how to write the chapter 1 of a research paper

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Chapter 1 introduces the research problem and the evidence supporting the existence of the problem. It outlines an initial review of the literature on the study topic and articulates the purpose of the study. The definitions of any technical terms necessary for the reader to understand are essential. Chapter 1 also presents the research questions and theoretical foundation (Ph.D.) or conceptual framework (Applied Doctorate) and provides an overview of the research methods (qualitative or quantitative) being used in the study.  

• Research Feasibility Checklist Use this checklist to make sure your study will be feasible, reasonable, justifiable, and necessary.
• Alignment Worksheet Use this worksheet to make sure your problem statement, purpose, and research questions are aligned. Alignment indicates the degree to which the purpose of the study follows logically from the problem statement; and the degree to which the research questions help address the study’s purpose. Alignment is important because it helps ensure that the research study is well-designed and based on logical arguments.
• SOBE Research Design and Chapter 1 Checklist If you are in the School of Business and Economics (SOBE), use this checklist one week before the Communication and Research Design Checkpoint. Work with your Chair to determine if you need to complete this.

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Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper

• 4. The Introduction
• Purpose of Guide
• Design Flaws to Avoid
• Independent and Dependent Variables
• Glossary of Research Terms
• Reading Research Effectively
• Narrowing a Topic Idea
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• Common Grammar Mistakes
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The introduction leads the reader from a general subject area to a particular topic of inquiry. It establishes the scope, context, and significance of the research being conducted by summarizing current understanding and background information about the topic, stating the purpose of the work in the form of the research problem supported by a hypothesis or a set of questions, explaining briefly the methodological approach used to examine the research problem, highlighting the potential outcomes your study can reveal, and outlining the remaining structure and organization of the paper.

Key Elements of the Research Proposal. Prepared under the direction of the Superintendent and by the 2010 Curriculum Design and Writing Team. Baltimore County Public Schools.

Importance of a Good Introduction

Think of the introduction as a mental road map that must answer for the reader these four questions:

• What was I studying?
• Why was this topic important to investigate?
• What did we know about this topic before I did this study?
• How will this study advance new knowledge or new ways of understanding?

According to Reyes, there are three overarching goals of a good introduction: 1) ensure that you summarize prior studies about the topic in a manner that lays a foundation for understanding the research problem; 2) explain how your study specifically addresses gaps in the literature, insufficient consideration of the topic, or other deficiency in the literature; and, 3) note the broader theoretical, empirical, and/or policy contributions and implications of your research.

A well-written introduction is important because, quite simply, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. The opening paragraphs of your paper will provide your readers with their initial impressions about the logic of your argument, your writing style, the overall quality of your research, and, ultimately, the validity of your findings and conclusions. A vague, disorganized, or error-filled introduction will create a negative impression, whereas, a concise, engaging, and well-written introduction will lead your readers to think highly of your analytical skills, your writing style, and your research approach. All introductions should conclude with a brief paragraph that describes the organization of the rest of the paper.

Hirano, Eliana. “Research Article Introductions in English for Specific Purposes: A Comparison between Brazilian, Portuguese, and English.” English for Specific Purposes 28 (October 2009): 240-250; Samraj, B. “Introductions in Research Articles: Variations Across Disciplines.” English for Specific Purposes 21 (2002): 1–17; Introductions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; “Writing Introductions.” In Good Essay Writing: A Social Sciences Guide. Peter Redman. 4th edition. (London: Sage, 2011), pp. 63-70; Reyes, Victoria. Demystifying the Journal Article. Inside Higher Education.

Structure and Writing Style

I.  Structure and Approach

The introduction is the broad beginning of the paper that answers three important questions for the reader:

• What is this?
• Why should I read it?
• What do you want me to think about / consider doing / react to?

Think of the structure of the introduction as an inverted triangle of information that lays a foundation for understanding the research problem. Organize the information so as to present the more general aspects of the topic early in the introduction, then narrow your analysis to more specific topical information that provides context, finally arriving at your research problem and the rationale for studying it [often written as a series of key questions to be addressed or framed as a hypothesis or set of assumptions to be tested] and, whenever possible, a description of the potential outcomes your study can reveal.

