...Writing a Critical Review Education Development Unit, University of New South Wales What criteria can be used for evaluating an article? The following criteria are useful: • the timeliness of the article • the degree to which the article makes an original contribution • the logic of the view put forward • the validity of the evidence put forward • the theoretical framework used Is the framework valid? Has the framework been applied appropriately? • the methodology used Is the methodology appropriate? Is the methodological approach explained clearly? Does the methodological approach have any weaknesses? Is the study sufficiently comprehensive and thorough? Is anything important omitted in the research? • the findings Are the findings presented and described clearly and fully? Do the findings seem sound? Could the data be interpreted in another way? Do/does the author(s) account for everything in the data or do they ignore something that might be important? • the validity of the conclusions • the thoroughness with which the article treats the topic • its value compared to that of other articles on the topic • the appropriateness of the article for the intended audience • the extent to which it might satisfy the specific needs of a specific user. Centre for Academic and Professional Literacies, Institute of Education, University of London http://caplitswritingcentre.ioe.ac.uk/criticalreviews.html Evaluation ...
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...Writing a Critical Review Printable version (PDF format) What is a Critical Review? The purpose of the critical review is to review or critically evaluate an article or book. What is meant by 'critical'? To be critical means that you are required to: • • • ask questions about the ideas and information presented in the text and; to comment thoughtfully by engaging in a process of evaluating or; making judgements about the validity or relevance of the text to your research or field of study. Part of the process of being critical is to use the information gathered from questioning to understand the topic from different perspectives and in relation to relevant theoretical frameworks in the field. Furthermore, asking the right questions will help you to make links with previous information, develop a position and arguments to support it. What is meant by evaluation? Evaluation is the process that encourages you to show an understanding of the text content by analysing the purpose and the structure of the text, assessing and making judgements about its appropriateness according to various academic criteria. What is meant by analysis? To approach a topic analytically is to examine carefully the content, issues and structure, by separating them into component parts and explaining how they interrelate. The ability to summarise is another skill that is essential to writing a critical review. To summarise means to express the main points of an idea or topic in fewer words and...
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...Commentary on Review 1. Analysing the topic Notice how this review topic is asking students to do two things – to summarise a text (in this case a book chapter) and then to evaluate it. This is what most review tasks will require you to do – though you may find some variation on this theme. It’s important to always read the topic instructions carefully. Hint: When you are reading a text to be reviewed – keep the following two questions uppermost in your mind: • What is this text saying? (summary); • What do I think about what it’s saying? (evaluation) 2. The text being reviewed Notice how this review begins with the full bibliographical information about the text being reviewed – author, date, title publisher, place etc. Hint: Always commence your review with this information. 3. Introduction Rather than going straight into reviewing the text, notice how this student writer has begun by introducing the broad issue that the text is addressing. In this case it is the problems that international students can experience in Australian universities. Hint: Think about how you can relate the text you are reviewing to its broader context. 4. Summarising the text (see paragraphs 2-6) As we noted, one of the main components of a review is to summarise the original text. A good summary like this one will do the following: • accurately represent the ideas in the original text • focus on the more important ideas • be perfectly understandable to someone who has not read the original How long...
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...Infant Mental Health Critical Review Abstract In this critical review, the newspaper article being reviewed is Infant mental health: Giving children the best head start, is described and summarized. The topic being discussed is infant mental health and how they should be receiving satisfactory care from their caregivers at an early age. Infant mental health can be defined as a field that studies the parent caregiver relationships and inner lives of infants. In agreement with this article, five scholarly academic sources arguments and findings are observed. This paper shows a critical review of infant mental health; the brain’s plasticity through a critical period and the importance of supportive infant-caregiver relationships that produce positive experiences for infants and further their developmental capabilities ultimately, helping them grow better. It also highlights the reality that the society as a whole is involved in providing better environmental influences for infants in order to supply them with a better future. Recommendations for future research and unanswered questions in infant mental health are made in response to the need of support of caregivers and the society. The news article, Infant mental health: Giving children the best head start, emphasizes the importance of the first 1000 days of an infant’s life (2015). Adulthood is shaped and impacted by our early experiences (D’alton, 2015). Professor Kevin Nugent is an expert of early child development...
