Last semester's literature review was around the topic of leadership styles and their influence on school climate and sustainability. I used terms such as shared leadership, distributed leadership, servant leadership, and teacher leadership. I organized the review by styles and shared characteristics. Looking back, it was not a true synthesis of the information and took the appearance of an annotated bibliography, not a direction I know I should be going for this semester's literature review. My topic is growing in a new direction therefore, much of last semester's lit review will not be of much use to me this go around.
2. Labaree (2003) notes that doctoral students who write literature reviews often face difficulties because their identities clash between daily school life and university culture. His ideas include having to shift from: a personal to an intellectual relationship with educational phenomena. This resonates with me as a former classroom teacher transitioning into a more public position. My current position at the Arizona K-12 Center requires a shift in the way in which I come to personally understand educational programs, policies, decisions, and dynamics of the school system as a larger entity. Rather than relating to educational issues from the perspective of how it impacts me personally, I am required to look at educational phenomena from a diverse set of perspectives in a wide variety of school contexts.
As I consider my approach to my literature review around areas of assessing impact of professional development this semester, I will have to consider this as it influences my ability to stay open minded about the ideas I have about the topic of quality professional development.
I will need to hone my intellect in ways that will enable me to see my topic from various contexts and accept that changes can be made through multiple processes perhaps very different from my own.
Criteria for measuring the quality of the lit review might include: The topic is clear and a rationale is provided. The topic appears relevant and is organized in a way that is logical and flows naturally. The information is a synthesis of the ideas and theories, not a summary of the information in the literature. References are cited in APA format.
4 comments:
Last semester's literature review was around the topic of leadership styles and their influence on school climate and sustainability. I used terms such as shared leadership, distributed leadership, servant leadership, and teacher leadership. I organized the review by styles and shared characteristics. Looking back, it was not a true synthesis of the information and took the appearance of an annotated bibliography, not a direction I know I should be going for this semester's literature review. My topic is growing in a new direction therefore, much of last semester's lit review will not be of much use to me this go around.
2. Labaree (2003) notes that doctoral students who write literature reviews often face difficulties because their identities clash between daily school life and university culture. His ideas include having to shift from: a personal to an intellectual relationship with educational phenomena. This resonates with me as a former classroom teacher transitioning into a more public position. My current position at the Arizona K-12 Center requires a shift in the way in which I come to personally understand educational programs, policies, decisions, and dynamics of the school system as a larger entity. Rather than relating to educational issues from the perspective of how it impacts me personally, I am required to look at educational phenomena from a diverse set of perspectives in a wide variety of school contexts.
As I consider my approach to my literature review around areas of assessing impact of professional development this semester, I will have to consider this as it influences my ability to stay open minded about the ideas I have about the topic of quality professional development.
I will need to hone my intellect in ways that will enable me to see my topic from various contexts and accept that changes can be made through multiple processes perhaps very different from my own.
Criteria for measuring the quality of the lit review might include:
The topic is clear and a rationale is provided. The topic appears relevant and is organized in a way that is logical and flows naturally. The information is a synthesis of the ideas and theories, not a summary of the information in the literature. References are cited in APA format.
4. From Scholars Before Researchers article by Boote and Beile:
CONTENT- A quality literature review is one that provides a clear rationale as to why particular literature is included.
SYNTHESIS- Critically examines the field and the history of what has, and has not, been done in the past.
Clarifies ambiguous definitions and key terms and variables relevant to the topic.
Offers new perspectives.
METHODOLOGY- Critiques methods of research and their appropriateness, advantages and disadvantages.
SIGNIFICANCE- The research problem is rational, practical and scholarly.
RHETORIC- Writing is clear, coherent, well-developed and supportive.
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