These are general phases associated with writing an introduction: 1.  Establish an area to research by:

• Highlighting the importance of the topic, and/or
• Making general statements about the topic, and/or
• Presenting an overview on current research on the subject.

2.  Identify a research niche by:

• Opposing an existing assumption, and/or
• Revealing a gap in existing research, and/or
• Formulating a research question or problem, and/or
• Continuing a disciplinary tradition.

3.  Place your research within the research niche by:

• Stating the intent of your study,
• Outlining the key characteristics of your study,
• Describing important results, and
• Giving a brief overview of the structure of the paper.

NOTE:   It is often useful to review the introduction late in the writing process. This is appropriate because outcomes are unknown until you've completed the study. After you complete writing the body of the paper, go back and review introductory descriptions of the structure of the paper, the method of data gathering, the reporting and analysis of results, and the conclusion. Reviewing and, if necessary, rewriting the introduction ensures that it correctly matches the overall structure of your final paper.

II.  Delimitations of the Study

Delimitations refer to those characteristics that limit the scope and define the conceptual boundaries of your research . This is determined by the conscious exclusionary and inclusionary decisions you make about how to investigate the research problem. In other words, not only should you tell the reader what it is you are studying and why, but you must also acknowledge why you rejected alternative approaches that could have been used to examine the topic.

Obviously, the first limiting step was the choice of research problem itself. However, implicit are other, related problems that could have been chosen but were rejected. These should be noted in the conclusion of your introduction. For example, a delimitating statement could read, "Although many factors can be understood to impact the likelihood young people will vote, this study will focus on socioeconomic factors related to the need to work full-time while in school." The point is not to document every possible delimiting factor, but to highlight why previously researched issues related to the topic were not addressed.

Examples of delimitating choices would be:

• The key aims and objectives of your study,
• The research questions that you address,
• The variables of interest [i.e., the various factors and features of the phenomenon being studied],
• The method(s) of investigation,
• The time period your study covers, and
• Any relevant alternative theoretical frameworks that could have been adopted.

Review each of these decisions. Not only do you clearly establish what you intend to accomplish in your research, but you should also include a declaration of what the study does not intend to cover. In the latter case, your exclusionary decisions should be based upon criteria understood as, "not interesting"; "not directly relevant"; “too problematic because..."; "not feasible," and the like. Make this reasoning explicit!

NOTE:   Delimitations refer to the initial choices made about the broader, overall design of your study and should not be confused with documenting the limitations of your study discovered after the research has been completed.

ANOTHER NOTE: Do not view delimitating statements as admitting to an inherent failing or shortcoming in your research. They are an accepted element of academic writing intended to keep the reader focused on the research problem by explicitly defining the conceptual boundaries and scope of your study. It addresses any critical questions in the reader's mind of, "Why the hell didn't the author examine this?"

III.  The Narrative Flow

Issues to keep in mind that will help the narrative flow in your introduction :

• Your introduction should clearly identify the subject area of interest . A simple strategy to follow is to use key words from your title in the first few sentences of the introduction. This will help focus the introduction on the topic at the appropriate level and ensures that you get to the subject matter quickly without losing focus, or discussing information that is too general.
• Establish context by providing a brief and balanced review of the pertinent published literature that is available on the subject. The key is to summarize for the reader what is known about the specific research problem before you did your analysis. This part of your introduction should not represent a comprehensive literature review--that comes next. It consists of a general review of the important, foundational research literature [with citations] that establishes a foundation for understanding key elements of the research problem. See the drop-down menu under this tab for " Background Information " regarding types of contexts.
• Clearly state the hypothesis that you investigated . When you are first learning to write in this format it is okay, and actually preferable, to use a past statement like, "The purpose of this study was to...." or "We investigated three possible mechanisms to explain the...."
• Why did you choose this kind of research study or design? Provide a clear statement of the rationale for your approach to the problem studied. This will usually follow your statement of purpose in the last paragraph of the introduction.

