EDU-M 720A: Mentoring: Completing a Literature Review I

Overview

The purpose of the fourth session of mentoring is to ensure that you write a high-quality review of the literature. In this session, you will learn the phrasing and approach that lead to a critical review of literature relevant to a topic. You will also learn to use primary and secondary sources accurately as well as develop a preliminary database and outline of topic and resources relevant to individual interests. You will be producing drafts of the review of literature related to your dissertation topic.

Throughout the course, you will read literature reviews from other doctoral students’ dissertations. You will continue your own research, sort the literature into appropriate categories, and summarize recurrent themes. Primary and secondary arguments will be defined with opposing viewpoints noted as appropriate. After you complete mapping, outlining, and analyzing the critical ideas, you will proceed to draft versions of a review of pertinent literature that bears on the topic areas of your dissertations.

By the end of this mentoring cycle, after completion of the next course, EDU-M720B, you will have written a concise literature review that is comprehensive and up to date, shows a command of the literature, provides context for the problem, and includes a discussion of the literature that is selective, synthetic, analytical, and thematic.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Explore and synthesize what the experts say about their dissertation topic
• Critically analyze, with their mentor, the value of various literature sources
• Define their approach to the review of the literature
• Articulate perceived challenges and gaps of knowledge that propel the efforts in the next mentoring course
• Submit a draft of their review of the literature
• Develop and submit an accurate and APA compliant References list

Required Texts
EDU-M 720A texts are available from the JIU/MBS bookstore