Instruction

Concept mapping as developed by Novak (Novak, 1998; Novak & Cañas 2006) is a graphical tool used to represent links between ideas. Ideas are written in boxes and linked with arrows carrying explanatory legends. The ability to construct a concept map illustrates two essential properties of understanding: the representation and the organization of ideas. Halford (1993, p. 7) states that “to understand a concept entails having an internal representation or mental model that re?ects the structure of that concept.” A concept map is an attempt to make explicit such a mental model so that it can be reviewed with others (Chang 2007). The construction of concept maps is an excellent way to offer a preliminary organization of knowledge and to structure your understanding of how you will approach your dissertation topic.
Annotated bibliographies allow the researcher to see what has been done in the literature and where one’s own research or scholarship can fit. Every good research paper is an argument. The purpose of research is to state and support a thesis. So a very important part of research is developing a thesis that is debatable, interesting, and current. Writing an annotated bibliography can help gain a good perspective on what is being said about a topic. By reading and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, the researcher starts to see what the issues are, what people are arguing about, and then is able to develop his/her own point of view.
Thus, for this assignment, you will create an annotated bibliography connected to a concept map for the preliminary literature review of your prospectus topic (See: Lecture in module 3, slides 12-13)
Follow these steps to create your annotated bibliography and concept map:
1. Identify your topic.
2. Define a research problem that connects to your topic and explain its importance (1 page)
3. Clearly identify the main concepts/ideas associated with your topic by funneling the concepts from the most general to the most specific. You should not have more than 5 -7 concepts in total at this point.
4. Conduct literature searches, using your 5 concepts as key words to identify relevant articles (modify your concepts as needed). You must locate 15-20 primary empirical research articles from peer reviewed journals in your respective fields (EXAMPLES of what counts as primary empirical research studies and a list of the peer-refereed journals can be found in readings for Module 2).
5. Read the articles that you located and create an annotated bibliography by (1) listing a full citation to the article in APA style and (2) summarizing the article under the citation in 1-2 paragraphs. (See details on the Blackboard).
6. After reading the articles, arrange the concepts on a page and link them with arrows to reflect the relationships between concepts that are suggested in the literature that you reviewed. You can use superscript numbers to denote applicable articles listed in your annotated bibliography (e.g., family involvement1, 2, 3) or you can put citations (author’s name and year) under each concept. The concept map must be created on the computer: you can use simple shapes and arrows (no need to be fancy).
7. Submit one Word document (examples are attached):
• Page 1-2: Topic, research problem and its importance, followed by the concept map (5-7 connectedconcepts that directly relate to your research problem with number references or citations to the annotated bibliography).
• Pages 3-15: Annotated bibliography referenced in the concept map.