Purpose/Significance of Study: Education & Knowledge Contribution - Essay Sample

Purpose/Significance of the Study

Coughlan et al. (2007) explain that it is vital for a researcher to explain why the study should be undertaken and what the researcher expects to learn from the study. The researcher should also indicate why the research is essential and how it will contribute to the body of information concerning the phenomenon under study. The researcher suggests the area of education as well as how the research contributes to the domain of Knowledge. The research aims at helping students become more competent in assessing articles. Therefore, at the end of the article, the author expects that the students will be able to determine journals accurately using the CASP process.

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Although the article does not provide an explicit statement of the aim, it is clear that the journal aims at providing educational insights to students on how to accurately use the CASP process to review an article. Though the lack of an explicit statement of the aim may make it difficult for the reader to identify the real purpose of the journal, the organization of the article will easily make the reader identify the use of the journal as well as the expectations of the researcher after reading the article.

Literature Review

In research studies, the literature review provides an objective account of what has been written in regards to the subject in discussion. In turn, the journal should reflect the emerging themes while at the same time, provide information on the conceptual framework of the study (Coughlan et al., 2007). Chenail (2011) in this journal has provided adequate empirical pieces of evidence concerning the CASP process. The proofs provided in this article are logically, theoretically, and empirically relevant to the discussion as well as the study findings. The downside to the information provided is the lack of a literature review that highlights the background of the issue under research. As a result, the report is not comprehensive enough. The study also incorporated recent references, ranging between 2001 to 2008. This means that the literature references fall under the less than ten-year writing period. The references are also explicit and adequately cited.

The author also presents his pedagogical suggestions, which he considers as practical steps that will help to improve and address the difficulties that the students may have when using the CASP process. The pedagogical suggestions offer his personal opinions on the problem. Furthermore, the brief has not been included in the abstract of the literature as well as its implementation for the problem. Therefore, the literature review for this study can be identified as a rational, comprehensive, logical critical and relevant to support the purpose of the research. The author has stated explicitly that the study provides a new, easier, and exciting ways of assessing the articles for students. Therefore, the literature review presented in the report suggests that the information provided in the journal is sufficient in regards to the application of the CASP process in the evaluation of any article.

Theoretical Framework

Coughlan et al. (2007) explain that the majority of the qualitative researches are recognized as inductive or theory generating research. This means that the primary purpose of the study should be to develop an approach and not test it. As a result, the researcher should not use existing theory to guide the research. Furthermore, the world view, in qualitative research should act as a framework that directs the study since qualitative analyses do not have a specific structure that should be followed when identifying the layout of the survey.

The author has descriptively identified the theoretical framework with the incorporation of the transition process into seven categories which are introduction and rationale, appraising articles with the CASP tool, assignment presentation, assessing the quality of qualitative research articles, assessment, pedagogical suggestions, and discussion. The author has explicitly explained the components under each heading, which is helpful for the reader to identify the flow of the research. Therefore, the theoretical framework is well established and used and incorporated into the research.

Method and Philosophical Underpinnings

The researcher used a mixed-method in his qualitative research. The mixed-method involved interviews and observations that will help in the presentation of data. The interviews provided a platform for the author to test the validity of his theory. Observation was used to assess the effectiveness of the approach concerning how well the students were able to understand and apply the CASP tools for article evaluation. Thus, the author observed to what extent the students successfully applied the means to assess articles using interviews. Therefore, the new data acquired from the results of the interviews to determine how successful the CASP tool can be when teaching students how to evaluate or analyze articles.

The mixed-method was also effective in achieving the real purpose of the study. Through the mixed-method, the author can identify the best ways of teaching the students how to apply the CASP tools to successfully assess any given article as well as suggestions that can help students to overcome possible challenges while using the CASP evaluation tool. Furthermore, the mixed method, as a grounded theory method is essential as it develops straight from the data and reveals the appropriate values that are vital to the process in question. Thus, the theory can be crucial for identifying the extent to which CASP tools are useful in facilitating student competency in assessing journals.

Sample

The participants used in this research is purposive sampling, which is appropriate to the grounded theory method. The participants selected by Chenail were his students who were supposed to be taught how to analyze articles. As a result, they were part of the problem. The researcher informed the students on how to apply the CASP tool to analyze reports. The participants observed were his students. The author also did not mention how many participants are involved in the research since it is almost impossible to define a sample size while using the grounded theory. The author did not specify which method of sampling or the sample size has been used in the introduction part. However, under the heading of assessment, the author implicitly mentions that his lecture students were selected as participants in the research.

The researcher identifies his target population as his students. However, he does not mention the inclusion and exclusion criteria explicitly. The inclusion criteria that the author applied was that he took samples of students who were beginners at his research lectures. However, the author did not indicate any other characteristics of the student participants. Additionally, the author illustrated that the participants are selected from his research class. This provides an insight that the author has put a maximum variation of the sample into consideration. Furthermore, the participants for a grounded theory investigation should be selected in regards to their experience with the social process that is being investigated. Thus, this author applied the appropriate population and sample for his study.

Ethical Considerations

The research has faced ethical concerns that the author should have addressed. The first issue is the concern for informed consent. The author does not indicate whether the participants consented to be part of the student considering the fact that the sample participants were given assignments that focused on applying CASP tools in their evaluation. The author does not address the ethical concern for vulnerable groups even though his participants are part of the vulnerable groups of people. Since his participants are students, they are unable to give informed consent as they can be coerced, deceived, or threatened to participate. However, the author adhered to the ethical issue of respect for anonymity and confidentiality as he does not reveal the names of the participating students as well as their scores in the assessment, he gave them. As a result, he protects their identity.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data Collection

Data collection was centred on beginner students who had little to no experience in evaluating articles. Since data collection was done through a method that involved interviews and observations.

Data Analysis

Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the participants' interviews. The author compared and analyzed the data....