Tips on Critiquing Articles

1. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #1: Know the goal of Educational Research The goal of the educational research is to observe phenomena in the field of education and attempt to explain why these phenomena exist.

2. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #2: Know how to Dissect a Journal Article • Journal articles consists of: • A Title • An Abstract • An Introduction • A Literature Review • A Methodology Section • A Results Section • A Discussion

3. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #3: Understand the Purpose of the Title • The primary function of a title is to help readers identify articles of interest to them. A title may: • Indicate the independent and dependent variables under study. • Indicate the types of people who participated in the study. • Imply causality (i.e. how one variable impacts another).

4. Tips on Critiquing Articles Sample: Title The Effects of Breakfast on High School Student Achievement Can you identify the dependent and independent variables in this example?

5. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #4: Understand the Purpose of the Abstract • The abstract summarizes the article, providing the reader with a succinct overview of the research. Abstracts should briefly describe: • the purpose of the study • the research methodology used • the results of the study

6. Tips on Critiquing Articles Challenge List five ways that the abstract can benefit you in your research process.

7. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #5: Understand the Purpose of the Introduction section of the article • The Introduction… • introduces the research problem under study. • establishes the importance of studying the research problem. • defines the key terms used in the study. • indicates the research question and/or hypothesis

8. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #6: Understand the Purpose of the Literature Review • The Literature Review… • provides an overview of relevant literature. • indicates how the current study will advance the field’s knowledge base. • suggests the rationale for conducting the current study.

9. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #7: Know if the Sample is Random or Not • The Sample • Random samples allow the researcher to generalize the finding to an entire population. • Non-random samples allow the researcher to apply the findings only to the sample under study.

10. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #8: Understand the Purpose of the Methodology Section • The Methodology Section… • describes the research design used. • describes the tool used to collect data. • describes the procedure used to collect the data. • Indicates the conditions under which the data was collected. • describes the procedures used to analyze the data.

11. Tips on Critiquing Articles Challenge Referencing Module 4 “The Language of Research” in WebCT, identify five terms that you may encounter in the Methodology section of a journal article.

12. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #9: Understand the Purpose of the Results Section • The Results Section… • summarizes the data collected from the study. • links the data to the research hypothesis/problem. • describes what the researcher learned from the data.

13. Tips on Critiquing Articles Tip #10: Understand the Purpose of the Discussion Section • The Discussion Section… • summarizes the purpose and results of the study. • describes the methodological limitations to the study. • discusses the findings of the study in relationship to the literature cited. • proposes specific implications of the study. • provides suggestions for future research.