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...Pawitra C. A Critical Review of “Developing Critical Thinking and Assessment in music classrooms” As many American students have a difficulty to reach a goal of testing standard makes music teachers are required to add the reading and writing skills in their classrooms. Maria Stefanova has provided some options to solve this problem in the article called “Developing Critical Thinking and Assessment in music classrooms”. It was published in May, 2011 by American String Teacher. In the article, she presents five classroom strategies to fill the gap between music and literacy classes. The first strategy is a prior step of the class which requires teachers to survey the students about their interest and background, while the second one could be done at the end of the class as an “exit ticket”. The next two are tactics which conceal the knowledge behind the performances and inviting a musician as a guest to classroom. The last one is to ask students to record their homework constantly. The author says that “[these strategies are] not only strengthening music instruction, but also to develop active thinking and assessment tools in the music classroom” (Stefanova, 2001). Most of the strategies are agreeable, however, I have a different point of view in some issues. Maria (2011) says that it is important for teachers to know more about their students’ interest and background to help them improve their skills, especially for new students. It is better to use written form of survey...
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...“teaching effectiveness” in faculty promotion, tenure, and salary reviews. In most cases, the mechanism used to measure teaching effectiveness is a locally developed evaluation form that is completed by an instructor’s students toward the end of the course, usually before students have received their final course grades. The practice of using student evaluations of teaching (SETs) to evaluate faculty teaching effectiveness raises a number of concerns, including the basic validity of these forms and their sensitivity to external biases. The question of validity involves the extent to which SETs (or items on these forms) accurately predict student learning. Questions of bias involve the possibility that student responses are influenced by factors unrelated to the faculty member’s instructional effectiveness. The topic of this article is the biasing effect that faculty grading practices have on SETs. A broader discussion of this and related issues may be found in my book The GPA Myth, from which most of the following analyses are drawn. Both the validity of SETs and potential biases to SETs have been discussed extensively in the educational literature. A simple search of the ERIC database produces thousands of articles concerning various aspects of SETs, and Greenwald summarizes more than 170 studies that examined the specific issue of whether SETs represented valid measures of student learning. Clearly, a comprehensive review of this literature is not possible here, and so I will simply...
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...references to studies performed by prominent universities and research groups, all of which contend that the internet is stripping the ability to think critically out of our minds today. This really is the main point of Carr’s article which he seems to circle around and come back to frequently; our ability, as a whole society, to think critically is perceived as being diminished and this will the ruin of man. While Carr doesn’t specifically make this assertion directly in his article, he is circling the topic the entire time and in his concluding paragraph states: “It is this control, this mental discipline, that we are at risk of losing as we spend ever more time scanning and skimming online” (Carr, 2010). Evaluation STRONG POINTS Critical Review 3 Carr has...
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...Clinical Operational Management – Assignment 2 (Critical Review Essay) Article Reviewed Clarke, C., Harcourt, M., & Flynn, M. (2013). Clinical Governance, Performance Appraisal and Interactional and Procedural Fairness at a New Zealand Public Hospital. Journal of Business Ethics, 117(3), 667-678. http://dx.doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-012-1550-9 Introduction This is a review of article titled, “Clinical Governance, Performance Appraisal and Interactional and Procedural Fairness at a New Zealand Public Hospital” by Clarke, Harcourt, and Flynn (2013) which focuses on performance appraisal (PA). The intention of the article is two-fold. It explores how nurses perceive fairness in the process of their PA and how the perceptions can affect the effectiveness of PA. Twenty-two participants of nurses from a single department of a public hospital participated in interviews and focus groups held over a period of two months. Qualitative data collected through the interviews and focus groups were taped, transcribed and subsequently interpreted by thematic analysis. The article concluded that injustices were perceived the greatest in procedural justice. Participants felt that there was insufficient notice given to prepare. The article found that employees valued regular communication of expectations and progress prior to PA. The article recommends greater formalization of PA process and adequate training for both the appraiser and employee for a PA process to be...
