Applied Economics of Education 2020

24 July 2020
Doing a reading reflection:
The aim of a reading reflection is to force you to engage with a reading in an intellectually rigorous way
and prove you’ve done so. It also helps prompt engagement and discussion in class. Each week some
people will be called on to read their reflection to the rest of the class. Please use the exact six headings
below. Do not go over one page, font size 10 and ideally Helvetica font. Include your name, the date,
student number and email address. If you have not done a writing course before read McCloskey’s
“Economical Writing” (in the Dropbox folder) ASAP, and then read it again.

1. Overview: What is the gist of the argument put forward here?

• In one paragraph summarize the main point of the text. You can include things like the
main research question, the dataset analyzed, the sample size, the methodology etc.
The aim of this paragraph is not to critique the article. It is to show you understand the
main thrust/point and summarize key features of the article/analysis.

2. Why should we care about this?

• In one paragraph explain why you think we should care about this particular reading.
You may argue that we shouldn’t (that’s also fine). Is this important or not? Why? This
is a high-level zoomed-out question. You could ask yourself, why should serious
researchers or the Minister of Basic Education care about the
findings/method/information/approach included here. Will people still care about this
particular paper in five years’ time?
• Summers’ Law: “It takes as much time to answer a minor question as an important
one.”

3. What’s new?
• What does this paper have to say about the topic that is new or novel? Is this just a
rehash of something old? Is it genuinely ground-breaking or important?

4. Critique:
• Find something critical to say about the reading. What are the underlying assumptions?
Biases? Ideologies? Critique the data, the method, the sample size – find something.
The aim is to turn on your critical thinking lens and find something. [You may want to
turn this off later, when dealing with your friends or your partner for example]. In a lot
of policy-relevant research there is a tendency to substitute facts for
thoughts/arguments. Really powerful work uses facts/information/analysis in support of
an argument but the argument (another word for a story) is the thing that actually
convinces us. Should we believe what they say? How convinced should we be? Why?

5. Take-home point: In what way have you changed your own thinking or view of the
world based on this reading?
• Basically, what have you learned from this reading that you didn’t know before?
Perhaps this is as simple as explaining how your previous ballpark estimates of
something were way out, but hopefully something more substantive. This can be
personal and relate to your work, your research, your thinking, the way you read etc.

6. Questions: What questions do I now have that I didn’t have before?

• Good research and writing should prompt as many questions as it actually answers.
It’s fine to list a series of four or five open questions that you now have. You can be
judged on the questions you ask as easily as the answers you give.

(Many of the questions above come from Columbia’s “What makes for a successful paper and
seminar?” and Corcoran (2014) “Key questions for discussion papers” – both in the Dropbox).