IV.  Engaging the Reader

A research problem in the social sciences can come across as dry and uninteresting to anyone unfamiliar with the topic . Therefore, one of the goals of your introduction is to make readers want to read your paper. Here are several strategies you can use to grab the reader's attention:

• Open with a compelling story . Almost all research problems in the social sciences, no matter how obscure or esoteric , are really about the lives of people. Telling a story that humanizes an issue can help illuminate the significance of the problem and help the reader empathize with those affected by the condition being studied.
• Include a strong quotation or a vivid, perhaps unexpected, anecdote . During your review of the literature, make note of any quotes or anecdotes that grab your attention because they can used in your introduction to highlight the research problem in a captivating way.
• Pose a provocative or thought-provoking question . Your research problem should be framed by a set of questions to be addressed or hypotheses to be tested. However, a provocative question can be presented in the beginning of your introduction that challenges an existing assumption or compels the reader to consider an alternative viewpoint that helps establish the significance of your study. 
• Describe a puzzling scenario or incongruity . This involves highlighting an interesting quandary concerning the research problem or describing contradictory findings from prior studies about a topic. Posing what is essentially an unresolved intellectual riddle about the problem can engage the reader's interest in the study.
• Cite a stirring example or case study that illustrates why the research problem is important . Draw upon the findings of others to demonstrate the significance of the problem and to describe how your study builds upon or offers alternatives ways of investigating this prior research.

NOTE:   It is important that you choose only one of the suggested strategies for engaging your readers. This avoids giving an impression that your paper is more flash than substance and does not distract from the substance of your study.

Freedman, Leora  and Jerry Plotnick. Introductions and Conclusions. University College Writing Centre. University of Toronto; Introduction. The Structure, Format, Content, and Style of a Journal-Style Scientific Paper. Department of Biology. Bates College; Introductions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; Introductions. The Writer’s Handbook. Writing Center. University of Wisconsin, Madison; Introductions, Body Paragraphs, and Conclusions for an Argument Paper. The Writing Lab and The OWL. Purdue University; “Writing Introductions.” In Good Essay Writing: A Social Sciences Guide . Peter Redman. 4th edition. (London: Sage, 2011), pp. 63-70; Resources for Writers: Introduction Strategies. Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Sharpling, Gerald. Writing an Introduction. Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick; Samraj, B. “Introductions in Research Articles: Variations Across Disciplines.” English for Specific Purposes 21 (2002): 1–17; Swales, John and Christine B. Feak. Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Skills and Tasks . 2nd edition. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2004 ; Writing Your Introduction. Department of English Writing Guide. George Mason University.

Writing Tip

Avoid the "Dictionary" Introduction

Giving the dictionary definition of words related to the research problem may appear appropriate because it is important to define specific terminology that readers may be unfamiliar with. However, anyone can look a word up in the dictionary and a general dictionary is not a particularly authoritative source because it doesn't take into account the context of your topic and doesn't offer particularly detailed information. Also, placed in the context of a particular discipline, a term or concept may have a different meaning than what is found in a general dictionary. If you feel that you must seek out an authoritative definition, use a subject specific dictionary or encyclopedia [e.g., if you are a sociology student, search for dictionaries of sociology]. A good database for obtaining definitive definitions of concepts or terms is Credo Reference .

Saba, Robert. The College Research Paper. Florida International University; Introductions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina.

Another Writing Tip

When Do I Begin?

A common question asked at the start of any paper is, "Where should I begin?" An equally important question to ask yourself is, "When do I begin?" Research problems in the social sciences rarely rest in isolation from history. Therefore, it is important to lay a foundation for understanding the historical context underpinning the research problem. However, this information should be brief and succinct and begin at a point in time that illustrates the study's overall importance. For example, a study that investigates coffee cultivation and export in West Africa as a key stimulus for local economic growth needs to describe the beginning of exporting coffee in the region and establishing why economic growth is important. You do not need to give a long historical explanation about coffee exports in Africa. If a research problem requires a substantial exploration of the historical context, do this in the literature review section. In your introduction, make note of this as part of the "roadmap" [see below] that you use to describe the organization of your paper.

Introductions. The Writing Center. University of North Carolina; “Writing Introductions.” In Good Essay Writing: A Social Sciences Guide . Peter Redman. 4th edition. (London: Sage, 2011), pp. 63-70.

