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Image of a researcher AEE 578--Scientific Inquiry in Agricultural and Extension Education
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The Review of Literature
Introduction:

Image of a magnifying glass 		Have you ever heard anybody talk about the good old days? Well the good old days of conducting a literature review are very different than today. We are basically in the 3rd "generation" in the modern era of literature reviews. Generation 1 was to go to the library and use paper indices to research journals. Generation 2 was to go to the library and use dedicated computers that had CD based indices. Today, Generation 3, you can access nearly every research index from your home or work computer. After you identify the books, journal articles or dissertations you need, you may still have to go to the library to actually read the documents.

The late Dr. Richard Wilson of Ohio State said "You go to the library to learn, you come to class to discuss what you have learned." There is a lot of truth in this statement; especially at the graduate level.

In this lesson we will learn more about how to conduct reviews of literature and document these sources.
Learning Objectives:

Icon of a signpost 		image of a ball Describe ERIC, DAI, and Agricola
image of a ball Use ERIC effectively
image of a ball Use Dissertation Abstracts International effectively
image of a ball Use Agricola effectively
image of a ball Identify the major journals in agricultural &extension that are useful in conducting a  literature review
image of a ball Describe how to write a review of literature.
image of a ball Correctly cite literature use the APA guidelines.
image of a ball Correctly list references in a bibliography.
 
Instructional
Activities:

Icon of a computer 		image of a ball Dena Taylor and Margaret Proctor of the University of Toronto have written a nice piece on The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It.

image of a ball Creighton University provides some excellent advice in How to Conduct a Literature Review.

image of a ball  Please pay special attention to the middle section (Writing Your Own Literature Review) of Using the Literature from the Asian Institute of Technology. This section shows HOW NOT to write a review of literature. Later the authors give an example of how to properly write a review.  (Caution: Might be slow to load.)

image of a ball Read Chapter 5 "Locating and Reviewing the Literature" in How to Design & Evaluate Research in Education (Fraenkel & Wallen).

image of a ball What Journals should professional in agricultural and extension education use in their reviews of literature? Some of the more useful ones are listed here. Spend a few minutes reviewing each site.
  • The Journal of Extension. Browse the most current issue to see what is being featured. If you ever need to find a specific topic, the search engine works well.
  • The Journal of Agricultural Education has recently gone online. There are a few issues posted and more will be added in the future. Articles more than a year old can be accessed by anyone only but only members of the American Association for Agricultural Educaton may access articles that are less than a year old (However, currently there are no issues posted more than a year old). However, I am allowing members of this class to use my information to access the journal (user: jaemember, password: 123jae).

    Several years ago Dr. Murphy at Texas A&M scanned in a bunch of past issues of JAE and posted them at http://pubs.aged.tamu.edu/jae/. You can find the 1988-2006 issues there and can search them. While many people might assume the articles are related to formal teaching of agriculture, many of the articles are about extension, agricultural literacy and more.
  • The Agricultural Education Magazine is designed primarily for agriculture teachers in the field (even though the majority of the articles are written by university professors). This publication is not on-line but you can get a flavor of the articles it contains by visiting the Magazine's site. At $15 for six issues, this publication is a steal.
  • Would you believe there is another journal in the field with an international focus. The Journal of Extension Systems is published in India. Look it over.
  • The National Agricultural Education Research Conference (NAERC) is held annually and is considered the premier research conference in the field. The majority of the papers present research completed in the previous year and focus on both formal education and extension. Only recently have the papers appeared online. Go to the American Association for Agricultural Education home page and click on the Meetings link and then a year to find the proceedings.
  • The premier research journal in the world of vocational education is Career and Technical Education Research. This journal is published by the Association for Career and Technical Eduction Research. It has been operating under the current name only a few years. Prior to this it was the Journal of Vocational Education Research. This journal spans the whole field of vocational education. It has rigourous standards and rejects more manuscripts than it accepts for publication. It has been accused of being too quantitative and ignoring qualitative research. Look at a recent issue.
  • The Journal of Career and Technical Education is published twice a year and often features articles that are more historical or philosophical in nature than number crunching research. Look at the most recent issues to see what this journal features.
image of a ball  Probably the most powerful search tool for identifying research in agricultural and extension education is ERIC
   (Educational Resources Information Center ). View an animated tutorial on how to use it.

image of a ball   You can search ERIC via the NCSU library. You can also access ERIC from a government web site. Or you can access ERIC through the Educator's Reference Desk.

image of a ball Other online searchable indices that may be of value to you include:
  • Agricola (An agricultural index through NCSU)
  • Agricola (An agricultural index through the National Ag Library)
  • Dissertation Abstracts (A dissertation database at NCSU library. Warning: Only a limited number of people can access this at one time)
These are accessible through the NCSU library.  If you are searching these from off-campus you will need your unity ID and password (contact me if you need help with these).

image of a ball Once you find an article that relates to your research, you will need to cite it in your review of literture and list it in your references. In our field we follow the APA (American Psychological Association) guidelines. You might want to seriously consider purchasing the APA Style Guide. However, the APA has a nice online tutorial that walks you through using the APA guidelines. The OWL at Purdue is also a handy reference for using APA style. The library at UNCC has a page of example citations and references.

image of a ball  The PowerPoint Presentation on The Literature Review is available for downloading.
Review:

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 Image of a blue ball The publisher of the textbook has some excellent information to support the text; you should check it out:
 Image of a blue ball Visit the text site and complete the multiple choice questions for Chapter 5

Additional Resources:
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 		Image of a blue ball IF you want to see more (NOT required):
Assignments:               
Icon of note pad 		Image of a blue ballComplete the Review of Literature worksheet. 

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