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PAIN IN CHILDREN - A.Y. 2009-2010 (009.31.PMGT718.MASTER)
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Assignment 3
Assignment 3: Critical Review/Case Study
Mark 60%
Presentation Written Assignment
Due Date Week 14Method Individual
Length 2000-3000 Words
Write a critical review of some published literature in the
field of pain in children. Choose a book, or book chapter,or paper,
or topical area on some aspect of pain in children that interests
you.
Marking Criteria:
Length: 2000-3000 words in length. Further advice about writing
critiques in general is given below.
Introduction to Critical Analysis
Some of our new students panic when they see that they are asked
to conduct a critical analysis of a paper (orbook or book chapter).
It is a skill not often taught on the courses most of us did to
prepare for our professions.Critical evaluation is a skill that
comes with practice (and improves with practice). First of all you
are being asked to'critique'. This is not at all the same thing as
to 'criticise'. To criticise generally means to take a very
negative view.To critique a paper means to point out and discuss
both the strengths and weaknesses, as well as showing howthe paper
fits into the rest of the literature of which it is a part. How do
you structure a critical evaluation? Whatgeneral questions need to
be answered in any critique? How will we assess your critiques?
We can divide a critique into roughly three sections. First,
there should be a brief description of the paper. What does the
paper claim to be about? When and where it was done? What kind of
research is said to have been done? What were the main findings
claimed to be?
Next, there should be an "internal critique". Question can
include: Can the methodology used to provide an answer to the
research question being asked? Was the data gathered in an
appropriate manner? Are the statistics tests appropriate for the
study? (It is surprising how often underlying assumptions are
violated.)
Were the results interpreted properly? Could they have been
interpreted differently? Are the findings consistent with the data?
Was this a rigorous piece of research?
Then there should be what we can call an "external critique".
This is where you have an opportunity to really shine,and show how
well you understand the literature on the topic. Very few papers
are written in a vacuum. They areinvariably part of a body
research. To understand a paper well, we need to know how it
relates to the rest of theliterature from which it comes. If you
choose a paper which is a few years old then you can tell us how
ourunderstanding has progressed since this paper was published.
Some students might opt to choose to do a criticalreview of the
literature on a topic rahter than on concentrating on one example.
This is an acceptable alternative,but means that the external
critique will make up the whole of of the critical review.
So for an external critique we need to ask questions like:
How does this paper fit into the overall body of research? Is it
a landmark paper, and if so, why? Did the authors go up a blind
alley which led nowhere? What is our current understanding of the
subject? What is the general trend of research on this field? What
are the controversies and debates in this field? What are the
arguments for and against the different positions in the
contentious issues? What is your own position on the controversial
issues, and why?
In other words, you will need to read other papers on the same
topic to give yourself an overview of how this paperfits into the
larger picture, and tell us about the larger picture.
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A journal editor had the following to say about the reviewers
who wrote for his professional journal. They were al lreviewing
books, but the same applies to reviews of papers or book chapters.
To paraphrase his words:
".... they should have read the book carefully, maybe a couple
of times, and understood its messages. They shouldhave browsed
related literature to discover whether the book breaks new ground.
They should have formedopinions about the work; opinions which they
are willing to defend. They should have organized ad written
acoherent paper that lets people who have not read the book know
how a fellow professional who has read thebook reacted to it. In
two or three pages [in your case two to three thousand words] they
should let the readers oftheir reviews know what to expect in a
book of a hundred or more times that length. And they must write it
(or re-write it) in a way that is academically acceptable,
readable, and enjoyable."
You should be able to do all this in about two to three thousand
words or so. Remember to include a bibliographyof the sources you
refer to. It is also worth remembering that it is easier to
critique bad papers rather than goodones. It is also easier to
discuss papers that make a contribution to a controversial issue,
and there are plenty ofthose in pain management. You should not be
afraid of critically evaluating papers, even those published
ineminent peer-reviewed journals by people famous in the field.
Authors and reviewers are human beings and notperfect. The papers
can still be flawed. For example, in the pain literature it is
surprising how many papers arepublished that make the assumption
that pain can be measured with the same accuracy that we can
measuretemperature. It is important to acquire the skill of
critical evaluation. After you have finished this course you
willneed to keep yourself up- to-date. The best way to do this is
by critically reading the literature about painmanagement so that
you can make judgments about the good and bad aspects of papers and
books.
Assessment of Critical Evaluations
If you show you can understand and summarise the
paper/book/chapter you will pass the assignment - but only
just. To get higher marks you will need to do a proper critical
evaluation. Identify and discuss the strengths andweaknesses. If
you are reviewing a research paper then what suggestions could you
make to improve the researchif the authors asked for you advice? If
you are reviewing a book or a chapter then what was missed out?
Wasthere too much emphasis on something or too little? If the
author asked you how they could improve the item whatcould you
suggest? If you want to get top marks then you will need to show
how the item you are reviewing fits intothe bigger picture. Any
field of pain management or research has trends, debates and
controversies. What are theissues in this particular field of
practice or research? How does the item you are reviewing fit into
this picture?What does it contribute?
A review should normally be about two to three thousand words,
but we will accept more if you really feel that youcannot say what
you want to in less. A good review should be written so that a
reader should not need to read theoriginal item to get a thorough
understanding of what it is about, how good or bad it is, and how
it fits into thebigger picture. (However, we do want copies of the
item you are reviewing).
Those of you who know about education will realise that we are
asking you to demonstrate Bloom's higher order
thinking skills. A good critique will be full of the higher
order skills such as evalution and synthesis. Bloom'staxonomy is
summarised below.
Blooms Taxonomy
