Chapter 4

Reviewing the Literature

Power Point Slides by Ronald J. Shope in collaboration with John W. Creswell

Key Concepts

• Defining a literature review

• Distinguishing between a quantitative
and qualitative literature review
• Understanding the 5-step process of
conducting a literature review

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

What is a Literature Review?

• Written summary of the literature

• Describes past and current information
and research
• Organized into topics
• Reporting the literature based on
themes or individual studies
• Documenting a need for your proposed
study

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

 Literature Review in a
Quantitative Study
• Documents the importance of the research
problem at the beginning of the study
• Supports the theory or explanation used in
the study
• Foreshadows the research questions
• Provides an explanation for the results in
other studies and in the theoretical
prediction at the end of the study.
Educational Research 2e: Creswell
 Literature Review in a
Qualitative Study
• Documents the importance of the research
problem at the beginning of the study
• Does not foreshadow the research
questions (which are broad in scope to
encourage participants to provide their own
views)
• Is used to compare and contrast with other
studies at the end of the study

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

What is the Process of
Conducting a Literature Review?

• Identify key terms

• Locate literature
• Critically evaluate and select the literature
• Organize the literature
• Write a review

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

Identifying key terms

• Write a preliminary “working title” for the

project and select two or three key words that
capture the essence of the project
• Pose a short general research question that
you would like to answer in the study
• Look in a thesaurus of terms to find words
that match your topic
• Scan the contents in your library stacks and
the table of contents of educational journals

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

Priority/Value of Sources for
Searching the Literature
• Summaries
• Journals, Indexes, Databases
• Early stage literature (e.g., Web studies)

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

Databases Used in
Educational Research
• ERIC
• PsyINFO
• Sociofile
• Social Science Citation Index
• Dissertation Abstracts
• Others: PubMed

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

Critically Evaluate and Select
the Literature

• Is it a good, accurate source?

– National journal?
– Reviewed source?
– Research study?

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

Critically Evaluate and Select
the Literature
• Is the source worthy of inclusion?
– Topic relevance: Is the literature on the same
topic as your proposed study?
– Individual and site relevance: Does the
literature examine the same individuals and
sites you want to study?
– Problem relevance: Does the literature
examine the same research problem as you
propose in your study?
– Accessibility relevance: Is the literature
available in your library or can it be downloaded
from a web site?
Educational Research 2e: Creswell
Organize the Literature:
Abstracting Studies
• Contents of abstract vary for research study
and essay
• Structure essentially same for quantitative
and qualitative research studies:
– Research problem
– Research questions/hypotheses
– Data collection procedures
– Results/Findings

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

 Sample Hierarchical Literature
Map
The need for Teaching Programs
to be Culturally Responsive
Study Abroad U.S.
Programs Bennett, 1995; Eastman,
Programs
Smith, 1991; Grant 1994; Noel, 1995

Personal insights Possible Personal insights

of Preservice Teachers Improvements of Preservice Teachers
Attitude Toward
Study Abroad
Friesen, Kang Martin, Rohrlich , Cockrell, Placier,
McDougall, 1995; 1991; Stachowski, Cockrell, Middleton
King, Young,1994
Mahan, Stachowski, 1991 1991 1999; Goodwin, 1997;
Kea, Bacon, 1999

Need for further study: Conventional

Cross-Cultural
Non-English Speaking Cultures Programs
Predominately English Programs
Speaking Countries
Question: Do short-term study Colville-Hall
Cooper, Beare
abroad programs in non-English Macdonald,
Mahan, Stachowski, 1990; Thorman, 1990;
speaking cultures help create Smollen, 1995;
Quinn, Barr, McKay, Larke, Wiseman,
cultural responsiveness in Rodriguez,
Jarchow, Powell, 1995; Bradley, 1990
preservice teachers? Sjostrom, 1995;
Vall, Tennison, 1992 Educational Research 2e: Creswell
Vavrus, 1994
Organize the Literature:
Constructing a Literature Map

• Identify key terms for the topic and put them at

the top of the map
• Sort studies into topical areas or “families of
studies.”
• Provide a label for each box which will become
a heading for the review
• Develop the map on as many levels as possible

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

Constructing a Literature Map
• Draw a box toward the bottom of the figure
that says “my proposed study”
• Draw lines connecting the proposed study
with other branches of the literature

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

Circular Literature Map

Need for Further Study

Non-English Speaking Cultures
Question: “Do short term study abroad programs
in non-English speaking cultures help create
cultural responsiveness in preservice teachers?

Study Abroad U.S. Programs

Program
Conventional Programs Personal Insights of
Attitudes Toward Personal insights of
Preservice Teachers Teachers (Cockrell,
Study Abroad Preservice Teachers
(Friesen, Kang, Placer, Cockrell,
(King, Young 1994) (Friesen, Kang,
McDougall, 1995) Milleton, 1999
McDougall, 1995)

Predominately English
Speaking Cultures Cross-Cultural Program
(Maha, Stachowski, (Cooper, Beare,
1990) Thorman, 1990)

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

Write a Literature Review

• Use consistent style manual approach

– End-of-text references
– Within-text references
– Headings
– Tables/Figures

Educational Research 2e: Creswell

Write a Literature Review:
Types of Reviews
• Thematic Review
– Literature documents theme identified by
researcher
– No study discussed in detail
• Study-by-Study Review
– Detailed review of each study
– Studies grouped by themes
– Summaries linked by transitional sentences
and organized under subheadings
Educational Research 2e: Creswell