Xinyi. Jan.12 Contemporary Issues in Education

Use the Position Statement as the title

First name LAST NAME, student number

Abstract: A single paragraph of 100-150 words. The abstract should summarise the argument of the article succinctly and precisely. It should provide a short statement of why this issue is important for education and what the main debates are in the literature relating to this topic. The abstract should contain a clear description of the position, and the three claims should be expressed clearly in the same order as in the main text, although these can be paraphrased/shortened here. The abstract should make clear the logic of the argument. Any implications should be clearly and explicitly described (i.e. avoiding statements like ‘implications for future research are discussed’). Overall, the abstract should be an objective representation of the article and must not contain information that is not presented in the main text and should not exaggerate the main conclusions. See
for ways to phrase this.

Keywords: keyword 1; keyword 2; keyword 3 (List 3-6 pertinent keywords specific to the article, yet reasonably common within the subject discipline)

How to use this template

This template provides information on the layout and suggested sections to use for Assignment 2. Each section has a corresponding style, which can be found in the ‘Styles’ menu/pane of Word. Just highlight some text and choose the style to format it. Do not delete the line numbers – they are there to make it easier for your tutor to provide helpful feedback!

Subsection

Headings labelled with a single number are called ‘Heading 1’ in the Word Styles pane/menu. These are the main level of heading that you should use (e.g. for the Claims). If you want to use subheadings, you can achieve this by using the style ‘Heading 2’, and they should appear with numbers of the type 1.1., etc. The main text uses the style ‘Normal’.

Subsection 2

Some more text here.

Figures and Tables

All figures and tables should be cited in the main text as Figure 1, Table 1, etc. All figures must be
explicitly cited in the main text, and captions provided. It is usually illegal to copy figures from other people’s work unless the Copyright agreement allows this (usually it doesn’t for figures in papers), but an exception is made for work contributing to academic study, provided that this is not published. Do think about whether you really need the whole figure – if not, it might be better to draw a simplified version yourself; in this case, you should reference the figure by saying [source: redrawn from Bloggs et al. (2002)]. If it is unavoidable to use a figure from another piece of work, it must be referenced correctly to the source e.g. [source: Bloggs et al. (2002)].

Figure 1. This is the caption for a figure with two panels. The easiest way to align figures is to choose “Insert Table”, with enough columns for each figure/panel, and an extra row for the labels (a) and (b). You can centre the figures and (a) and (b) labels within the table cell using the style ‘Table body’. Then remove all borders (e.g. this can be achieved by clicking right on the cross that appears at the top left when clicking on the table, and choosing “Borders and Shading” and then selecting “None” under the Borders tab. If there are multiple panels, they should be listed in the caption as: (a) Description of what is contained in the first panel; (b) Description of what is contained in the second panel. Figures should be placed in the main text near to the first time they are cited. The caption is placed below the figure.

Tables should be formatted like Table 1 below if entered directly. Alternatively, they can be inserted as images if taken from a reference, citing the source appropriately (but still refer to these as Table 1, etc.).

Table 1. This is the caption for a table and describes its content. Tables should be placed in the main text near to the first time they are cited, and the caption should be placed above the table. The text in the table can be formatted using styles ‘Table heading’ and ‘Table body’. The footer can be formatted using the style ‘Table footer’.

1Tables may have a footer.

This is the continuing text that comes after the table.

Once you are ready, you should delete the whole of this section and start with the Introduction section.

Introduction and context

The Introduction section should be used to provide background/context and to justify the discussion to follow by explaining why this issue has contemporary relevance for educational practice or theory. This section should explain relevant debates or controversies in the academic literature/policy. The justification should be associated with proper citations, using a broad range of high-quality literature.

Key terminology (i.e. definitions) and relevant theoretical distinctions should also be explained with reference to the research literature.

The introduction section should end with a short section (1-2 sentences) explaining the structure of the remainder of the article.

Claim 1

The structure of the main body should be made clear, typically by using the claims (or short forms of claims) as headings. Clear links should be made between logical steps within each Claim section and the main argument (e.g. in the form of a final sentence of each paragraph/section that relates the evidence to the claim). Make sure that, each time you describe evidence relevant to your argument, you also explain to the reader
why it is relevant. Remember that the structure of each paragraph is important – there is some very helpful advice on topic sentences and paragraph structure on this page from
Indiana University. Try to avoid very long paragraphs, remembering that one paragraph = one main point. Note that this Word document should open with the
English (United Kingdom) dictionary selected, but Word has a habit of changing the dictionary, so do check before submitting.

The evidence for each claim should employ a range of sources, combining, as appropriate to the topic, peer-reviewed articles, books from academic publishers, secondary data, policy documents, public sector reports, justifications of public interest. It should be clear throughout which point is supported by each citation (e.g. starting the sentence with the author name(s) and using an active verb can help with this).

Throughout, the argument and evidence should cover sufficient breadth to assess representativeness (e.g. by prioritising reviews, meta-analyses – it also helps to explicitly state that they are reviews or meta-analyses). Often it is helpful to make an explicit statement about the representativeness of the evidence (e.g. ‘Although only limited research on motivation has addressed cultural differences, comparisons between studies conducted in different countries are useful to assess this’ or ‘Limited research on this topic exists for Scotland, but work from other Anglo-Saxon countries is enlightening’, etc.). You should also explicitly acknowledge factors limiting our ability to draw strong conclusions from the references you describe (context, methodology, date, etc.).

Remember to summarise the sources you use in sufficient detail that the reader can judge the quality and relevance of research articles and studies you rely on (e.g. using a one-sentence summary of the methods such as ‘a small-scale study involving in-depth interviews with 10 university lecturers in UK higher education institutions’ or ‘354 university students completed a self-assessment focusing on their motivations for study’). It is important to convince the reader not just that evidence
exists, but to allow them to evaluate it her/himself by explaining what
kind of evidence it is! Critical writing requires you to demonstrate your refusal to accept the conclusions of others without evaluating the arguments and evidence on which they are based. An important way to do this is to provide a description of the evidence provided by others so that the reader can see that you care about this! See guides on Critical Writing from the
University of Leicester and
University of Birmingham.

Overall, your aim should be to construct an argument in support of the position statement by weighing evidence and refuting counter arguments.

Claim 2

Here is some more text.

Claim 3

Here is some more text.

Discussion and conclusions

You can either have two separate Discussion and Conclusions sections or combine the two as shown here. Conclusions should be both
stated and
explained, synthesising the information in the sections above to demonstrate how your conclusions arise from the weight of the evidence described. You should also explain why the evidence that you have reviewed provides sufficient refutation to any counter-arguments or how it helps to resolve debates in the literature. General caveats or factors that limit our ability to draw strong conclusions (e.g. because of a lack of literature, or inconsistent findings from work described above) should be noted here (but specific limitations of particular studies should be noted where the study is discussed above). The strength of the conclusions should correspond to the evidence discussed and should not be exaggerated.

Implications for practice or policy, as well as future research suggestions are described explicitly in this section. Where possible, specific, actionable recommendations should be provided in this section.

References

A reference list, including citations in tables and legends, must be provided in alphabetical order of the first author (by surname), using Harvard or APA format. It is recommended to prepare the references with a bibliography software package, such as EndNote, Reference Manager, Mendeley or Zotero to avoid typing mistakes, missing references and duplicated references. All references in the reference list must be used in the main text, and vice versa. Use APA or Harvard style for references.

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