27 Mar Educational Psychology Peer Review

Choose one peer-reviewed article from an education journal. It would be wise to find an article

that you can use in your PowerPoint. Complete a review of the article following the guidelines

provided below. The paper must be submitted in Microsoft Word; Times New Roman font;

12 pt. font size; margins 1” on all sides; double-spaced. Your review should be 3 pages in

length (not including title and references pages), but you do not need an abstract. Reference

used should be cited within the discussion and documented in a reference list using 7

th Edition

APA styling.

Reading and Thinking:

• Read the article SLOWLY. Don’t criticize anything just yet. Try to really understand the

author’s logic rather than questioning it.

• Mark key points and transitions as you read. Try to isolate at least one central point in

each paragraph.

• Review introductory and closing sections closely. Think about how the author moves

from opening statements to conclusions via the body of the article.

Writing:

• Begin your written analysis with a blanket statement summarizing what the author does

in the article. Sometimes the author explicitly gives you his or her agenda in the

introduction and/or in the conclusion. You should be able to relay this in one or (maybe)

two sentences.

• Summarize the key ideas used by the author in achieving his or her agenda. Look at the

parts of the article you have marked. Try to indicate how the author progresses from

idea to idea in the article.

• List important evidence used to support key ideas in the article. Indicate why the author

finds this evidence convincing.

Critiquing:

• Carefully describe any biased, illogical, or inappropriate use of evidence in the

article. Take into account the author’s purpose and perspective, as any apparent misuse

of evidence may be attributable to these factors.

• Note any avoidable lack of evidence in the article.

• Note the strong points of the article.

Finalizing:

• Proofread your writing. Read it aloud. Try to use active verbs and concise modifiers.

• Verify that your analysis would be helpful to someone who hadn’t read the article. Don’t

assume that your reader can intuit what you mean by anything.