Critique of a Published Research Paper
Introduction
The research to be critiqued is the 2017 Perspectives on the Development of Professionalism as Experiences by Student Radiographers publication by Nortjé and Hoffman published in Radiography. The paper’s title condenses the paper’s contents and appropriately captures the reader’s attention. Moreover, the authors have made the title brief, attractive, and have used appropriate descriptive words (MJ, G. 2013).
Abstract
The abstract is informational. It communicates the paper’s contents, outlines the research purpose, methodology, results, and findings, appropriate conclusions, and recommendations made. Structurally, the abstract is well written, employed multiple well developed, unified, concise, and coherent paragraphs. It is intelligible, provides logical connections of the research material, summarizes the report, and does not present any new ideas (Academy recourse center) Koopman Philip (2017).
Keywords
As search engines are programmed to search titles and weight them, appropriate keywords would then complement the title of the paper. Some of the repeated phrases – both in the heading and keywords
Introduction, Background and Literature Review
The paper’s introduction leads the reader from the general subject implied in the heading to the area of interest. A summary of current understandings and background information on the areas are used to present the scope, context, and significance of the research. The paper’s purposes have been presented as a hypothesis. The introduction also sheds lights on the methodological approach used to examine the research problem. However, the potential outcomes and the remaining structure of the paper are not presented in the introduction (Charles Bazerman (2017).
Methodology
The aim of Interactive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) studies is to investigate how people make sense of their experiences (Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009). Within these studies, it is assumed that people are ‘self-interpreting,’ actively engaging themselves in the interpretation of objects, events, and people in their environments. The researchers therefore, drew upon the fundamentals of phenomenology to examine the perception of radiography students on professionalism (Pietkiewicz & Smith, 2014).
The research was carried out on a small sample size, principles aimed at understanding in detail how the participant understood, and perceived professionalism. Whereas, the sample size was relatively small, some of the non-revealed participant characteristics which may potentially affect the research included participant degree of commitment to the study, individual participant information richness and operational constraints (Pietkiewicz & Smith, 2014).
Relevant to the characteristic of IPA studies, two-step flexible data collection instruments were used. In the first section, open-ended
Sampling
Relatively, the time and cost requirements of convenience sampling are minimal and inexpensive as compared to other probability sampling techniques However, one will never fail to point out the various biases suffered by convenience sample technique(Pietkiewicz, & Smith 2014). The study sample, for example, may be an under-representation of the community of radiography students in the country or globe.
Nevertheless, the study of radiography occurs at various learning institutions, conduction of the study in one learning institutions may miss differences among the student views in other institutions. Other questions not answered are the student motivation for the participation in the study.
Did the others fail to participate because they did not trust the intentions of the study or because they were simply busy? Did some of the students voluntarily take part in the study or because they had a particular grievance with the course?
As the methodology neither used a sampling frame, nor randomly chose the sample participants, the technique suffers an inherent bias whereby the sample is less likely to be a representation of the students under study. This then undermines the ability to make generalizations from the sample to the population under study.
Procedure
The use of open-ended questionnaires requires time on the part of the researcher to code and analyses the collected responses. On the other hand, the use of these questions to a minimum, and in part their use as sub-questions driven by critical responses to loosely structured questions ensured that the respondents had the freedom to give a variety of responses. This ultimately enabled the collection of richer data.
Structured questionnaires, being the basis of qualitative surveys, are tooled to meet research objectives. Enabling only the participants who had completed the first section to progress to the second part containing structured questions ensured that the participant opinions were not contaminated or influence by data extracted from the literature. Whereas the questions used were not presented in the study, it can be assumed that the use of scaled questions (rank order) puts lesser cognitive loads on the respondent.
Although the use of structured questions provides exceptional advantage to the research process, the researcher had to hope that the questions mean the same to all the respondents as they mean to him/her. Issues such as participants misunderstanding of the questions may affect the quality of responses given. Besides, the format of the questionnaire, more so considering that they were based on twelve of the most common attributes of professionalism and five other most likely influencers to a student’s professional development listed in the literature meant that the more complex issues and opinions had to be examined more broadly.
Ethics
The use of humans as study participants raises unique and complex political, legal and ethical questions. This then necessitates for research that requires ethical approval which is aimed at protecting these participating, ensuring that the research is carried out in such a manner as to serve the interests of the individuals or participant groups and that the research project and activities are ethically sound (Smith, 2003). Protection of confidential information, risk management and the process of informed are some of the roles overseen by a registered REC as the one which granted ethical person to the researchers. Participation was on a voluntary basis, anonymity was maintained, and the right to withdrawal in the face of adverse consequences was all areas addressed.
Analysis
The IPA method is used for result analysis offers an accessible and adaptable approach to gaining a complete and in-depth account of the participants’’ thinking (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). IPA analysis allows for the researcher to reach out, hear and understand the experiences of participants. Also, open-ended semi-structured questions allow for the collection of richer data from the participant’s unique thoughts, insights, accounts, and personal experiences. It is then through analysis that themes begin to emerge and researcher builds up personal accounts. The method allowed for a clear presentation of the results in a manner easily comprehensible by non-psychology readers.
