1.877.812.7270
lc@uwlax.edu
Journal Articles (Information being updated)
The following are examples of journal articles from graduate students of the ME-PD Learning Community. Please note these are examples of solid content and research design. These are NOT models of journal article requirements and may include formatting differences and grammatical mistakes.
- Formative Assessment Through Reflective Journal Writing in Elementary Health Education
- Effects of Increased Parental Involvement on Student Achievement
- The Effects of Responsive Classroom’s Morning Meeting in a Fifth Grade Classroom
- Effects of Goal Setting on Academic Achievement
- Developing a Kindergarten Phonemic Awareness Program: What to Teach and How to Teach it
- Movement and Its Fundamental Contributions in Early Childhood Engagement
Journal Article Guidelines
The following sections are intended to help ME-PD Learning Community students in the preparation of the journal article. All students should work closely with their graduate faculty facilitators in preparation of the final journal article. The purpose of the journal article is to demonstrate a students competence in carrying out action research in their workplace and preparing and presenting the results in a professional report. The journal article should demonstrate original action research and/or a fresh interpretation of a subject. The journal article should demonstrate the students familiarity with previous scholarship related to the subject matter. Requirements have changed over the years and older practice should not be used as a precedent. Journal articles follow the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines. The Publication Manual for the American Psychological Association (5th Edition) (2001) style manual must be used by the student.
Technical Guidelines
Page Format
The journal article must be submitted on letter-sized paper, 8.5
x 11 inches, using only one side of the sheet. It must be
double-spaced with 1.5 inch left and top margins and 1 inch
right and bottom margins. The header must be 1 inch from the
top. These margins must be observed so that the work may be
bound. Please note that charts, tables, figures, appendices,
references and all other pages must conform to the required APA
regulations. The entire text must be produced with the same
font. Exceptions are made only for tables and figures produced
by different technology. The journal article must be typed in a 12 point
font. Acceptable fonts are Arial, Times New Roman or
Courier. The text should be left-justified to avoid large gaps
in the text which sometimes occurs with full justification.
Paper Quality
Final journal articles must be clean, on good quality cotton or linen
content bond paper, minimum 20 lbs., 25% cotton and be laser printed.
Page Numbering
Pages must be numbered consecutively in accordance with the APA
manual. Consistency in numbering must be maintained. Page
numbers should be in the same font as the rest of the text.
Typographical and Grammatical Corrections
The final journal article must be free from typographical and
grammatical errors.
Electronic Copy
Students should e-mail an electronic copy of their final,
approved journal article to
hylkema.marg@uwlax.edu
in the ME-PD office. The electronic copy should be clearly
identified in an accompanying e-mail with the student's name and
learning community name. Acceptable formats include MS Word, PDF
or rich text format.
Co-Authoring
Students who are co-authoring should submit one journal article per
author. Only one electronic version needs to be submitted - both
names must appear on the CD or disk.
Illustrative Material
Charts, figures, diagrams, tables, maps, etc. should be inserted
in accordance with the APA manual. Students may use color on
tables to differentiate different columns of data.
Sequence of Content
The following are required content pieces of the final journal article to be submitted to UW-L.
- Journal Article External Review/Recommendation Form
- Signature Page
- Title Page - See Sample Title Page
- Abstract (see pages 12-15 in APA Manual)
- Text of Journal Article (the following headings should
be used when writing the paper, except for the
introduction)
- Introduction (see pages 15-17 in the APA Manual; the length of the introduction may vary)
- "Review of Literature": A synthesized, thematic review of the most relevant and timely literature related to your study; research questions should be presented at the end of this section.
- "Methodology"
- "Participants": (see pages 18-19 in the APA Manual)
- "Procedure": Describe the action/intervention implemented in your workplace
- "Research Design" (see pages 17-20 in the APA Manual)
- "Results" (see pages 20-26 in the APA Manual)
- "Discussion" (see pages 26-27 in the APA Manual); Limitations and biases should be included in the discussion.
- "Conclusion and implications": Discuss the significance of the study and future research plans.
- References
- Appendixes (where applicable)
Journal Article Submission Process
Please recognize there are several steps in the process of creating the finalized product for binding.
- Student
Students must be granted approval of an action research proposal. Students must follow the Institutional Review Board (IRB) Procedures outlined by the ME-PD Learning Community program and must seek approval from individual school districts/workplaces to conduct research. Students must carry out the action research and work with outside professionals to create a scholarly and professional article. Students are advised to follow the journal article timeline set forth by graduate faculty facilitators to ensure timely completion and in order to have a graduation date at the end of the fourth semester. - Advisory/Diversity Group Approval
Student must obtain approval from advisory/diversity group members. All group members must approve the paper and sign-off on the signature page. A signature denotes approval. - Initial Graduate Faculty Facilitator Approval
Student must obtain approval from all graduate faculty facilitators of the learning community. A graduate faculty facilitator-approved journal article must be submitted in an envelope with the following information in the upper left corner: student's name, journal article title, learning community name, and student contact information (including home/work telephone numbers, e-mail address, and home address). - External Review Process
A graduate faculty facilitator must submit a final copy of the journal article along with the external reviewer form to an assigned university reader for approval. This process may take up to 4 weeks. - Final Graduate Faculty Facilitator Approval
Upon completion of the external review process, learners will work with graduate faculty facilitators on any necessary revisions. Any required revisions must be made to the journal article and submitted to graduate faculty facilitators. With final approval, the journal article may be submitted to the University. - ME-PD Learning Community Office
Final version of the journal article is submitted to the ME-PD Learning Community office. One final review will be made by the office staff for typographical errors or other errors that would interfere with the quality of the bound community journal articles. (If the final semester of the learning community has ended, the Office of the Registrar is sent a form confirming that the student has completed the journal article requirement for the degree and a change of grade form is submitted.) - Binding
The compilation of a learning community's journal articles are sent for binding and are returned to the ME-PD office for storage. One copy of the bound journal articles are kept in the ME-PD Learning Community office.