Yet Another Writing Tip

Always End with a Roadmap

The final paragraph or sentences of your introduction should forecast your main arguments and conclusions and provide a brief description of the rest of the paper [the "roadmap"] that let's the reader know where you are going and what to expect. A roadmap is important because it helps the reader place the research problem within the context of their own perspectives about the topic. In addition, concluding your introduction with an explicit roadmap tells the reader that you have a clear understanding of the structural purpose of your paper. In this way, the roadmap acts as a type of promise to yourself and to your readers that you will follow a consistent and coherent approach to addressing the topic of inquiry. Refer to it often to help keep your writing focused and organized.

Cassuto, Leonard. “On the Dissertation: How to Write the Introduction.” The Chronicle of Higher Education , May 28, 2018; Radich, Michael. A Student's Guide to Writing in East Asian Studies . (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Writing n. d.), pp. 35-37.

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How to Write a Research Paper: Parts of the Paper

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Parts of the Research Paper Papers should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Your introductory paragraph should grab the reader's attention, state your main idea, and indicate how you will support it. The body of the paper should expand on what you have stated in the introduction. Finally, the conclusion restates the paper's thesis and should explain what you have learned, giving a wrap up of your main ideas.

1. The Title The title should be specific and indicate the theme of the research and what ideas it addresses. Use keywords that help explain your paper's topic to the reader. Try to avoid abbreviations and jargon. Think about keywords that people would use to search for your paper and include them in your title.

2. The Abstract The abstract is used by readers to get a quick overview of your paper. Typically, they are about 200 words in length (120 words minimum to  250 words maximum). The abstract should introduce the topic and thesis, and should provide a general statement about what you have found in your research. The abstract allows you to mention each major aspect of your topic and helps readers decide whether they want to read the rest of the paper. Because it is a summary of the entire research paper, it is often written last. 

3. The Introduction The introduction should be designed to attract the reader's attention and explain the focus of the research. You will introduce your overview of the topic,  your main points of information, and why this subject is important. You can introduce the current understanding and background information about the topic. Toward the end of the introduction, you add your thesis statement, and explain how you will provide information to support your research questions. This provides the purpose and focus for the rest of the paper.

4. Thesis Statement Most papers will have a thesis statement or main idea and supporting facts/ideas/arguments. State your main idea (something of interest or something to be proven or argued for or against) as your thesis statement, and then provide your supporting facts and arguments. A thesis statement is a declarative sentence that asserts the position a paper will be taking. It also points toward the paper's development. This statement should be both specific and arguable. Generally, the thesis statement will be placed at the end of the first paragraph of your paper. The remainder of your paper will support this thesis.

Students often learn to write a thesis as a first step in the writing process, but often, after research, a writer's viewpoint may change. Therefore a thesis statement may be one of the final steps in writing. 

Examples of Thesis Statements from Purdue OWL

5. The Literature Review The purpose of the literature review is to describe past important research and how it specifically relates to the research thesis. It should be a synthesis of the previous literature and the new idea being researched. The review should examine the major theories related to the topic to date and their contributors. It should include all relevant findings from credible sources, such as academic books and peer-reviewed journal articles. You will want  to:

• Explain how the literature helps the researcher understand the topic.
• Try to show connections and any disparities between the literature.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research.
• Reveal any gaps that exist in the literature.

More about writing a literature review. . .

6. The Discussion ​The purpose of the discussion is to interpret and describe what you have learned from your research. Make the reader understand why your topic is important. The discussion should always demonstrate what you have learned from your readings (and viewings) and how that learning has made the topic evolve, especially from the short description of main points in the introduction.Explain any new understanding or insights you have had after reading your articles and/or books. Paragraphs should use transitioning sentences to develop how one paragraph idea leads to the next. The discussion will always connect to the introduction, your thesis statement, and the literature you reviewed, but it does not simply repeat or rearrange the introduction. You want to: 

• Demonstrate critical thinking, not just reporting back facts that you gathered.
• If possible, tell how the topic has evolved over the past and give it's implications for the future.
• Fully explain your main ideas with supporting information.
• Explain why your thesis is correct giving arguments to counter points.

