MCTE 690 – Research Methodology

MCTE 690 – Research Methodology Assignment Three

To date you have learned what good research is, how to select a quality research topic worthy of research, how to write research questions and hypotheses, and how to conduct a literature search, all in preparation for the final assignment (assignment four) – the writing of a high quality graduate level research paper.

As a final step to preparing for the writing of your research paper, assignment three will require you to review, analyze and critique a peer reviewed/refereed journal published article.

The steps for this assignment are:

1. Select one of the references you found in the literature search assignment. This should be a good research article published in a peer reviewed/refereed journal. Read the article thoroughly, noting the important sections (problem statement, research questions, etc.) as the textbook author did in his review of the two examples he used.

2. Before reading the article you should also read the FINE article that can be accessed through the link at my website. This will help you in your critique of the article.

3. Using the assignment outline below and the FINE article as a guideline, write a critical review and analysis of the journal article. Note: this should not be a summary of the article, but rather an analysis, pointing out the topic, problem statement, research questions, hypotheses (if any), methodology used, etc. I am looking for a deep understanding of the article for both its good points and bad points.

. Make sure you give me the reference information for the selected article in APA format.

. Suggested paper length is a minimum of 10 pages, double spaced (not counting cover and reference page).

Outline/Topics Covered

Objective: The objective of this assignment is to provide the student with knowledge of how to critically review and evaluate a published article from a peer reviewed journal. 2

Tasks:

Read through the article carefully and write a report that addresses the following issues:

1. Problem addressed: What is the main research problem addressed in the article?

Type of research: What type of research is this? Qualitative or Quantitative

2. Prior research: Briefly discuss the body of literature that is used to motivate the research. You will need to review some of the key articles referenced by the authors. Identify any shortcomings in the prior literature that the selected article addresses. Perform a literature search to determine if there are any relevant articles that have not been cited by the authors.

3. Significance: Explain why you think that the article makes a significant contribution to the field. Cite references wherever possible to establish that there is a consensus among researchers that the problem addressed in the article is indeed an important one. Discuss whether the contribution is in the area of the methodology used for the study.

4. Methodology: Discuss the methodology used for the study. Explain whether you think that the methodology used is an appropriate one (cite references where relevant). Identify possible problems with the methods used. For empirical work discuss the statistical models used and the sources of data for the study. For theoretical work discuss the models and techniques used.

5. Contributions: Summarize the significant results and contributions made by the authors.

6. Further research: Identify possible areas in which the research can be extended. Does the article call for further research on any specific issue? Identify limitations of the article and formulate them as potential research questions.