Introduction and Literature review (1000 words)

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WEEK FOUR – CHAPTER 2-LITERATURE REVIEW

Topic Objectives

 Define Review of related literature

 Identify the difference between literature review and review of related literature

 Identify the component of review of related literature.

 Conduct a review of related literature

UU-EDU 731-1: Dissertation

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Table of contents

Definition of Review of Literature ...................................................................................................... 3

The objectives of literature review: ................................................................................................... 4

Functions of review of related literature ............................................................................................ 4

The types of Reviews ......................................................................................................................... 5

Sources of Research Literature .......................................................................................................... 5

Type of Sources ................................................................................................................................. 5

Development of the Literature Review .............................................................................................. 7

How to write literature review .......................................................................................................... 7

The main components of review of related literature ...................................................................... 10

Some of the knowledge gaps ........................................................................................................... 10

The rules of thumb in a review of related literature ......................................................................... 13

INTRODUCTION

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In a research report, thesis or dissertation a review of related Literature is mostly found

as second chapter.

Definition of Review of Literature

A literature review is an evaluative report of information found in the literature related to

your selected area of study. The review should describe, summarise, evaluate and clarify

this literature. It should give a theoretical base for the research and help you (the author)

determine the nature of your research. Works which are irrelevant should be discarded

and those which are peripheral should be looked at critically.

Mcmillan and Schumacher (2010) looked at the review of related literature as a narrative

interpretive criticism of the existing literature with a view to providing an understanding

of the existing knowledge.

It is the process of searching, systematically compiling, assessing and scholarly

interrogating previous literature in order to inform or demonstrate its relationship with

the current research.

From the above it is therefore important to indicate that the review of related literature

analyses specific aspects and concepts of the published body of knowledge. This is

usually done through:

i. Summarising

ii. Classifying

iii. Comparing research knowledge into given strands of thought.

Knopf (2006) indicates that the review of related literature has the following key

elements:

i. It should concisely summarise the findings or claim that emerged from prior

research efforts on the subject.

ii. It should reach a conclusion about how accurate and complete that knowledge is.

It is important to note the difference between literature review and the review of

related literature.

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The review of related literature differ from literature review in that the review of related

literature focuses on compelling the researcher to review literature that is only related to

his or her study whereas literature review entails your review as a glorified academic

assignment because of the tendency of commentating on any literature that you lay hands

on without focusing or aligning it to the research questions or hypothesis.

The objectives of literature review:

i. Expand understanding of the management dilemma.

ii. Look for ways others have addressed and/or solved problems similar to the

management dilemma.

iii. Gather background information on the topic to refine the research questions.

iv. Identify sources for and actual sample frames that might be used in sample

design.

Functions of review of related literature

i. It provides a theoretical background to your study.

ii. It helps the researcher to justify what is the current status in your research filed

and where does your research fit?

iii. It also plays the major role in the discussion section of the thesis and dissertation.

iv. It helps the researcher in defining the research problem, identifying variables,

framing objectives and hypotheses, linking it with methodology, formulation of

data collection tool and selecting appropriate statistical technique, discussion on

your finding and giving suggestions.

v. It helps you establish the links between what you are proposing to examine and

what has already been studied.

vi. It enables you to show how your findings have contributed to the existing body of

knowledge in your profession. It helps you to integrate your research findings

into the existing body of knowledge.

vii. The review of related literature brings clarity and focus to your research problem.

viii. It improves your research methodology.

ix. It broaden your knowledge base in your research area

x. Contextualise your findings

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The types of Reviews

In conducting the review of related literature the researcher usually would decides on a

topic or field of knowledge to examine, the depth to go into, and what kind of review to

conduct. When conducting a review of related literature there are six types of review and

these are:

i. Self-study reviews

ii. Context reviews

iii. Historical review

iv. Theoretical reviews

v. Integrative review

vi. Methodological reviews

Sources of Research Literature

The following are the five factors of evaluating the quality of information sources are:

i. Purpose

ii. Scope

iii. Authority

iv. Audience

v. Format

The following are the sources of literature:

i. Internet: on line systems.

ii. Scholarly journals.

iii. Books containing reports of original research, or collection of research articles

iv. Thesis

v. Dissertations

vi. Government documents.

vii. Policy reports and presented papers

viii. Bibliographic indexes

Type of Sources

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When we are using the term ‘sources’ we are referring to print, electronic or visual

materials that are useful to your study.