7. The Conclusion A concluding paragraph is a brief summary of your main ideas and restates the paper's main thesis, giving the reader the sense that the stated goal of the paper has been accomplished. What have you learned by doing this research that you didn't know before? What conclusions have you drawn? You may also want to suggest further areas of study, improvement of research possibilities, etc. to demonstrate your critical thinking regarding your research.

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How to write Chapter 1: Introduction

How to write Introduction Chapter for Project Proposal (CP 3005)

Related Papers

Research proposal outline

JONATHAN N G U G I KN

Title  A concise statement of the main topic and should identify the variables  Should be a reflection of the contents of the document  Fully explanatory when standing alone  Should not contain redundancies such as 'a study of … or an investigation of …  Abbreviations should not appear in the title  Scientific names should be in italics should contain not more than 23 words ii) Author's name and affiliation  Avoid the use of the words like 'By….from….  Preferred order of names is to start with first, middle then the last name  Full names should be used, initials should be avoided  Titles like Dr. should not appear in the names iii) Affiliation  The affiliation should be well illustrated i.e. A thesis / proposal submitted to the department of …. In the school of …. In the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of ….. of Kenyatta University  The month and the year should follow at the bottom of the caption Note: for the proposals (spiral bound) the cover should include the title, author and the affiliation (all in one page) and centered B) DECLARATION  It should include both the candidate's and the supervisor's declaration and duly signed This proposal / thesis is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other University …………………………………… …………………………….

Robertus Willy

Langley, BC: Trinity Western University. …

Paul T P Wong

Parlindungan Pardede

abdul rahim

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tinuade adeola

Education India: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education

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Writing a research proposal for an early career researcher is one of the toughest part of research work. A research proposal is a blueprint to conduct research work and a well-structured proposal provides smooth functioning for the proposed research. Generally, young researchers face various types of problem in structuring a good research proposal in absence of proper guidelines, steps and strategies. This paper aims to provide a general guideline to the students and researchers to develop a wellstructured research proposal for the purpose of PhD/dissertation/research projects, etc. The concept and significance of a research proposal, how to start research work, the process of producing and appropriate sections for a good research proposal has been discussed in great detail.

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Home » Chapter Summary & Overview – Writing Guide and Examples

Chapter Summary & Overview – Writing Guide and Examples

Table of Contents

Chapter Summary

Chapter summary is a brief overview of the key points or events covered in a specific chapter of a book, academic paper, or other written work. It typically includes a concise description of the main ideas, arguments, or themes explored in the chapter, as well as any important supporting details or evidence .

Chapter summaries are often used as study aids, providing readers with a quick way to review and understand the content of a particular section of a longer work. They may also be included as part of a book’s table of contents or used as a promotional tool to entice potential readers.

How to Write Chapter Summary

Writing a chapter summary involves condensing the content of a chapter into a shorter, more concise form while still retaining its essential meaning. Here are some steps to help you write a chapter summary:

• Read the chapter carefully: Before summarizing a chapter, it is important to read it thoroughly to ensure that you understand the main ideas and points being made.
• Identify the main ideas: Identify the main ideas and arguments that the chapter is presenting. These may be explicit, or they may be implicit and require some interpretation on your part.
• Make notes: Take notes while reading to help you keep track of the main ideas and arguments. Write down key phrases, important quotes, and any examples or evidence that support the main points.
• Create an outline : Once you have identified the main ideas and arguments, create an outline for your summary. This will help you organize your thoughts and ensure that you include all the important points.
• Write the summary : Using your notes and outline, write a summary of the chapter. Start with a brief introduction that provides context for the chapter, then summarize the main ideas and arguments, and end with a conclusion that ties everything together.
• Edit and revise: After you have written the summary, review it carefully to ensure that it is accurate and concise. Make any necessary edits or revisions to improve the clarity and readability of the summary.
• Check for plagiarism : Finally, check your summary for plagiarism. Make sure that you have not copied any content directly from the chapter without proper citation.

Chapter Summary in Research Paper

In a Research Paper , a Chapter Summary is a brief description of the main points or findings covered in a particular chapter. The summary is typically included at the beginning or end of each chapter and serves as a guide for the reader to quickly understand the content of that chapter.

