How to conduct and write an education literature review

When I first started my literature review, I knew it would be difficult to find studies and articles about reverse inclusion. I took a look at my question and refined it a little: What are the outcomes of a reverse inclusion setting for meeting preschoolers with disabilities goals and objectives? After refining my question I sat down and thought about different key terms that would come out of this: reverse inclusion, preschoolers with disabilities, Early Childhood, inclusion, mainstreaming, reverse mainstreaming, Least Restrictive Environment, peer modeling. Once I had a list together I then identify databases I would use to help find different texts, journals, and studies.

**note: The use of the Internet is an amazing then when you are snowed in and can't get any where! I am just lucky I didn't lose electricity during the snow storms.**

When searching databases I like to use EBSCOhost, so I can select many databases and search them at the same time. I am able to use the advanced search options to narrow down my results. I also make sure that the articles are coming from peer-reviewed journals. After setting my advance search settings I began to put my key terms into the search box. If the search terms were too narrow or too general I choose other search terms from the list that I have complied. I would look through some of the reviews and find more key terms. I also looked at the authors and references. If there was a name that would repeat several times I would also search the name as an author with another descriptor like inclusion. After getting a nice selection of articles/studies I began to go through each one. I tried to find the articles any way possible, most were available online, others I will have to go to the VCU library or by using the inter library loan system. I have complied a list of articles to go look for at the VCU library.



Here are a few images of what I was seeing when I was searching the databases:












The first one is of what EBSCOhost advance search options look like.










The second image is a list of more descriptors that I could add to my list of key terms.














The third is when I was previewing the abstracts, it would state what kind of publication and what kind of document.



This is where I am in my literature review. The next thing I am going to do is go through each piece of literature I have gathered and identify which is a a primary or secondary source. Then I will take each primary source summarize the information. Along the way I will be documenting each piece in a chart so it will be easy for me to find when I go to put it into my review. After summarizing each piece I will organize the pieces based on their topics. I am hoping to write the review by grouping the pieces by policy of reverse inclusion, the practice of reverse inclusion, and what research is already out there about reverse inclusion. At the end I will tie everything together and explain why my research question of: What are the outcomes of a reverse inclusion setting for meeting preschoolers with disabilities goals and objectives?