Reading academic papers is hard. In this class, we will discuss reading academic papers, how to apply this process, common pitfalls, and paper reading mindset.

Afterward, I’ll leave time for working on finding and forming groups. To help prepare for that, there is also a reading below on designing research questions.

Reading

• How to Read a Paper by S. Keshav – This covers a kind of “algorithm” to “read” (more like extract value from) a paper.
• How to Read Academic Papers without Freaking Out – This is some about how to do it and is full of more the attitude on how to approach a paper.
• Research Design: Research Questions by Lauren Margulieux

Things to note

The above reading was not written by a CER researcher, so here is some interpolating:

1. Here are some categories for CER papers
   1. Experimental studies
   2. Case studies
   3. Quasi-experimental studies
   4. Literature review
   5. Opinion paper
   6. Experience report
   7. Introduction of or application of an educational/CER theory
2. CER Theories
   1. We have some, but there are not many
   2. Moreover, they are not widely used. If a paper does use one, this often strengthens the paper
3. Mathematical proofs are rare in CER, the equivalent in CER is more the nitty gritty details of the method and data. It’s okay not to fully understand those after the second pass.