Here is an example of a chapter summary from a research paper on climate change:

Chapter 2: The Science of Climate Change

In this chapter, we provide an overview of the scientific consensus on climate change. We begin by discussing the greenhouse effect and the role of greenhouse gases in trapping heat in the atmosphere. We then review the evidence for climate change, including temperature records, sea level rise, and changes in the behavior of plants and animals. Finally, we examine the potential impacts of climate change on human society and the natural world. Overall, this chapter provides a foundation for understanding the scientific basis for climate change and the urgency of taking action to address this global challenge.

Chapter Summary in Thesis

In a Thesis , the Chapter Summary is a section that provides a brief overview of the main points covered in each chapter of the thesis. It is usually included at the beginning or end of each chapter and is intended to help the reader understand the key concepts and ideas presented in the chapter.

For example, in a thesis on computer science field, a chapter summary for a chapter on “Machine Learning Algorithms” might include:

Chapter 3: Machine Learning Algorithms

This chapter explores the use of machine learning algorithms in solving complex problems in computer science. We begin by discussing the basics of machine learning, including supervised and unsupervised learning, as well as different types of algorithms such as decision trees, neural networks, and support vector machines. We then present a case study on the application of machine learning algorithms in image recognition, demonstrating how these algorithms can improve accuracy and reduce error rates. Finally, we discuss the limitations and challenges of using machine learning algorithms, including issues of bias and overfitting. Overall, this chapter highlights the potential of machine learning algorithms to revolutionize the field of computer science and drive innovation in a wide range of industries.

Examples of Chapter Summary

Some Examples of Chapter Summary are as follows:

Research Title: “The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health: A Review of the Literature”

Chapter Summary:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the research problem, which is the impact of social media on mental health. It presents the purpose of the study, the research questions, and the methodology used to conduct the research.

Research Title : “The Effects of Exercise on Cognitive Functioning in Older Adults: A Meta-Analysis”

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This chapter reviews the existing literature on the effects of exercise on cognitive functioning in older adults. It provides an overview of the theoretical framework and previous research findings related to the topic. The chapter concludes with a summary of the research gaps and limitations.

Research Title: “The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Effectiveness: A Case Study of Successful Business Leaders”

Chapter 3: Methodology

This chapter presents the research methodology used in the study, which is a case study approach. It describes the selection criteria for the participants and the data collection methods used. The chapter also provides a detailed explanation of the data analysis techniques used in the study.

Research Title: “Factors Influencing Employee Engagement in the Workplace: A Systematic Review”

Chapter 4: Results and Discussion

This chapter presents the findings of the systematic review on the factors influencing employee engagement in the workplace. It provides a detailed analysis of the results, including the strengths and limitations of the studies reviewed. The chapter also discusses the implications of the findings for practice and future research.

Purpose of Chapter Summary

Some Purposes of the Chapter Summary are as follows:

• Comprehension : A chapter summary can help readers understand the main points of a chapter or book. It can help readers remember important details, keep track of the plot or argument, and connect the key ideas.
• Review : A chapter summary can be a useful tool for reviewing the material covered in a chapter. It can help readers review the content quickly and efficiently, and it can also serve as a reference for future study.
• Study aid: A chapter summary can be used as a study aid, especially for students who are preparing for exams or writing papers. It can help students organize their thoughts and focus on the most important information.
• Teaching tool: A chapter summary can be a useful teaching tool for educators. It can help teachers introduce key concepts and ideas, facilitate class discussion, and assess student understanding.
• Communication : A chapter summary can be used as a way to communicate the main ideas of a chapter or book to others. It can be used in presentations, reports, and other forms of communication to convey important information quickly and concisely.
• Time-saving : A chapter summary can save time for busy readers who may not have the time to read an entire book or chapter in detail. By providing a brief overview of the main points, a chapter summary can help readers determine whether a book or chapter is worth further reading.
• Accessibility : A chapter summary can make complex or technical information more accessible to a wider audience. It can help break down complex ideas into simpler terms and provide a clear and concise explanation of key concepts.
• Analysis : A chapter summary can be used as a starting point for analysis and discussion. It can help readers identify themes, motifs, and other literary devices used in the chapter or book, and it can serve as a jumping-off point for further analysis.
• Personal growth : A chapter summary can be used for personal growth and development. It can help readers gain new insights, learn new skills, and develop a deeper understanding of the world around them.

