Questions to Consider When Writing a Scholarly Critique
1. How did you find this journal article, book chapter, or scholarly resource?
2. How is this resource related to your action research (generally) and research question(s) specifically?
3. What are, if applicable, the research questions pursued in this source?
5. What type of study design and research process is demonstrated?
10. How does this scholarly resource relate - thematically, through data collection and analysis methods, or in other ways - to previously reviewed research?
11. How does this scholarly resource help you/your Research Team to extend and/or refine your forthcoming literature review?
ARTICLE 1
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9-n9ZLXrrr_ZWJiM3NVc2ZJdk0/view
Distance Learning for Gifted Students: Outcomes for Elementary, Middle, and High School Aged Students by Patricia Wallace
I actually didn’t find this article. It was part of my team’s literature review. We pulled together a bunch of resources to use and this was one of them that was in that file. This one struck me because I am a distance learning teacher. I wouldn’t have a job if it weren’t for distance learning. A good amount of my students take my courses because they are able to take a course that is not available to them at their home schools. This allows my gifted students to go above and beyond and learn more about their selected content area.
My group’s project this semester is on gifted students and how technology can help differentiate instruction for them. We are interested to see how technology can be used in the classroom most effectively to help gifted students. This paper was particularly interesting because it started out with the importance of distance learning. I have often felt like I am not having as much of an impact on my students as brick and mortar teachers. I liked that this article pointed out that distance learning students actually do excel. It also pointed out some differences between distance learning courses and brick and mortar courses in regards to rigor and software usability.
The research questions in this article all involved using technology-based distance learning programs for gifted students. The author explored distance courses for different levels of learning – elementary, middle, and high school. She compared the learning experiences of students at each level to see if one level was more successful than others.
The only thing that confused me about this article was that the researchers only seemed to target students in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth program. The answers for different programs would vary widely. However, I thought it was interesting that this program served students around the United States and also from 16 other countries.
I would be eager to ask the author how she thought international students might have a different experience with distance learning. I know that my students are sometimes expected to join synchronous sessions with me. These sessions might be at very difficult times for the international students to attend. There’s no way that a teacher could cater to students in every time zone with a single synchronous session.
ARTICLE 2
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9-n9ZLXrrr_TDdZaTBiQXV5NDg
Assessing and Addressing Teachers’ Attitudes toward Information Technology in the Gifted Classroom by Elizabeth Shaunessy
I found this article by searching in my team’s collection of articles for our literature review. I was drawn to this article because my first brick and mortar teaching position was in a school that really embraced technology. The administrators and most of the teachers took technology into their classrooms anytime they could. However I remember that a few of the teachers were very hesitant about technology. Some of them kept paper gradebooks and only put grades into the online gradebook at the end of the quarter when they were required to.
This article also relates to our research project this semester because it talks about technology in the classroom. I really like the first quote in the paper and that’s the main reason that I chose it. The quote says, “With the increasing complexity and rate of change, self-directed learning and problem solving become vital, along with interpersonal and team skills. It is evident that new ways of teaching and learning must be devised if our children are to be prepared for the 21st century.” Technology has absolutely changed the way that we teach our students and the way that we learn.
This article addresses technology and how it has changed the outlook of education. In our preliminary responses to our technology survey, every single student answered that they use technology for homework or schoolwork. I can say that this was not true for me until I was in high school. We rarely used the computer for homework when I was in elementary and middle school. Now my son is 5 and he already is doing learning games on the iPad.
This article confused me at first because one of the pull out quotes says, “Teachers may have more positive attitudes toward using computers for professional purposes than for engaging students in meaningful learning with technology, particularly those new to the teaching profession.” This is shocking to me because in my experience it is the new teachers who embrace technology the most. In my school we had the newest teachers leading the technology seminars and teaching the older ones how to use technology.
I would be eager to ask the author about their experience with teacher age and technology. It seems that the author found newer teachers to be the most resistant to using technology but I have always found that older teachers are the most resistant. My current students are very good with technology because they have to use it in order to take my courses at all. This is definitely changing the landscape of how students are taught and how they learn.