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...The reading chosen for this critical review is Chapter 2-Regulation of health and safety management: a developmental perspective from textbook Regulating Work Risks: A comparative study of Inspection Regimes in Times of Change by Walters, D. Johnstone, R. Frick, K. Quinlan, M. Gringras, G. & Thebaud-Mony. This chapter discusses the development and contexts of regulation and regulatory inspection of health and safety at work. It focuses on the range of issues concerning regulation of health and safety and its management and the consequences of these developments for regulatory surveillance of OHS in advanced market economies. The chapter start off by outlining the path of OHS regulation from its origins to the present, focusing on the approaches mandating its management and how the introduction of the Robens Report changed the perception towards OHS and its influence to regulations in different jurisdiction. This report was a modification of the regulatory model towards process based regulation with a focus on a unified OHS legislation, development of a more effective self-regulating system and OHS management in organizations. The chapter ends off by examining challenges in effectively delivering mandated OHS management in workplaces changes. The approach that the authors used in writing this chapter is by examining the implications of the shift from specification to process based regulation, and recognises the fact that attention has been increasingly directed to the...
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...Ashimi Adefesobi in comparison to my own work. i shall be viewing the different strengths and weaknesses i have encountered within the report on both of the dissertation to see if in the future, where improvements are required within my own work and in Mr Ashimi Adefesobi’s. i shall start by reviewing each section of the dissertation followed by structure, language and format at the end. Abstract and Background it is important to include an abstract along with background information before proceeding to the main body which is the literature review. unfortunately Mr Ashimi Adefesobi lacked the presence of an abstract, thus, lacking key information as to what the study entails and the main findings presented within the study. Furthermore due to the lack of headings I've had to assume that the background information and introduction must of been interlinked as after a very disorganised set of paragraphs the heading for literature review appears. within these paragraphs i briefly understood the main concern was the chain reaction from regulations of bank capital requirements and the impact it has on bank capital structure. unfortunately the aim of the research was void as it was not clear as to what exactly he's focus was on, he's aim was unclear, what he wished to analyse changed frequently as he's focused drifted from aim to aim. this section was not concluded either and was left as a cliff hanger “ the purpose of this paper is to…”, thus, not allowing to understand the actual...
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...Topic | Definition | Presentation of Concept | Notes | Classroom Management | * All of the things that a teacher does to organize students, space, time and materials so that instruction in content and student learning can take place. (Lakes, 2002) * Classroom management, often called classroom discipline, has been a priority for teachers for nearly 40 years, or for as long as there have been opinion surveys of educational priorities. (Kratochwill, 2006) | | | Ending | * a point that marks the limit of something : the point at which something no longer continues to happen or exist * the last part of a story, movie, song, etc. * the part at the edge or limit of an areaWebster’s Dictionary | (Johnson et al; Ledlow 1998) | | Grading | * Grading leniency is a removable contaminant of student ratings. * Grading in education is the process of applying standardized measurements of varying levels of achievement in a course.(Greenwald, Anthony G.; Gillmore, Gerald M. 2009) | University of Mindanao Official Website | | Student Course Evaluation | There are almost as many terms used to describe student course evaluations as there are articles about them; among the most common are “student evaluations,” “course evaluations,” “student ratings of instruction,” and “student evaluations of teaching (SETs).” Each of these phrases has slightly different connotations, depending on whether they emphasize students, courses...
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...Critical Review of Cizek, Gregory J. (2005). High-Stakes Testing: Contexts, Characteristics, Critiques, and Consequences In Richard Phelps (Ed.), Defending Standardized Testing (pp. 23-54). New York, New York: Psychological Press. By Cheryl LeBlanc-Weldon When I decided to delve into the issue of high-stakes testing, I purposefully set out to find its defenders. Critical thinking is important to me and part of the process of thinking critically is to view a variety of perspectives on an issue in order to obtain an informed understanding and from that, an opinion. As an experienced educator, I have participated in standardized testing in a variety of ways. I have administered and graded tests in both Mathematics and Language Arts. I believe that currently in Nova Scotia we don’t have the type of high-stakes testing they have in the USA and other parts of the world. Our students do not need to achieve a certain level of achievement on the standardized tests they take in order to grade and teachers are not fired or have their salaries docked when students fail to achieve the benchmarks. Still, the provincial tests our students write do have a degree of importance in that the results are published for media and public consumption (which directly affects the opinion people form of the health of our education system) and certain resources are channeled into schools with the weakest performance. In addition, the way students view themselves and their abilities are affected...
