Seminar resource for a course (withiin a Masters program in Education) that focuses on how to critically evaluate peer reviewed published articles based on qualitative empirical research.

1. +
GLIT 6756
Literacy & Inquiry:
Becoming Critically
Informed Consumers of
Peer Reviewed Published
Research
Colin Lankshear
c.lankshear@yahoo.com

2. +
Research as systematic inquiry
p. 29 of your textbook

3. +
Relationship of Research Logic to the
Evaluation Template
 Context of study (purpose, question,
problem area, relevant other
research)
 Framework (theory and concepts)
 Design and methodology
 The evaluative template (Appendix
1 in your syllabus)

4. +
Tasks for today
 Forming work groups (teams) & sending
names and email addresses to Michele &
Colin
 Kitting up (key resources for the semester)
 Becoming familiar with the evaluative
template
 Locating a literacy-related peer reviewed
research-based paper to critique (that all
members of a group can “relate to”)

5. +
Forming work groups
 Ideally 4-6 members
 Likely to share some common
interest to help with article
selection
 Likely to be able to work together
online and offline and contribute
equally to the final analytic paper

6. +
Kitting up
Using Google Drive to write
collaboratively (http://drive.google.com )
Using the internet to communicate
between meetings (e.g., Google+ Hangout,
Skype, or messenger/chat, blog, Twitter,
email, Delicious or Pinterest)
Resources for finding a suitable article
(e.g., http://scholar.google.com ; MSVU
online article archives)

7. +
Using Google Drive

8. +
Google Docs

9. +
Google Docs (cont.)

10. +
Google Docs (cont.)
Title your
document here

11. +
Google docs (cont.)
Share your Google Doc with
Colin and Michele:
colin.lankshear@gmail.com
micheleknobel@gmail.com

12. +
Using Scholar Google as a meta-
search engine
Select “Scholar
Preferences”

13. +
Scholar Google (cont.)

14. +
Scholar Google (cont.)
1.
2.
3.
4.

15. +
Scholar Google (cont.)

16. +
Finding a focus article
The article must be relevant to literacy studies.
The article must be a peer-reviewed and formally
published research article.
Ideally published within the past 5 years.
You need to be truly interested in the focus of the
article. Focus must be good and “meaty”
The focus of your article needs to have a prior history
of research (i.e., be part of a research area or field)
Your final paper must engage with debates, present an
argument, and include critique (your group needs to
take a theorised position and you’ll be reading well
beyond your focus article)

17. +
Course website
& additional resources
https://sites.google.com/site/recentms
vupages/mississauga-fall-2013
There are several examples of final
papers posted here.