ARTICLE 3
www.positivedisintegration.com/Baum1998.pdf
Gifted Students with Attention Deficits: Fact and/or fiction? Or, Can we see the forest for the trees?
I found this article by searching on google scholar for parenting gifted students. I wanted to see the parent side of a gifted student’s education. Parents are a large part of any student’s education. This article caught my eye because my children could be gifted students when they enter school. My 5 year old is rather excitable, at least at home. I don’t know if this is an attention deficit or if he’s just a 5 year old boy.
This article directly relates to our research project this semester because we are studying gifted students. I think it’s important to see all sides of a student’s life if we are going to study how they learn. In my experience, gifted students have a very well rounded home life. I was interested to see how students learn differently based on their home life and how they are parented.
The article addresses will help our research team in our research because it talks about how to properly handle gifted students and whether some students might be mislabeled and mishandled. The article pointed out that gifted students are often labeled as lazy and they are given medications such as Ritalin in order to help them focus. Focusing isn’t actually their problem though, it is that they are not engaged in the material that they are learning.
This article impacts my life because one of the scenarios discussed hits all too close to home. There is a scenario of a 15 year old boy who has been diagnosed with ADHD and has been steadily failing subjects. It mentioned specifically that the boy was brilliant when he played with Legos. My son is also brilliant with Legos. He can build the age 7-14 sets all by himself and then he likes to take them apart and build something from his own mind. I hope that I can use the information in this article to avoid him falling into this category.
I would be eager to ask the authors about this quote: “Contemporary educators do not seem to have appropriate strategies, knowledge, or confidence in providing an appropriate education for gifted students with learning and attention difficulties.” I would like to ask the authors about strategies that would help these educators know how to teach students who are gifted but also have some learning disabilities.
ARTICLE 4
www.geri.education.purdue.edu/PDF%20Files/GENTRY/2001._Gentry,_Rizza,Gifted%20Students%20Perceptions.pdf
Gifted Students' Perceptions of Their Class Activities: Differences Among Rural, Urban, and Suburban Student Attitudes by Marcia Gentry, Mary G. Rizza and Robert K. Gable
I found this article by searching Google Scholar for parenting gifted students technology. This one stuck out to me because it was published in Gifted Child Quarterly. We used a few of these articles in our literature review so I am familiar with the topics that they cover and the formatting. I also think this article is important because we have not studied where the students come from and how this might affect their gifted learning.
This article is related to our research because we are studying gifted students. We have given surveys to students in two suburban schools as well as students in my game design course. This course is offered to students all across the state of Missouri. Some of them live in rural settings, urban settings, and suburban settings. It is not one of our survey questions to ask what type of setting they live in so I thought this article would be an interesting read.
This article will help my team with our literature review because it is another aspect of our student’s lives for us to consider. We have discussed how they are taught in the classroom, technology that they might use, and how they are parented. We have not taken into consideration where they live and how this might affect their learning. I would anticipate that students living in larger school districts would have more access to technology, therefore they would be better effected by the strategies that my team has outlined in our study.
The results of this study were quite intriguing. The article states, “Rural elementary students found their classrooms less frequently interesting and challenging, but found the more frequently enjoyable than their urban and suburban peers. Rural middle school students reported less challenge and less enjoyment than their suburban peers.” I am curious how much of this enjoyment and challenge could be mitigated if more technology were included in the curriculum.
I would ask the authors about why they only included students in My Class Activities. Using only one platform makes it difficult to get a good idea of where all students across a state might fall. The article does not state where the students are specifically from, only the type of living that they are in. Still, though, it does seem like a valid subject to study and the results were definitely interesting for my group’s research.
1. How did you find this journal article, book chapter, or scholarly resource?
2. How is this resource related to your action research (generally) and research question(s) specifically?
3. What are, if applicable, the research questions pursued in this source?
- How, if at all, are the research questions relevant to your own action research?