On the other hand the methodology is easily applicable to the small study sample, analysis and interpretation of collected data are time-consuming, requires several data re-ordering and re-reading and the researcher may influence the interpretations. However, it is evident that the researcher’s whines of ‘looking for themes to meet their research questions’ was overcome by allowing two researchers conduct the various study parts and compare the analyzed responses. The researchers were cautious to remain objective in the presentation of study findings, with the analyses being distinctive and reflective of the participants
Discussion
The use of ‘most,’ ‘much,’ and ‘significant’ in the presentation of qualitative results and interpretations largely is dependent on the phase of research. If a study is for example in the exploratory or discovery phase, the researcher essentially works with raw ordinal and categorical data for which the correct analytical and report framework is descriptive statistics (Clarke & Braun, 2013). The researcher thus counts events, probably getting interested in making comparisons of the relative or absolute frequencies of occurrences or events. In such an instance then, the use of the natural terms of a language to express degrees or values of variables (categories) and the often occurrences of these terms in the data cannot be avoided – unless the researcher develops tailor-made jargon for their area of interest. Nevertheless, the use of backup statements concomitantly referring to corresponding tables minimizes this problem.
Because of the open-ended way in which the qualitative data was collected, the frequency of answer does not have to have the same meaning as the frequencies of survey questions. However, in many intermediate stages where phrases such as ‘most of the undergraduate’ may be followed with another step in the data analysis where the research pack together different responses who expressed more or less similar thoughts. Thus, at the end of the second phase the researcher no longer will be working with individual respondents but with subclasses of ‘equivalent’ respondents at least as far as the research variables are .
Discussion
The theoretical commitment of IPA studies is tooled toward a person’s linguistic, cognitive, physical and affective aspects of their being and assumes the presence of a chain connecting the talk of these people and their emotional and thinking states (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). As presented in the study, the author’s note that the student’s understanding of professionalism acknowledges the existence of various definitions of professionalism among the cohort under study expectations and that it should serve to guide their behaviors accordingly. However, connections between people’s talk and their thoughts and emotions are complex. People find difficulties in expressing thoughts and feelings – they may wish not to self-disclose, presenting a probable area of bias where researchers have to interpret the participant’s emotional/mental status solely from what they say.
Drawing upon relevant research examples (such as those from Pakistan) adds authenticity to the discussions of findings presented.
As the study was conducted on a small sample size, the aim of the study then should be tooled toward describing and understanding in detail this particular group rather than making premature generalized claims. In this ideographic mode of inquiry, specific statements about the individuals – rather than making general statements as in nomothetic studies – are easily made “the students indicated cultural competence, legal compliance and appearance to be the least important attribute towards professionalism.” This logic is similar to anthropologist studies where an ethnographic study is conducted on to a particular community and reports made are detailed on the specific culture with no claims to all the other cultures.
Relevant to IPA studies, the sample chosen was fairly homogenous. The group was closely defined. Study limitations, such as the study participants working in predominantly English environments, being overly protected and that the students wore uniforms in the areas of study were easily pointed. Minimal cultural exposures, limited legal liabilities and the limited influence on the student’s dress code meant that the study results would be significant to the defined group.
Writing style
The ideas are cohesive and make logical connections. The paper has narrative links between main ideas and sources are appropriately cited. Throughout the paper, a formal tone is used. The arguments are presented in a narrative tone. The research problem has evidently been investigated from an authoritative point of view and arguments are accurately described without loaded biases. A neural, non-confronting and anon-dismissive language are used to present argument confidently
Conclusions and Recommendations
Conduction of an IPA study is a demanding task, despite the possible illusion that the use of a small sample size makes easy. Apparently, in the evaluation of the perceptions of undergraduate students toward the factors facilitating professional developmental and personal attributes is dependent on a researcher combining a repertoire of skills. Gathering valuable data is dependent on data collecting experience whereas sincerity and patience that are required to conduct a careful, rigorous and systemic analysis of the data collected.
The paper is aimed at presenting the perspectives on the development of professionalism as experienced by radiography students.
The research findings presented are specific to the views of the radiography students, the authors are cautious to recommend the necessity of tooling the healthcare curricula to teach and/or present professionalism more than a list of what to do and what not to do as it creates the notion that healthcare professionals will only need to abide by the stipulated professional rules. The learning processes, and teaching, in general, should be tooled to focus on reflective thinking which will ultimately lead to the development of positive behavioral changes and outlooks among students – all these are relevant to the aims of the study.
References
Clarke, V. & Braun, V. (2013). Successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Koopman Philip (2017). Abstracts – The Writing Center. [online] Available at: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/abstracts/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2017].
MJ, G. (2013). What makes a good title? – PubMed – NCBI. [online] Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24251888 [Accessed 26 Nov. 2017].
Nortje, N, & Hoffmann, WA 2017, ‘Perspectives on the development of professionalism as experienced by radiography students,’ Radiography, 30(2017), pp. 1-5.
Pietkiewicz, I, & Smith, JA 2014, ‘A practical guide to using interpretive phenomenological analysis is qualitative research psychology,’ Psychological Journal, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 7-14.
Smith, D. (2003). Five principles of research ethics. Monitor on psychology, 34(1), 56. Retrieved from the American Psychological Association
Smith, JA, Flowers, P, & Larkin, M 2009 Interpretive phenomenological analysis: theory, method, and research. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Charles Bazerman (2017). ANALYZING THE AUTHOR’S PURPOSE AND TECHNIQUE. [online] Available at: https://writing.colostate.edu/textbooks/informedwriter/chapter7.pdf [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].
