Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• Research your question in context of what other research has been conducted relating to your question.
• Look at other Literature Reviews in peer-reviewed articles as examples.
• Create a list of the research studies that provide foundational support for a new insight that you might contribute.
• Summarize and synthesize the arguments and ideas of these other studies that support your ideas. This previous research should prove to be impactful on student learning and success.
• Once you have identified several research studies it may be useful to organize them in an annotated bibliography. This allows you to summarize the main points, while acknowledging the quality of the study and how this article relates to your research question.
• Your literature review should provide an objective, critical summary of published research studies relevant to your research question. You want to show familiarity with current theory and research on your research question. This may be used to justify your research into an understudied issue (gap in literature).

A literature review should include:

• An introduction – defining the topic as well as describing the scope of the literature being reviewed.
• Main body – the studies being reviewed can be organized in various ways, two common examples are chronologically and thematically. Each study should be summarized and reviewed for its premise, methodology, and conclusion. Logical transitions should be used to connect studies reviewed.
• Conclusion – summarizes the key findings in general terms, justifying the research proposal based on the findings of the review.
• Reference list - All studies should be referenced with in-text citations as well as a final citation page (Works Cited or References).