An Analysis of an Educational Research Article

Academic research articles (RAs) generally contain the following elements: Title, Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Results, Conclusions, References, and Appendixes (Hernandez Sampieri, Fernandez Collado and Lucio, 2008). For academic and professional success it is important to be acquainted with the conventions of the field.  The purpose of this paper is to analyze a research article written by Bennett, Braund, Lubben and Mason (2011).

In the educational research article (RA) Bennett et al. (2011) study factors influencing classroom impact of continuing professional development (CPD) interventions. The authors state that “the current study (…) focuses on factors influencing classroom impact of relatively short PD interventions” (Bennett et al., 2011, p. 9).The authors introduce previous research related to the topic, established the gap and focus their attention on the impact of short modes of CPD.

Considering academic requirements for RAs, stated by the American Psychological Association (2008), Bennett et al.’s (2011) article seems to have many fallacies as regards content and structure. The educational article just mentions the title and the introduction. Besides, data appear to be not presented in logical order. Bennett et al. (2011) include concepts and terms with no clear evidence as to what they mean or refer, for instance, “thus courses on science for non-specialists (Mode H and Theme 6)” (Bennett et al., 2011, p.6). In this case there is no reference for modes definition or classification, making the reading hard and confusing for the reader.

In the introduction the authors might not respect the Create a Research Space Model (C.A.R. S.) proposed by Swales and Feak (1994) in which a guideline to structure introductions is presented. For instance, in relation to move 2, Bennett et al. (2011) indicate the gap that has been found in the area: “The current study fills some gaps in research in that it focuses (…)” (Bennett et al., 2011, p. 9), but they fail to do it in the appropriate place as it is stated in the final paragraph of the paper. In addition, the authors do not raise questions about the situation.

Authors must consider an audience, a purpose, an organization pattern, a style, and a presentation (Swales & Feak, 1994). The awareness of the conventions of research articles is vital to become proficient academic readers and writers. If specific academic requirements for research papers are not present in the article, it does not fulfill the purpose of informing, sharing or gaining support. 

References

American Psychological Association (2008). Publication Manual (5^th ed.). Washington, DC: British Library Cataloguing-In-Publication Data.

Bennett, J., Braund, M., Lubben, F. & Mason, Y. (2011). Modes of Professional Development: An evaluation of the impact of different course modes operated across the National Network of Science Learning Centres.

Hernández Sampieri, R., Fernández-Collado, C., & Lucio, B.P. (1998).Metodología de la Investigación (4th ed.). México: McGraw-Hill.

Swales, J.M. & C. Feak (1994). Academic Writing for Graduate Students: A Course for Nonnative Speakers of English. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.