5. What type of study design and research process is demonstrated?
- How, if at all, does the research design relate to your action research?
- If applicable, what type of statistical analyses were used? How might these methods be applicable to your action research?
- If applicable, what type of qualitative analyses were used? How might these methods be applicable to your action research?
- Do the results seem valid?
- What do any figures, graphs, and tables tell you about the study and its results?
- Are the conclusions drawn consistent with the study design and results?
- Why?
- How might you mitigate similar confusion in your own research and writing?
10. How does this scholarly resource relate - thematically, through data collection and analysis methods, or in other ways - to previously reviewed research?
11. How does this scholarly resource help you/your Research Team to extend and/or refine your forthcoming literature review?
ARTICLE 1
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9-n9ZLXrrr_ZWJiM3NVc2ZJdk0/view
Distance Learning for Gifted Students: Outcomes for Elementary, Middle, and High School Aged Students by Patricia Wallace
I actually didn’t find this article. It was part of my team’s literature review. We pulled together a bunch of resources to use and this was one of them that was in that file. This one struck me because I am a distance learning teacher. I wouldn’t have a job if it weren’t for distance learning. A good amount of my students take my courses because they are able to take a course that is not available to them at their home schools. This allows my gifted students to go above and beyond and learn more about their selected content area.
My group’s project this semester is on gifted students and how technology can help differentiate instruction for them. We are interested to see how technology can be used in the classroom most effectively to help gifted students. This paper was particularly interesting because it started out with the importance of distance learning. I have often felt like I am not having as much of an impact on my students as brick and mortar teachers. I liked that this article pointed out that distance learning students actually do excel. It also pointed out some differences between distance learning courses and brick and mortar courses in regards to rigor and software usability.
The research questions in this article all involved using technology-based distance learning programs for gifted students. The author explored distance courses for different levels of learning – elementary, middle, and high school. She compared the learning experiences of students at each level to see if one level was more successful than others.
The only thing that confused me about this article was that the researchers only seemed to target students in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth program. The answers for different programs would vary widely. However, I thought it was interesting that this program served students around the United States and also from 16 other countries.
I would be eager to ask the author how she thought international students might have a different experience with distance learning. I know that my students are sometimes expected to join synchronous sessions with me. These sessions might be at very difficult times for the international students to attend. There’s no way that a teacher could cater to students in every time zone with a single synchronous session.
ARTICLE 2
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9-n9ZLXrrr_TDdZaTBiQXV5NDg
Assessing and Addressing Teachers’ Attitudes toward Information Technology in the Gifted Classroom by Elizabeth Shaunessy
I found this article by searching in my team’s collection of articles for our literature review. I was drawn to this article because my first brick and mortar teaching position was in a school that really embraced technology. The administrators and most of the teachers took technology into their classrooms anytime they could. However I remember that a few of the teachers were very hesitant about technology. Some of them kept paper gradebooks and only put grades into the online gradebook at the end of the quarter when they were required to.
This article also relates to our research project this semester because it talks about technology in the classroom. I really like the first quote in the paper and that’s the main reason that I chose it. The quote says, “With the increasing complexity and rate of change, self-directed learning and problem solving become vital, along with interpersonal and team skills. It is evident that new ways of teaching and learning must be devised if our children are to be prepared for the 21st century.” Technology has absolutely changed the way that we teach our students and the way that we learn.
This article addresses technology and how it has changed the outlook of education. In our preliminary responses to our technology survey, every single student answered that they use technology for homework or schoolwork. I can say that this was not true for me until I was in high school. We rarely used the computer for homework when I was in elementary and middle school. Now my son is 5 and he already is doing learning games on the iPad.
This article confused me at first because one of the pull out quotes says, “Teachers may have more positive attitudes toward using computers for professional purposes than for engaging students in meaningful learning with technology, particularly those new to the teaching profession.” This is shocking to me because in my experience it is the new teachers who embrace technology the most. In my school we had the newest teachers leading the technology seminars and teaching the older ones how to use technology.