There are basically three types of sources of literature namely primary, secondary and

tertiary (Kennedy, 2007):

i. Primary source: These are usually reports of original researchers work and are

not unfiltered sources such as letters/correspondence, diaries, memoirs,

autobiographies, official or research reports, patents and designs, and empirical

research articles ,photographs & paintings, sketches, original maps,

advertisements, posters, and banners, etc.

ii. Secondary sources are accounts of events which were created well after the

event occurred. Secondary sources are based on primary sources-they are usually

studies which analyse, evaluate, interpret, or criticize primary sources. By

assessing, repackaging and distributing information, secondary sources make the

information more accessible. Examples:, Biographies, prior books & papers on a

topic, literary criticism & interpretation, history & historical criticism, political

analyses, reviews of law and legislation, conference proceedings, books

(monographs or chapters’ books), documentaries.

iii. Tertiary Sources: Tertiary sources are usually not credited to a particular author.

They are intended only to provide a superficial overview of what the topic

includes, its basic terminology, and often references for further reading Examples

of tertiary sources: Encyclopaedias, dictionaries, atlas.

Literature Search framework

Database Entities Search Hits

1) The Directory of Open Access Journals Reflective practice

among primary

100

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school teachers

2) Cambridge Journals Online 80

3) EBSCO Host Research Databases; Emerald

Management

90

4) Elgar Online 60

Emerald Management 120 eJournal Collection 30

6) Google scholars 20

7) JSTOR 40

8) OUP - E-books Oxford Reference Online 12

OUP - E-books Oxford Scholarship Online

55

Palgrave Macmillan Journals 60

Sage Knowledge 90

Development of the Literature Review

There are four Stages

i. Problem formulation - which topic or field is being examined and what are its

component issues?

ii. Literature search - finding materials relevant to the subject being explored.

iii. Data evaluation - determining which literature makes a significant contribution

to the understanding of the topic.

iv. Analysis and interpretation - discussing the findings and conclusions of pertinent

literature.

How to write literature review

Following are the step-by-step method for writing a literature review according to

Stephens (2013).

1. Find a research topic: Look at your specific area of study. Think about what interests

you, and what fertile ground for study is.

2. Focus on your topic narrowly and select literature accordingly

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i. Avoid the temptation to include everything you find in your literature review,

Bigger does not mean better. A smaller, well-organized review is definitely

preferred to a \review containing many studies that are more or less related to the

problem.

ii. When investigating a heavily researched area, review only those works that are

directly related to your specific problem. You’ll find plenty of references and

should not have to rely on less-related studies.

iii. When investigating a new or little-researched problem area, review any study

related in some meaningful way to your problem. You’ll need to gather enough

information to develop a logical framework for the study and a sound rationale

for the research hypothesis.

3. Analysis the literature

i. What assumptions do most/some researchers seem to be making?

ii. What methodologies do they use? What testing procedures, subjects, material

tested?

iii. Evaluate and synthesize the research findings and conclusions drawn.

iv. Note experts in the field: names/labs that are frequently referenced.

v. Note conflicting theories, results, and methodologies.

vi. Watch for popularity of theories and how this has/has not changed over time

4. Organize the selected literature

Note things such as:

i. Findings that are common/contested.

ii. Two or three important trends in the research

iii. The most influential theories

5. Summarize and synthesise the literature

i. Write a one or two sentence statement summarizing the conclusion you have

reached about the major trends and developments you see in the research that has

been done on your subject.

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ii. Develop headings/subheadings. If your literature review is extensive, find a large

table surface, and on it place post-it notes or filing cards to organize all your

findings into categories. Move them around if you decide that (a) they fit better

under different headings, or (b) you need to establish new topic headings.

