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Overview of Chapter 15:
Critiquing Research Reports The major purpose of Chapter
15 is to provide an overall framework for the
preparation of a written research critique. The
chapter emphasizes that a critique of a study does
not mean an exclusive focus on its flaws. Rather,
the critique provides a balanced assessment of
its strengths and weaknesses. A critique
essentially involves appraising the decisions the
researcher has made in terms of the research
problem itself, the theoretical context,
methodological strategies, handling of ethical
concerns, and the manner in which the study is
described in the report. In terms of the study
methodology, the major decisions that researchers
face are different for qualitative and quantitative
studies. In quantitative
studies, the four most important decisions that a
researcher typically faces concern In qualitative
studies, the key methodological decisions
concern These key decisions should be
critiqued with particular care by
reviewers. One final dimension you need
to think about is the researcher's
interpretation of the findings. There are some
guidelines in the chapter for making sense of
findings in both quantitative and qualitative
studies in which the results either support the
research hypotheses, fail to support them, are
contrary to them, or are mixed. Study
Chapter 15 in the
text, pages 405-428.. Use the forum
for Questions for Instructor on Part 6 in
WebCT for Nurs
400A
or Nurs
400B
to post questions about things you don't understand
in Chapter 15. |