Leigh-Ann Danley

Abbott Packard
Research Media & Instructional Technology
27 June 2016

Importance/timeliness of topic
Description:
Your rating: 8

Is the topic important in todays educational setting

Comments: Although I didnt understand the problem at first after

reading the introduction and learning more about illdefined research, I came to understand the importance
behind the research. As the author notes although many
recent studies have been done with well-structured
problems, little attention has been paid to ill-structured
problems. The reason for the research is to find out if
question prompts embedded in web-based learning
environments can challenge students knowledge
integration and support complex learning tasks. This
research will be especially beneficial in the field of
distance learning where the system is characterized by
the separation between instructors and students.
General quality of writing
Description:
How easy was it to read? Was the proper level of
language being used?
Your rating:
7
Comments: Given that I didnt know much about the topic to begin
with, I found that I continually had to read and re-read
sections in order to obtain complete understanding of
what was being said. That may not be due to the nature of
the language used, but rather to my inexperience with the
topic. I did feel that the article did a good job of
explaining the subject, why it was important and what
implications it could have on education.
General quality of content

Description:
For original research, we normally expect to see an
explanation of the research questions, description of the
methods employed, analyses used, and recommendations
for implementation and further research.
Your rating:

10

Comments: This research study did a great job of breaking down the
research question, description of the methods employed,
analyses used, and recommendations for implementation
and further research. They even went a bit further and
talked at great length about the history behind and the
purpose of study being the proposition that knowledge
integration will have an impact on students knowledge
acquisition on ill-structured domains in a social science
content.
Literature review
Description:
How recent are the articles used? Do the article
relate to the subject matter?
Your rating:
8
Comments: Given that the article starts out explaining that there is no
recent data on their proposed thesis, it wasnt hard to
imagine that some of the data would be a bit dated.
However, most of the articles used in the research were
from the early 90s and 80s. With the development of
advanced technology, it is hard to imagine that much of
this would be relevant in todays educational field.
However, the articles used from that time period were
more based on cognitive thinking and problem solving
skills. That type of research would not be altered by the
introduction of newer technology, just honed and refined
based on the integration of technology in the classroom.
Research methods/results
Description:
Could a reader follow the description of the methods
and create their own study using the same methods on the
same topic? Was the analysis proper to answer the
question? Was the results presented so the reader could
understand the answers to the research question?
Your rating:
8

Comments: The research methods and materials were clearly defined

in the article. In the Results section of the article, the
author(s) clearly answer the 2 questions they set out to
answer at the beginning of the study. For question 1 they
found that although there was no significant differences
found among the types of question prompts on the
dependent measure of students conceptual knowledge
there were significant differences were found among the
types of question prompts on students ill-structured
problem solving. Meaning that the knowledge
integration group had the highest mean scores on
developing and justifying solutions. For question 2, it was
found that that those who received the knowledge
integration tended to use concepts carefully and
correctly as opposed to those who didnt and tended to
use concepts ambiguously
Conclusions/discussion
Description:
Did the conclusion demonstrate a connection with
the results and the literature? Did the results support or
conflict with the literature? Did the article and the So
What Question or in other words did the article
demonstrate that the study added to the information
previously known and does it help the discipline?
Your rating:
9
Comments: Throughout the Discussion, Implications, and
Recommendations for Future Research, the author
defends his rational with the results from the research.
The results clearly enforced what he proposed would
happen and served to add to the information (although
somewhat small) that was previously known in the
discipline. It also opened up the door for different topics
in future research, such as, how knowledge is integrated
through the use of other scaffolding techniques among
others.