Literature of Literature & Synthesis of Literature

Gathering of Literature PART A 1. Compile, read, and take notes on at least fifteen (15) key articles and books, dissertations or monographs from the last 10-15 years concerning a research topic of your choice. Your notes may take the form of a detailed spreadsheet with standard information for each source (e.g., reference, participants, methods, research questions, key findings, your own commentary) or narrative summaries with equivalent information. 2. Document your process for selecting those literature sources, including databases used, search terms, and number of total applicable “hits”. As a part of the process, you will also keep a running reference list of relevant sources referenced in other sources or found through your search process that you intend to read at a later point. This auxiliary list should be in APA format and contain no fewer than 25 additional sources. PART B Synthesis of Literature Paper Using the literature sources you identified in #2, organize them into subtopics. For each subtopic write a synthesis of the main points related to what you read that includes an introduction, main points, and conclusion in which you discuss aspects of the topic that might be of interest to your future research endeavors. This is not a series of article summaries. It is, rather, a description of themes in the literature, using specific sources as supporting evidence. Kindly consider my research interest: My primary research interest is in getting a very good understanding of current state of the art approaches to successfully teaching mathematics and exploring how these approaches can be successfully implemented in developing countries such as Ghana. I am particularly interested in doing a global, cross-national comparison of alternative approaches to effectively teaching mathematics.