When to Write Chapter Summary

Chapter summaries are usually written after you have finished reading a chapter or a book. Writing a chapter summary can be useful for several reasons, including:

• Retention : Summarizing a chapter helps you to better retain the information you have read.
• Studying : Chapter summaries can be a useful study tool when preparing for exams or writing papers.
• Review : When you need to review a book or chapter quickly, a summary can help you to refresh your memory.
• Analysis : Summarizing a chapter can help you to identify the main themes and ideas of a book, which can be useful when analyzing it.

Advantages of Chapter Summary

Chapter summaries have several advantages:

• Helps with retention : Summarizing the key points of a chapter can help you remember important information better. By condensing the information, you can identify the main ideas and focus on the most relevant points.
• Saves time : Instead of re-reading the entire chapter when you need to review information, a summary can help you quickly refresh your memory. It can also save time during note-taking and studying.
• Provides an overview : A summary can give you a quick overview of the chapter’s content and help you identify the main themes and ideas. This can help you understand the broader context of the material.
• Helps with comprehension : Summarizing the content of a chapter can help you better understand the material. It can also help you identify any areas where you might need more clarification or further study.
• Useful for review: Chapter summaries can be a useful review tool before exams or when writing papers. They can help you organize your thoughts and review key concepts and ideas.
• Facilitates discussion: When working in a group, chapter summaries can help facilitate discussion and ensure that everyone is on the same page. It can also help to identify areas of confusion or disagreement.
• Supports active reading : Creating a summary requires active reading, which means that you are engaging with the material and thinking critically about it. This can help you develop stronger reading and critical thinking skills.
• Enables comparison : When reading multiple sources on a topic, creating summaries of each chapter can help you compare and contrast the information presented. This can help you identify differences and similarities in the arguments and ideas presented.
• Helpful for long texts: In longer books or texts, chapter summaries can be especially helpful. They can help you break down the material into manageable chunks and make it easier to digest.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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What’s Included: Research Paper Template

If you’re preparing to write an academic research paper, our free research paper template is the perfect starting point. In the template, we cover every section step by step, with clear, straightforward explanations and examples .

The template’s structure is based on the tried and trusted best-practice format for formal academic research papers. The template structure reflects the overall research process, ensuring your paper will have a smooth, logical flow from chapter to chapter.

The research paper template covers the following core sections:

• The title page/cover page
• Abstract (sometimes also called the executive summary)
• Section 1: Introduction 
• Section 2: Literature review 
• Section 3: Methodology
• Section 4: Findings /results
• Section 5: Discussion
• Section 6: Conclusion
• Reference list

Each section is explained in plain, straightforward language , followed by an overview of the key elements that you need to cover within each section. We’ve also included links to free resources to help you understand how to write each section.

The cleanly formatted Google Doc can be downloaded as a fully editable MS Word Document (DOCX format), so you can use it as-is or convert it to LaTeX.

FAQs: Research Paper Template

What format is the template (doc, pdf, ppt, etc.).

The research paper template is provided as a Google Doc. You can download it in MS Word format or make a copy to your Google Drive. You’re also welcome to convert it to whatever format works best for you, such as LaTeX or PDF.

What types of research papers can this template be used for?

The template follows the standard best-practice structure for formal academic research papers, so it is suitable for the vast majority of degrees, particularly those within the sciences.

Some universities may have some additional requirements, but these are typically minor, with the core structure remaining the same. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to double-check your university’s requirements before you finalise your structure.

Is this template for an undergrad, Masters or PhD-level research paper?

This template can be used for a research paper at any level of study. It may be slight overkill for an undergraduate-level study, but it certainly won’t be missing anything.

How long should my research paper be?

This depends entirely on your university’s specific requirements, so it’s best to check with them. We include generic word count ranges for each section within the template, but these are purely indicative. 

What about the research proposal?

If you’re still working on your research proposal, we’ve got a template for that here .

