Finding and Evaluating Sources in Research

More research on research has brought about more musings on research. That's a lot of research! I give to you my next two aha moments amongst all of the reading, writing, and wondering I've done this week.

My biggest takeaway from this week’s reading is that reading a research paper is not linear in design as I once believed. I have always been an avid book reader of all varieties and genres, so when I read a book it is always from cover to cover in order. I think this is why I have not ever found great enjoyment in reading research documents, papers, and journals. They aren’t meant to be digested in the same way. According to Diane Hudson-Barr in How to Read a Research Article (2004), the best way to know if a research article will be of importance to the reader is to determine the conclusions of the article first. To do this one must “read three sections of the article: the title, the abstract, and the discussion. These sections are the most important, because they help you decide whether to read the article.” These three sections are not in the order presented to the reader. While the title and the abstract occur first, the discusion is the fifth section addressed in the article (Hudson-Barr 2004).

Connecting to this idea of non-linearity in reading research articles, I also found it quite refreshing to read that it is okay to skip parts of research papers altogether. Hudson-Barr (2004) states that “if the introduction is too difficult to follow, skim it or skip most of it.” Previously, I felt like I had to read every part of a research article for fear of missing something vital. Now I feel liberated to skip around and digest the information in an order that makes more sense to me and my comprehension.

My second takeaway from the readings this week comes from How to Read a Research Article by Rachel Dunifon (2005). In reading about the statistics and analysis involved with the work behind the scenes of a research article, I realized that most of the vocabulary and mathematical techniques are what has been taught for the last five to ten years in the Colorado Academic Standards for 7th and 8th grade math students. The idea of identifying a population, isolating a sample from the population, producing a good survey, analyzing response rate, and using mean and standard deviation to produce descriptive statistics are all outlined as learning outcomes for the standards that I have been teaching students. I have always framed these skills as important for being able to identify the validity in world and news statistics that students will be inundated with in their daily lives. Now I have another piece of evidence for why students should be engaged in learning about these math skills.

How to Read a Research Article Dunifon, R. (2005). How to read a research article. Cornell Cooperative Extension. Retrieved from www.iith.ac.in/rsportal/wp-content/uploads/.../How-to-Read-a-Research-Article.pdf

Scientific Inquiry: How to Read a Research Article Hudson-Barr, D. (2004). Scientific inquiry: How to read a research article. JSPN, 9(2), 70-72.