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...Vietnam National University University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Ho Chi Minh City Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature A critical review on an article: STUDENTS’ L1 USE: A STUMBLING BLOCK OR A FACILITATOR IN L2 LEARNING (Yukie Saito, Temple University Japan) Instructor: Nguyen Thi Kieu Thu, Ph.D. Student: Huynh Tran Vuong Chan Class: MA in TESOL 2014A HCMC, 04/2015 INTRODUCTION The development of English has been so dramatic over the past centuries, especially in countries where English is treated as a second language. It is undeniable that for those countries, the chances for students to be exposed to English are limited due to both objective and subjective conditions. The biggest obstacle is mostly counted on L1 intervention and its long standing impact on L2 learning. Therefore, in order to increase these chances, some schools, institutions and even universities have applied the English only policy in English classes for the better learning. And Japan is one these countries. Being interested in the application of this policy and driven by the controversial issue of L1 impact on L2 learning, Yukie Saito, a lecturer at Rikkyo University, has conducted a study on this problem which is later posted on a website for academic teaching and learning: Journal of Second Language Teaching and Research. Yukie’s study on “Students’ L1 use: A stumbling block or a facilitator in L2 learning” is conducted in the situation in which Japan is strictly applying...
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...Review of: Barua, Sanjib (2003), “Confronting Constructionism: Ending India’s Naga War,” Journal of Peace Research, 40(3): 321-338. Barua asks Nagas and all other ethno-nationalities to face the constructedness of their identities. He decries the homeland model, on the grounds that it perpetuates a politics of exclusivism and expulsion. Barua worries for Manipur should the Nagas integrate into a unified Nagaland, Nagalim. India should not change boundaries. There is tension between constructivist understanding of identities among most contemporary theorists and the practice of nationalists or ethnic activists who engage in the construction of such identities (Suny 2001, cited in Barua 2003: 323). The Naga project is a disastrous road to ethnic violence unless Nagas confront their constructedness (2003: 324). He engages with Nagas who are pro-India as well as “independentist” Nagas and admit they both share the goal Naga unification. It is obviously Barua’s intention to provide a fillip to the faltering India-Nagaland peace process coming through the August 1997 ceasefire. He wrote this in 2003, soon after India recognised the “uniqueness of the Naga history and situation”. Barua recognises that the politics of recognition is an underlying theme. The notion of bounded collectivities living in national homelands relies on a very different spatial discourse from the one of “overlapping frontiers and hierarchical politics” that preceded it. Saving the India-Naga peace process...
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...Getting people to do their best work, even in trying circumstances, is one of managers’ most enduring and slippery challenges. Indeed, deciphering what motivates us as human beings is a centuries-old puzzle. Some of history’s most influential thinkers about human behavior—among them Aristotle, Adam Smith, Sigmund Freud, and Abraham Maslow—have struggled to understand its nuances and have taught us a tremendous amount about why people do the things they do. Such luminaries, however, didn’t have the advantage of knowledge gleaned from modern brain science. Their theories were based on careful and educated investigation, to be sure, but also exclusively on direct observation. Imagine trying to infer how a car works by examining its movements (starting, stopping, accelerating, turning) without being able to take apart the engine. Fortunately, new cross-disciplinary research in fields like neuroscience, biology, and evolutionary psychology has allowed us to peek under the hood, so to speak—to learn more about the human brain. Our synthesis of the research suggests that people are guided by four basic emotional needs, or drives, that are the product of our common evolutionary heritage. As set out by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria in their 2002 book Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices , they are the drives to acquire (obtain scarce goods, including intangibles such as social status); bond (form connections with individuals and groups); ...
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