored. Searching the literature involves reading and refining the problem; • Evaluate the data – determine which literature makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the topic; • Analyze and interpret – discuss the findings and conclusions of pertinent literature • Use the literature to contextualize the problem/issue under study • Format and create bibliography (Lyons, 2005)

15. How? • Formulate a problem/issue: • Create an overview of relevant literature regarding Computing Education Interventions • Search the literature: • Use library resources/databases including IEEE, ACM and ERIC • Don’t restrict your search to peer-reviewed journal articles. Include academic books too. • Refine the problem/issue based on your initial review • Networked computing to facilitate learning among elementary school students

16. How? • Evaluate the data. Determine which literature contributes to the understanding of the problem/issue. • Analyze and interpret. Read the article, book chapter, etc., and summarize findings and relevance • Focus particularly on problem statement, method, results • Format and create bibliography • Use a citation management program such as Endnote to organize and manage citations and create bibliography • Organize and store references • Make in-text citations based on required style (e.g., APA) • Create a list of references based on required style • Most colleges and universities provide student access/download of citation management programs

17. Example Searches • IEEE: “interest in computing” • Refined by adding “ high school” • Declare bingo and begin skimming the articles, or further refine at your discretion • Consider using outreach type, e.g. ‘robots,’ ‘gamemaker,’ ‘Alice,’ or ‘CS unplugged’ • 38,000 hits • 135 hits • TIP: read an article that ‘jumps out’ at you, and use it’s key words to refine further • TIP: use variations of words: ‘robots,’ ‘robotics,’ etc.

18. References • Burge, C., 7.16 Experimental Molecular Biology: Biotechnology II, Spring 2005. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCouseWare), Retrieved 12/15/2008, from http://ocw.mit.edu. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA • Lyons, K. (2005). UCSC library - how to write a literature review. Retrieved 1/22/2009, 2009, from http://library.ucsc.edu/ref/howto/literaturereview.html . • Mauch, J. E., & Birch, J. W. (1993). Guide to the successful thesis and dissertation : A handbook for students and faculty (3rd , rev. and expand ed.). New York: Marcel Dekker.