6. Writing the body of the paper according to Notar and Cole (2010)

i. Follow the plan you have developed above, making certain that each section links

logically to the one before and after, and that you have divided your sections by

themes or subtopics, not by reporting the work of individual theorists or

researchers.

ii. Look at the topic sentences of each paragraph. If you were to read only these

sentences, would you find that your paper presented a clear position, logically

developed, from beginning to end? If, for example, you find that each paragraph

begins with a researcher's name, it might indicate that, instead of evaluating and

comparing the research literature from an analytical point of view, you have

simply described what research has been done. This is one of the most common

problems with student literature reviews. So if your paper still does not appear to

be defined by a central, guiding concept, or if it does not critically analyse the

literature selected, then you should make a new outline based on what you have

said in each section and paragraph of the paper, and decide whether you need to

add information, to delete off-topic information, or to restructure the paper

entirely.

8. Write a conclusion for the end of the review

i. Provide closure so that the path of the argument ends with a conclusion of some

kind. How you end the review, however, will depend on your reason for writing

it.

ii. If the review was written to stand alone, as is the case of a term paper or a

review article for publication, the conclusion needs to make clear how the

material in the body of the review has supported the assertion or proposition

presented in the introduction.

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iii. On the other hand, a review in a thesis, dissertation, or journal article presenting

original research usually leads to the research questions that will be addressed.

The conclusion summarizes all the evidence presented and shows its significance.

The main components of review of related literature

In order for you to under this aspect let us consider the following title:

The causes of teen pregnancies among primary school girls in Malawi

 The problem: In the above example, the problem is increase in teen

pregnancies. We can say that a teen is a girl still at primary school. In

this case you can review literature that is focused on:

i. Causes of pregnancies among girls in primary schools

ii. You can look for synonyms of words/descriptors such as teen

mother,

 The object of the study: The object in this study is primary school

girls. By object we are looking at the living thing around which the

research revolves or is centered. For example in the search for literature,

you may look for teen mother. You can also broaden you literature

search to look at pregnancies in secondary school.

 The variables: In the review of related literature you can look for key

variables. In the above study the key variable could be causes of

pregnancies and primary school learners.

 The gap which your study seeks to close: These are areas where you

study fits in and would close.

Some of the knowledge gaps

 Conceptual gap: This usually a situation where the concept that was

investigated would have been defined and understood differently.

Imagine that in the previous study a researcher conducted a study that

focused on the causes of abseeintism among primary school teachers. In

this study the researcher defined abseeintism as absconding from work.

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You may want to provide a more encompassing definition of

abseeintism and you carry out the similar study to see if the results will

be comparable. However, you need to make mention in your literature

that you defined abseeintism differently.

 Geographical gap: This where a study was conducted in some areas

and not in other areas. For example more research work has been done

in Lilongwe than in Mzuzu district. Therefor a researcher would like to

conduct a similar study to see if the results could be similar or different

because of location of the study.

 Methodological gap: This is where some research designs have been

used more than the other or a research approach has been used instead

of the other research approach. For example a previous researcher

would have used a quantitative research approach then the current

researcher would like to use mixed method research approach. This

situation provides a methodological gap. In addition a previous

researcher would have used the descriptive research design whereas the

current researcher would like to use ethnographic research design.

 The population/sample gap: This is where a study was restricted to a

certain population and sample and was not extended to others. For

example most previous studies on literacy level focused on primary

school teachers or learners. Therefore, researchers would like to conduct

a study on literacy but focusing on secondary school teachers and

learners.

 A time bound gap: This is where a researcher would like to conducted

a similar study that was conducted a long time ago so as to confirm

whether the results that were presented at that particular period in time

are still varied even in this modern time.

 Key concepts/variables:

 Gap from different perspective of the various disciplines: This is

where a study was conducted by researcher who is in a different

discipline than that of the current researchers. For example a researcher

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from the political discipline would have conducted a study on the causes

of teen pregnancies among primary school girls, his or her discipline

would have a bearing on the research. You are from the Psychological

oriented discipline therefore you would conduct a similar study but with

influence from psychology.

Example of a review of related literature

In Zambia, a study conducted by Likando (2019) focused on the nature of

primary school teachers’ reflective practice in the context of lesson study in

Lukulu District of Western province. This study was qualitative in nature and

used exploratory research design with semi-structured interviews, observation

and reflective journals as data collection methods.

Data analysis was done inductively and the results indicated that the

mathematics teachers had a limited understanding of the concept of reflection.

