Discussion includes how to carry out action research with your own students. As I work towards my masters in secondary education, I find that I am writing research paper after research paper. However, having taken a class on research in education, I have learned that the papers I am writing are not research papers at all, but simply the regurgitation of someone else's work. In my opinion a research paper requires designing, performing, and evaluating an experiment, not running to the library gathering a bunch of old information an rewriting in your words. Rob, A thorough review of the existing literature is a large part of doing research in science education and other disciplines.
Current research builds on the findings of other related research.
Good research articles present a theoretical framework that illustrates why the study should be conducted in the first place. This theoretical framework is developed based on key findings of other research. Dr Bodzin, Thanks for responding. When performing research one of the most important parts of the reseach is determining what has already been done in this area and whether it requires additional research. We just collect old literture and try and write an increadible piece of work that is nothing more than whats already been done.