Reading literature and reading literature review sections contribute to formulating a clearer understanding of the need for study
Respond to the 4 statements below 150 words each please cite individually
Over the last eight weeks, I have gained a deeper understanding of what it entails to choose a topic to study for writing my dissertation. It requires deep thought and referencing several new concepts that we have recently learned: Need for Study, Significance and Theoretical Framework. These new concepts help to drive and guide the process of choosing a topic of study. These concepts in conjunction with conducting a through review of existing literature all contribute to being able to start strong in the dissertation writing process. As I have reviewed literature in my degree field, my problem statement started to take shape as I referenced back to the three concepts listed above and observed a common scope of limitations in these studies. Boote and Beile (2005) discussed the relevancy of conducting a thorough literature review. The authors stated that for a researcher to advance and deepen their understanding, they need to fully understand what has been done in the past, the weaknesses, and strengths of existing research, and what that means regarding the researcher’s field of study and research topic. I found these observations to be of great value as I progressed though this last class and developing a strong topic and problem statement for my dissertation. While reading through my ten articles, I noticed a common limitation that various authors identified for their studies. This is what helped guide my topic development. Researchers need to not only be able to identify those weaknesses but also use them to help with the framing of their study and the methodology needed to make these weaknesses strengths.
Reading literature and reading literature review sections contribute to formulating a clearer understanding of the need for study, significance, and theoretical framework by providing a foundation of knowledge on a topic. It also recognizes areas of prior scholarship to prevent duplication and give credit to other researchers. The literature review also identifies inconstancies: gaps in research, conflicts in previous studies, and open questions left from another research. From reading literature reviews, you should justify your research and place your research within the context of existing literature, making a case for why further study is needed. According to Shona McCombes (2019), the literature review gives you a chance to demonstrate your knowledge of the topic, develop a theoretical framework and methodology of your research, position yourself about other researchers, and show how your research addresses gaps a debate. The literature review section is one of the essential parts of a dissertation as it can be used as a stepping-stone for additional research and how it fits into a larger area of study.
From my initial course to this course the articles that I collected have varied in content quite a bit. Though I have only completed two doctoral classes, so far, I have learned to narrow my scope and focus to ensure that my study is sustainable and feasible to complete. Now that I have found a decent rhythm, both in my professional and personal life, and a topic that I am passionate about, I am able to provide empirical evidence to support the significance and the need for this study in the field of Educational Leadership. What I am most looking forward to is continuing my research and literature reviews in my topic because there does not seems to be a lack of preexisting studies and research. I know that by doing so, it will aid my in developing a thorough and substantial research proposal.Another component that I noticed while reviewing the literature and research that I collected was the common methodology used to complete each of these studies. This was immensely helpful and encouraging to me as I am planning on using the same methodology in my study. Along with a common methodology I have also noticed that there appears to be a common framework to these studies. I have learned, through these classes, not only identify the limitations from the author’s but to use those limitations to fuel further research to address them. I am extremely excited to continue this journey and further my understanding research and writing skills in my doctoral journey.
This course has taught me a lot about reading articles to see if they are relevant to my topic without reading the entire article. As I move forward into my content-specific courses, I intend to independently expand my list of resources to defend my topic selection at my first residency by finding relevant articles and using the references in those articles to find further resources. Also, during my residency, I will be able to network and talk with other students working on the same or similar topic allowing us to run resources by each other that we may not otherwise have found or even thought of. According to David Krathwohl (2005), the goal of a research proposal is to present and justify the need to study a research problem and show the practical ways in which the proposed study should be conducted. I will continue to read literature reviews. I will find issues and topics that have either not been discussed or need to investigate. By doing this, I will be able to begin to develop my proposal. I will continue to look for articles that can help me expand my topic and gain additional resources to show why the issue needs to be researched.
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