Critical Thinking Paper This week’s paper topic is student assessment (either K-12 assessment or higher education assessment). Write a clear thesis statement (e.g., you support a particular form of as

Critical Thinking Paper

This week’s paper topic is student assessment (either K-12 assessment or higher education assessment). Write a clear thesis statement (e.g., you support a particular form of assessment over another to demonstrate SLOs) and include this in an introductory paragraph. Perform research for articles concerning studies conducted on student assessment (similar to the articles you read in the Readings folder but do not use these articles). Choose three articles/ studies (with data on student assessment) and write a 5-7 page paper with 6 references (3 studies plus 3 additional sources) supporting your position.  This assignment will give you experience with performing a Literature Review (skills you will need for all classes especially the research courses at the end of the program).

A proper Literature Review supports a thesis statement (the point or topic of your paper) by incorporating the findings of a study or article (along with details as necessary) into your paper (considered chapter 2 of a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation); in other words, you clearly explain how and why the study relates to your topic -- in academic writing this is known as synthesizing the literature. A Literature Review is not written as an abstract (150 word overview that appears at the beginning of a thesis or dissertation), nor is it written as an Annotated Bibliography (a listing of the author, publication, etc. followed by a paragraph describing or reporting on the work – similar to a book report).

The Lit Review demonstrates your ability to research a specific topic and relate the literature that is available on that topic in support of your thesis. You do not simply report what the studies/ articles say (that is undergraduate level)! In preparation for this assignment, review  chapter 2 of several master’s theses and doctoral dissertations (found in ProQuest) to learn how a Lit Review is handled (see document on writing a proper Lit Review and example paper in the Readings folder).

In your paper, make sure you state your thesis on student assessment and relate the research studies you chose by considering the following while researching and writing with respect to the studies you are selecting (do not use these as sub-heads):

1. What is the purpose of the research?

2. How did the researchers set up their study?

3. What do the researcher’s findings (i.e., analysis of the data) contribute to your argument?  

4. What important conclusions did the researchers report in the article?

5. How do the findings in these studies/articles support your thesis statement on assessment?