Literature Review: 'Mother Article Hunting' as Compulsory Preliminary Technique

Certainly, there are many ways to do a literature review.
And of course, there is no one model that fits all conditions.

The following guide is what I normally use when reviewing the literature. It's a preliminary step before you actually head on to start the reviewing process. 

Perhaps you have other ways, please share!
(Note: this article is best read with this article: https://norlizakushairi.blogspot.com/2019/05/according-to-guna-jangan-sembarangan.html)

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When you do a literature search 📖for your literature review, one important part is to search for the original article or known as 'mother article'💎. 

Most of the students tend to forget the importance of tracing the original guru(s) or sifu of the field whereby the ideas were originated or emerged while reviewing takes place. They simply cited and used the word "According to XXX' while XXX is not even a guru or scholar in that field. 

To avoid this situation, you can follow the following steps proposed.

Why we need to be cautious about this matter?

The answer is simple and logical: By tracing the mother article(s), you give justice to the flow of historical development of one's idea as you allow yourself to appreciate those pioneers who contributed to that particular field. 

Here are the steps you can follow when searching for the mother article during your literature review. 

Steps:

1. Let's say our objective in the review is to find the definition of Flipped Classroom (FC) or Flipped Learning (FL)

2. Skim all the potential articles and focus on the parts where the particular information that you need is given by the authors. Let's name this article as A, B, C, D, and E.

3. Spot the place where the authors of A-E's articles mention a significant statement pertaining to your query (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Showing Article A mentioning 'potential mother article'

 

4.   Let's say that in these articles (A-E) that we are reviewing, the name of Strayer appears so many times when authors refer to the definition of Flipped Classroom

5.   At this point, we may mark "Strayer" as the "potential mother article(s)"

But we have to really make sure that we do it correctly (deciding that Strayer is the mother article), so the process needs to be repeated.

6. Now in articles A-E, go to the Bibliography section, and find the articles by Strayer. In these articles by Strayer, he mentions and cited a few more names backdated earlier than his studies where he based his arguments.

7. Let's say we found two articles written by Strayer. We shall name the articles by Strayer as F and G.

8. Now, in Strayer's articles, do a backward trace by referring to the Bibliography section.  We are repeating the steps in 3-6 here (Figure 2).

Figure 2

9. Repeat process 3-8, until you find a few names that keep appearing repeatedly and consistently whenever the concept and definition of Flipped Learning is discussed. At this point, we may also find how the idea of flipped learning first emerged and coined. So, these are the original or the mother articles where the idea of FL concepts emerged. We may also initially infer that the authors of those articles are the sifus or gurus in this area.

Note: 

📌1. This method is to ensure that we do not simply jump into a proposed idea by the latter researchers by merely citing their names, ignoring the original scholars proposing the ideas in the first place.

📌2. This is to ensure that the ethic of research is adhered to. And what is more important, you will be abreast of the historical development of the particular idea, theory or model and subsequently, this makes you more well-versed in reviewing the issue at hand.

📌3. This whole process sounds tedious but if you really walk through these steps, it's just as easy as A, B, C.

📌4. Practice makes perfect🎉✅

Figure 3: The whole process of searching for 'mother article'

Note: 

💟Share if you think this article worth sharing.
💟Have your say if you think you can help me flourish the idea.

Thank you.

Why a PhD or Masters?

Once you embark on your PhD or Masters...

The moment you are thinking about doing a PhD or Masters (advanced degree) it would be the moment you are blessed with wishful spirits to extend your cognitive (intellectual) capacity as well as  mental capability  (endurance, perseverance, resilience, etc). That moment is an indicator that you are embarking into the first out of the multilayersof complex suffering yet intriguing  metacognitive processes.

Intellectuality and capacity will be tested...your relationship will be tested, in both with Allah and human beings.

Thus, it is a good path to uncover your strengths and weaknesses.

A Seminar on Action Research- Despite turbulence, accomplished at last!

After two semesters of struggle, PISMP students from Sem 8 finally presented their action research to Assessment Panel. This event is similar, or more or less like what is known as 'viva'. The event took place from 10 until 12 Sept.

For now, I wouldn't be elaborating the outputs of the event, rather I would like to share some experience while handling the seminar-just for my future guideline.

We faced some critical issues in handling the seminar. One was due to insufficient member of assessment panel. We only have a number of doctorates while there were 192 students to be observed in just three days. The solution was to appoint some of the supervisors as the panel member as well and this was uninamously agreed by the committee. One of the advantages of the strategy is that the appointment would let the supervisors to gain some experience in enhancing their research and supervision competence.

Due to the similar issue, some major subjects needed to reschedule their viva. Only a few assessors was available during the dates so the timetable was brought earlier to 6 and 10th of Sept whereby more assessors were still around in the institute. This decision must be made promptly as time was running out and we needed to rearrange the duty session for the assessors. This decision, of course,  needed cooperation, support and understanding from all lecturers to understand the situation we, the committee, were in. Sadly, some, we might say ' arrogant' party just couldn't accept having their classes being used for the viva. So issue was risen up...which is pointless, IF and only IF we understand the meaning of esprit de corp.

'Jika kita mudahkan urusan seseorang, Allah akan mudahkan urusan kita' - My long-held philosophy that gives me strength when faced by multi-tasks and crazy deadlines.

To those who have helped us by being so understanding, jazakallu khairan kathiran.

To those who refused to understand and like to win out their own prejudice, we leave it to Allah, for He is the best assessor. We, the commitee, had nothing to do with 'kepentingan peribadi' as preclaimed. Only Allah knows!

Nevertheless, the event went smoothly. Alhamdulillah. Thanks for JPP and Sem 8 for your tremendous and excellent cooperation. To  friends and colleagues, who acted as assessors and supporters, I just couldn't thank you enough. May Allah ease whatever tasks you are handling, be it now, or in future.