Teaching master's degree students to read research literature

Abstract

The skill to read research literature critically belongs in every university graduate's toolbox. I have attempted to teach this skill in a master's degree level course in programming languages over 15 years using, at various times, simulated conferences, voluntary reading exercises, evidence-based practice training, and a flipped classroom with mandatory reading assignments. I discuss my experience and analyze preliminary qualitative data on the use of evidence-based practice and a flipped classroom for this purpose. I present no firm conclusions, but expect that future work (by me or others) will be able to use my experience as a baseline for better teaching of research literature reading.

Flipped Classroom in Programming Course: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Even though Bergmann and Sams firstly introduced the FC at the K-12 level [12], our finding shows that most of the studies conducting the FC at higher education level (91% at the undergraduate level and 3% at the graduate level [50] ). Conversely, only two papers ( [23] and [51]) show the implementation at the K-12 level, more specifically for high school students (see Fig.…”

Secondary studies in the academic context: A systematic mapping and survey

“…Only 4 studies (14.2%) assessed the use of EBSE by SLR experts (S10 [7]; S11 [25]; S15 [12]; S19 [32]). Some categories that were identified are strongly related, for instance, [18]; S4 [19]; S5 [20]; S6 [21]; S8 [23]; S10 [7]; S12 [26]; S13 [27]; S22 [34]; S23 [35]; S24 [36]; S25 [37]; S26 [9]; and S27 [38] Journal 9 (32.1%) -S7 [22]; S11 [25]; S14 [28]; S15 [12]; S17 [30]; S18 [31]; S19 [32]; S21 [8]; and S28 [39] Symposium 4 (14.2%) -S1 [16]; S9 [24]; S16 [29]; and S20 [33] undergraduate and Masters (e.g. S16 [29]); Masters and Ph.Ds.…”

“…S16 [29]); Masters and Ph.Ds. (S25 [37]); or SLR experts and Ph.D. students (e.g., S15 [12]), thus, these studies were considered in more than one category. In summary, while there have been several prior investigations on undergraduate (12 studies -42.8%) and graduate levels -M.Sc./Ph.D.…”

“…• S26 -Kaijanaho [37] has attempted to teach the skill to read research literature critically to Masters students in a master's degree level course in programming languages over 15 years. He discussed his experience on the use of evidence-based practice and a flipped classroom for this purpose.…”

“…Total of studies -Studies ID (B1) Developing research skills 5 -S1 [16]; S2 [17]; S8 [23]; S20 [33]; S22 [34] (B2) Encouraging students to reflect 5 -S2 [17]; S8 [23]; S14 [28]; S24 [36]; S25 [37] (B3) Helping find out research opportunities 3 -S9 [24]; S15 [12]; S24 [36] (B4) Providing an overview of the literature 5 -S12 [26]; S15 [12]; S20 [33]; S22 [34]; S24 [36] (B5) Perceiving the importance of searching for evidence 6 -S4 [19]; S5 [20]; S7 [22]; S8 [23]; S9 [24]; S22 [34] (B6) Acquiring experience of reading/understanding scientific studies 5 -S1 [16]; S2 [17]; S8 [23]; S15 [12]; S25 [37] (B7) Learning from studies and getting knowledge 4 -S9 [24]; S15 [12]; S20 [33]; S25 [37] (B8) Publishing a paper 1 -S9 [24] (B9) Providing baselines to assist new research efforts 3 -S15 [12]; S15 [12]; S24 [36] (B10) Collaborating with other researchers (teamwork) 2 -S17 [30]; S26 [9] inclusion/exclusion criteria (S6, S10, S12, S13, S14, S16, S19, S21, S27), that are only faced by students due to their limited experience with secondary studies in particular and with research in general.…”