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Taking A Critical Approach

The document discusses taking a critical approach when writing academically. It covers different levels of critical thinking expected at undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels. It also discusses Bloom's Taxonomy and provides examples of critical questions. The document gives advice on critically reviewing literature and identifying gaps to contribute new knowledge.

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mfyfe
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37 views13 pages

Taking A Critical Approach

The document discusses taking a critical approach when writing academically. It covers different levels of critical thinking expected at undergraduate, masters, and PhD levels. It also discusses Bloom's Taxonomy and provides examples of critical questions. The document gives advice on critically reviewing literature and identifying gaps to contribute new knowledge.

Uploaded by

mfyfe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Taking a Critical Approach

Dr Aldo Raineri
Week 3
SAFE20019 Evidence Informed OHS Practice
Critical thinking as a student

• Undergraduate level: backing your points up with appropriate,


authoritative sources
• Masters Level: demonstrating that you understand how knowledge
is created
• PhD Level: demonstrating that you can create new, original
knowledge
• Professional academic: peer review, building a coherent body of
work of your own and assuring others’ work
Why is it so important to write critically?
Bloom’s Taxonomy: Cognitive Domain (1956) as revised by Anderson & Krathwohl
(2001)
Bloom’s Taxonomy (revised)
Synthesis/Creation
Evaluation
Analysis
Application
Understanding
Knowledge
Critical thinking (a 3 year old’s guide)
• Why?
• How does that work?
• What’s that made of?
• What’s that for?
• What does that mean?
• But X says…
• How do you know?
• So what?
• Says who?
• What happens if…
What critical thinking can mean in terms of the
literature review

• Understanding research on its own terms – testing its viability

• Understanding research in relation to other arguments

• Critiquing research in relation to what you want to do


Thinking critically

• When identifying the key ideas, themes and methodologies in your


field, it is important to think critically about them
• This will allow you to identify a ‘gap’ in the literature

Ask yourself:
What are the strengths and weaknesses of these debates?
What evidence is lacking, inconclusive or limited?
What will you add to the topic? What will you do differently?
Reading critically

Think about:
• What were the research aims of the paper/book?
• Is the research aim achieved? If so, how did they do it?
• Are there any problems with their methodology?
• Was it a strong or a weak research model?
• How will this research help with your own research?
• What can you take from it?
• What needs to be avoided?
• What are you doing differently?
Starting to think about your own literature review

• Who are the key players in my field? This could be anything from academics,
professionals and practitioners, governing bodies, schools of thought etc. (Sources!)

• What are the main ideas/debates in my field?

• How have these ideas changed over time?

• What are some of the problems with these ideas/debates? Is there a problem with
the methodology?

• What are you going to do differently?


Key players and sources

• First stage of the literature review is to identify the key people in your
field and collate all relevant sources about your topic.

Ask yourself:
What research and theory is there on my topic?
What are the key sources (books, articles) on my topic?
Who are the main theorists and researchers in this area?
How has the topic/problem been investigated over time?
Where to start

You don’t need to read everything


– you can’t!

You don’t need to read every


article or text.

You don’t need to read every


word.
Main ideas/debates

• Once you have the relevant sources you can begin to think about what the
key ideas, debates, methodologies etc. are in your field.
• You can also think about how these ideas have changed over time.

Ask yourself:
How has the topic or problem been defined?
Are there any trends and patterns across the literature?
What methodological assumptions and approaches have been used?
What are the agreements and disagreements between theorists on my
topic?
Organising your material: Identifying a debate

Scholar X Scholar Y

• disagrees with
• agrees with (school
of thought?)
• builds on the conclusions of
• confirms the findings of
• has reservations about

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