Assignment: Evaluating and Synthesizing Research Findings

Instructions

In this course, we discussed how to identify and use academic research to guide programming and decision making or to develop further research in your field. For this assignment, apply the literature search techniques you learned to identify at least eight high quality research articles on the topic of your choice to illustrate how this might be done. Complete the following for each article:

• Thoroughly discuss the quality of the source and credibility of the author(s) and provide information to justify your assessment (utilize the PREPARE criteria-peer-reviewed, recent, evidence, purpose, authority, relevance, ethics-and the information from the evaluations you did in Units 5, 6, and 7).

• Determine the methodology used (provide rationale) and the purpose of the study.

• Evaluate potential sampling or data collection issues and how the authors ensured ethical recruitment and data collection.

• Evaluate the overall quality of each article. If an article has any shortcomings, analyze how these factors may influence the interpretation of the authors' findings.

• To conclude, synthesize the findings of these research articles and determine how, as a whole, they could inform programming, decision making, and/or future research in this topic area.

Assignment Requirements

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting.
• Number of resources: Use a minimum of 8 resources.
• Length of paper: 8-10 typed, double-spaced pages.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.