A methodological review of systematic literature reviews in higher education: Heterogeneity and homogeneity

Sin Wang CHONG, Tingjun LIN, Yulu CHEN

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The field of higher education research has bourgeoned in the past decades, addressing a wide range of topics. Being in a rapidly expanding and interdisciplinary field of research, higher education scholars have demonstrated exigency for aggregating research findings to map the research landscape, identify future research directions, and bridge the research-practice divide. In this connection, systematic literature reviews have been carried out to consolidate research findings. With a proliferation of systematic literature reviews in higher education, the aim of this meta, methodological review is to provide a state-of-the-art systematic literature review methodologies in the field of higher education. Adhering to the exploratory nature of this study, this review analyses systematic literature reviews published in 16 top-tiered international journals in higher education (n = 160). Through qualitative research synthesis using thematic analysis and informed by grounded theory, a methodological framework comprising six stages and 20 steps is developed, which might help to instigate methodological dialogue between researchers when it comes to conducting systematic literature reviews. A handy checklist for conducting and evaluating systematic literature reviews in higher education is created. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Article number100426
JournalEducational Research Review
Volume35
Early online dateDec 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2022

Citation

Chong, S. W., Lin, T. J., & Chen, Y. (2022). A methodological review of systematic literature reviews in higher education: Heterogeneity and homogeneity. Educational Research Review, 35. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2021.100426

Keywords

  • Systematic review
  • Scoping review
  • Research synthesis
  • Methodology
  • Higher education

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