A comparative study of methodological approaches to reviewing literature

s and look at what it was talking about. 4.2.2 Nature of the topic A second factor that affected the way project teams went about their reviews was their views on the nature of the topic. In particular, what aspects of the Academy-identified topics the teams themselves thought were worth exploring and in what ways . The Reflective practices review, for example, sought to adopt an approach that would lead to “an overall understanding of the review area” rather than one that “might tell you the key things that work”. The reason for this lay in their thinking about the field they were studying: We were emphasising the overall understanding you need in order to move ahead in this field rather than just ‘Here’s a method that works in these situations’, which is reflecting the complexity of the field more fully. So taking an approach that respects, and is better suited to, this particular area. Another illustration comes from the Blended e-learning team’s decision to include institutional field visits and interviews alongside their analysis of the published