In addition the study revealed that there was no evidence that participants

reflected-for action instead they reflect-in action through writings and verbal

actions.

The study by Likando (2019) brought out interesting empirical findings because

of the number of research instruments used to gather more data. The researcher

used semi-structured interviews, document analysis and reflective journals.

Unfortunately, the researcher did not use focus group discussion and reflective

journals as part of their research instruments. This led to the failure to gather

more information that could be generated as participants interact with each

other in focus group discussions. In focus group discussions participants are

more freely to express themselves than in semi-structured interviews thus more

information coming out of the focus group discussions thus the study by

Likando missed that opportunity. Additionally, Likando (2019) had a small

sample of five mathematics teachers from the same school teaching grade 8-11

in South Africa. Despite being a qualitative study the participants were

supposed to come from different schools so as to have a wide range of views. In

the present study 32 in-service primary school teachers from different primary

schools were sampled and these were teaching grades six.

In the above example, the following are revealed:

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i. The study title

ii. Where it was conducted (geographical location)

iii. Sample size

iv. Instrument used

v. Data analysis techniques

vi. Results

The reveal above is thorough and complete as it contains the key review components.

The information is also presented in a logical order from the title through to the findings.

The last part represents the critique which is a knowledge gap. The data above is

important in that it assists the researcher in the discussion of the research findings.

According to Collis and Hussey (2003) it is important that when you are reviewing a

study to ask the following questions:

i. What was the purpose?

ii. What methodology was used in the previous study?

iii. What were the findings in the study; how do they differ from other studies and

what I expect to find?

iv. What were the limitations and weaknesses of the study?

According Shaw (2010) the major aspect of critical evaluation of the literature, is

reviewing them according to their methodological quality.

 Quantitative studies are judged by their objectivity, reliability, internal and

external validity, and generalisability

 Qualitative studies are judged by their trustworthiness

The rules of thumb in a review of related literature

i. It is important to have a focus on the leading authorities in your research area.

ii. It is important to focus on studies that are relevant and helpful to your research

question

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iii. It is also important to focus on recent publications from high-prestige or high-

visibility sources.

Flowchart of Activities in the Review of Literature

Identify descriptor

(Keywords or phrases)

relevant to the problem

Identify source such as

an appropriate index or

retrieval system

Identify titles of potentially relevant

reports

Locate copies of reports to be

reviewed

Delete non relevant

reports Separate the reports in order or

into categories of relevance or

importance Prepare abstracts or summaries

for the reports containing relevant

information

Write the review of the

literature

Prepare a complete reference list

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Like most activities or steps in a process, there are efficient and inefficient ways to

review the literature. Rather than going to the library or the internet and haphazardly

beginning to take notes, the researcher should follow a systematic process, as represented

by the activities in the flowchart. Although even this process may involve some

inefficiency in locating sources and reports, efficiency will be enhanced by following the

process. Another important procedural point in conducting activities is, for each activity,

to do as complete and accurate an initial job as possible. For example, when a relevant

report is located and an abstract is prepared, a complete reference entry for the report

should be included and page numbers of potential quotations should be noted. If a report

is relevant enough to include in the review, sufficient information should be obtained

from it so that there is no confusion later about what was done (conditions, procedures,

individuals involved etc.) or about the results. Doing the review of literature in this

suggested manner, will not only reduces frustration but also saves time.

Further reading from weekly ebook: Chapter 5: Section 1, 2 & 3

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REFERENCE LIST

Collis, J. and Hussey, R. (2003). Business Research: A Practical Guide for

Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students, 2nd edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave

Macmillan.

Kennedy, M.M. (2007). Defining Literature. Educational Researcher 36(3), 139-147

Knopf, J.W. (2006). Doing a Literature review, PS January, 127-132

Mcmillan, J.H., & Schumacher, S. (2010). Research in education: Evidence-based

inquiry, 7th Ed, Boston, Pearson.

Notar, C.E, and Cole, V. (2010). Literature reviewer organiser. International Journal of

Education. 2(2), 1-17

Shaw, R. L. (2010). Conducting literature reviews. In M. Forrester (Ed.), Doing

qualitative research in psychology: a practical guide. Sage publishing, pp. 39- 56.

Stephens, J.M. (2013). Why students plagiarise.