I would be eager to ask the author about their experience with teacher age and technology. It seems that the author found newer teachers to be the most resistant to using technology but I have always found that older teachers are the most resistant. My current students are very good with technology because they have to use it in order to take my courses at all. This is definitely changing the landscape of how students are taught and how they learn.
ARTICLE 3
www.positivedisintegration.com/Baum1998.pdf
Gifted Students with Attention Deficits: Fact and/or fiction? Or, Can we see the forest for the trees?
I found this article by searching on google scholar for parenting gifted students. I wanted to see the parent side of a gifted student’s education. Parents are a large part of any student’s education. This article caught my eye because my children could be gifted students when they enter school. My 5 year old is rather excitable, at least at home. I don’t know if this is an attention deficit or if he’s just a 5 year old boy.
This article directly relates to our research project this semester because we are studying gifted students. I think it’s important to see all sides of a student’s life if we are going to study how they learn. In my experience, gifted students have a very well rounded home life. I was interested to see how students learn differently based on their home life and how they are parented.
The article addresses will help our research team in our research because it talks about how to properly handle gifted students and whether some students might be mislabeled and mishandled. The article pointed out that gifted students are often labeled as lazy and they are given medications such as Ritalin in order to help them focus. Focusing isn’t actually their problem though, it is that they are not engaged in the material that they are learning.
This article impacts my life because one of the scenarios discussed hits all too close to home. There is a scenario of a 15 year old boy who has been diagnosed with ADHD and has been steadily failing subjects. It mentioned specifically that the boy was brilliant when he played with Legos. My son is also brilliant with Legos. He can build the age 7-14 sets all by himself and then he likes to take them apart and build something from his own mind. I hope that I can use the information in this article to avoid him falling into this category.
I would be eager to ask the authors about this quote: “Contemporary educators do not seem to have appropriate strategies, knowledge, or confidence in providing an appropriate education for gifted students with learning and attention difficulties.” I would like to ask the authors about strategies that would help these educators know how to teach students who are gifted but also have some learning disabilities.
ARTICLE 4
www.geri.education.purdue.edu/PDF%20Files/GENTRY/2001._Gentry,_Rizza,Gifted%20Students%20Perceptions.pdf
Gifted Students' Perceptions of Their Class Activities: Differences Among Rural, Urban, and Suburban Student Attitudes by Marcia Gentry, Mary G. Rizza and Robert K. Gable
I found this article by searching Google Scholar for parenting gifted students technology. This one stuck out to me because it was published in Gifted Child Quarterly. We used a few of these articles in our literature review so I am familiar with the topics that they cover and the formatting. I also think this article is important because we have not studied where the students come from and how this might affect their gifted learning.
This article is related to our research because we are studying gifted students. We have given surveys to students in two suburban schools as well as students in my game design course. This course is offered to students all across the state of Missouri. Some of them live in rural settings, urban settings, and suburban settings. It is not one of our survey questions to ask what type of setting they live in so I thought this article would be an interesting read.
This article will help my team with our literature review because it is another aspect of our student’s lives for us to consider. We have discussed how they are taught in the classroom, technology that they might use, and how they are parented. We have not taken into consideration where they live and how this might affect their learning. I would anticipate that students living in larger school districts would have more access to technology, therefore they would be better effected by the strategies that my team has outlined in our study.
The results of this study were quite intriguing. The article states, “Rural elementary students found their classrooms less frequently interesting and challenging, but found the more frequently enjoyable than their urban and suburban peers. Rural middle school students reported less challenge and less enjoyment than their suburban peers.” I am curious how much of this enjoyment and challenge could be mitigated if more technology were included in the curriculum.
I would ask the authors about why they only included students in My Class Activities. Using only one platform makes it difficult to get a good idea of where all students across a state might fall. The article does not state where the students are specifically from, only the type of living that they are in. Still, though, it does seem like a valid subject to study and the results were definitely interesting for my group’s research.