EDU 510: Inquiry into Teaching, Technology and Research

Understanding Article Types

There are many different types of scholarly articles that are written and published in professional education journals. When you do your own research you will undoubtedly locate different types of articles. It will be helpful for you to gain experience with quickly determining the type of article that you are reading. The following list provides the different types of articles that are published in scholarly journals and a brief description of each:

Article Type	Brief Description of Article Type
Qualitative Research Study	Reports the findings of a study using narrative (quotation) representations.
Quantitative Research Study	Reports the findings of a study using numeric representations.
Mixed Methods Research Study	Reports the findings of a study using both narrative and numeric representations.
Case Study	Reports the findings of one participant that is usually found to be unique to others.
Commentary	Provides the author's comments and opinions on a topic.
Book Review	Provides an overview and opinion of a book that was recently published.
Review of the Literature/Research Synthesis	Provides a synthesis of research that has previously been reported on a particular educational topic.
Definition Article	Compares ways that a term or phrase's definition has emerged (or changed) over time.
How-to (Solution Set-Up) Article	Establishes a problem (or situation) that needs to be fixed and offers a solution that tells how to do so with recommendations or a new tool.