2A.4
Checking Critical Links:
What does research say?


Critical Links is a summary of arts education research in which you may find no questions with a direct relationship to yours or you may find someone has pursued your exact question. The point is to see what is known and if what is known can inform your inquiry study.

1. Look over the index of research topics from Critical Links and find studies that have some similarity (however distant or close) to yours. You might consider looking for studies in your curricular or arts area, studies with student populations like yours or ones with similar questions. Select five or six studies and look them up. Read the information about them either in the hard copy edition of Critical Links or the PDF Version. From your reading, select two research studies that pertain to your question in some way.

2. Take brief notes and summarize the research studies or photocopy them and highlight the important aspects of each study.

3. Meet with a partner. Explain the Critical Links studies you found and how they might inform your thinking. Ask your partner for his/her ideas. Does s/he see anything you've missed in these studies? With the help of your partner, consider these questions:

• Is there any way I should re-shape my questions based on these studies?
• Is there information in these studies that I should consider as I conduct my inquiry?
• (If you thought your questions was not feasible) Is there any way, based on information in these studies, to reshape my question so it is feasible?