Part 1 - Risko, et al.

Risko, V., Roller, C., Cummins, C., Bean, R., Block, C., Anders, P., Flood, J. (2008). A Critical Analysis of Research on Reading Teacher Education

Risko, et al., is a lit review of reading teacher education studies. I'm reading this primarily to study it as a model of how to conduct a lit review. Starting from a pool of 298 studies, they selected 82 to include.

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• Began by reading lit reviews for "learning to teach" and reading teacher preparation. This helped them understand the characteristics of the field and set broad goals.
  
• Set the following objectives: 
  

1. identify criteria and quality indicators for evaluating research
2. conduct comprehensive search and analysis of empirical research meeting those criteria
3. analyze theoretical arguments and practical issues in the studies.
4. identify future research objectives

The researchers sought to include a variety of theoretical perspectives. They grouped studies into five theoretical categories:

1. positivist/behavioral - This represents a transmission model of teaching, an additive process. The theory was dominant in the 1970s. Characterized by lists of discrete, observable skills and behaviors to be mastered.
2. cognitive - Importance placed on connecting learning with prior knowledge and beliefs. Piaget and Bartlett's schemata.
3. constructivism - Focus on conditions for learning, problem-solving, inquiry, and collaboration. Shift away from transmission model.
4. socio-cultural - Focuses on individuals relationship to social context, "multiple forms of interaction with others".
5. critical theories - Focus on how literacy educators can address social justice issues, and on equitable learning conditions.

Researchers attempted to maintain "objectivity" by meeting and developing "shared and negotiated understandings of the papers"... "collaborative interpretive analysis and critique". They acknowledge that their personal histories influenced the meaning that they constructed.