We’ve also got loads of proposal-related guides and videos over on the Grad Coach blog .

How do I write a literature review?

We have a wealth of free resources on the Grad Coach Blog that unpack how to write a literature review from scratch. You can check out the literature review section of the blog here.

How do I create a research methodology?

We have a wealth of free resources on the Grad Coach Blog that unpack research methodology, both qualitative and quantitative. You can check out the methodology section of the blog here.

Can I share this research paper template with my friends/colleagues?

Yes, you’re welcome to share this template. If you want to post about it on your blog or social media, all we ask is that you reference this page as your source.

Can Grad Coach help me with my research paper?

Within the template, you’ll find plain-language explanations of each section, which should give you a fair amount of guidance. However, you’re also welcome to consider our private coaching services .

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

• Identify the major components of a research paper written using American Psychological Association (APA) style.
• Apply general APA style and formatting conventions in a research paper.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

• AMA (American Medical Association) for medicine, health, and biological sciences
• APA (American Psychological Association) for education, psychology, and the social sciences
• Chicago—a common style used in everyday publications like magazines, newspapers, and books
• MLA (Modern Language Association) for English, literature, arts, and humanities
• Turabian—another common style designed for its universal application across all subjects and disciplines

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

• Work ahead whenever you can. Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” includes tips for keeping track of your sources early in the research process, which will save time later on.
• Get it right the first time. Apply APA guidelines as you write, so you will not have much to correct during the editing stage. Again, putting in a little extra time early on can save time later.
• Use the resources available to you. In addition to the guidelines provided in this chapter, you may wish to consult the APA website at http://www.apa.org or the Purdue University Online Writing lab at http://owl.english.purdue.edu , which regularly updates its online style guidelines.

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

• Headings and, if necessary, subheadings to organize the content
• In-text citations of research sources
• References page

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

• Title of the paper
• Author’s name
• Name of the institution with which the author is affiliated
• Header at the top of the page with the paper title (in capital letters) and the page number (If the title is lengthy, you may use a shortened form of it in the header.)

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

• Set the top, bottom, and side margins of your paper at 1 inch.
• Use double-spaced text throughout your paper.
• Use a standard font, such as Times New Roman or Arial, in a legible size (10- to 12-point).
• Use continuous pagination throughout the paper, including the title page and the references section. Page numbers appear flush right within your header.
• Section headings and subsection headings within the body of your paper use different types of formatting depending on the level of information you are presenting. Additional details from Jorge’s paper are provided.

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

• Your title page
• The abstract you created in Note 13.8 “Exercise 1”
• Correct headers and page numbers for your title page and abstract

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

• Section headings use centered, boldface type. Headings use title case, with important words in the heading capitalized.
• Subsection headings use left-aligned, boldface type. Headings use title case.
• The third level uses left-aligned, indented, boldface type. Headings use a capital letter only for the first word, and they end in a period.
• The fourth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are boldfaced and italicized.
• The fifth level follows the same style used for the previous level, but the headings are italicized and not boldfaced.

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

• MLA style. Determined by the Modern Languages Association and used for papers in literature, languages, and other disciplines in the humanities.
• Chicago style. Outlined in the Chicago Manual of Style and sometimes used for papers in the humanities and the sciences; many professional organizations use this style for publications as well.
• Associated Press (AP) style. Used by professional journalists.

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

• The name(s) of the author(s) or institution that wrote the source
• The year of publication and, where applicable, the exact date of publication
• The full title of the source
• For books, the city of publication
• For articles or essays, the name of the periodical or book in which the article or essay appears
• For magazine and journal articles, the volume number, issue number, and pages where the article appears
• For sources on the web, the URL where the source is located

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

• Following proper citation and formatting guidelines helps writers ensure that their work will be taken seriously, give proper credit to other authors for their work, and provide valuable information to readers.
• Working ahead and taking care to cite sources correctly the first time are ways writers can save time during the editing stage of writing a research paper.
• APA papers usually include an abstract that concisely summarizes the paper.
• APA papers use a specific headings structure to provide a clear hierarchy of information.
• In APA papers, in-text citations usually include the name(s) of the author(s) and the year of publication.
• In-text citations correspond to entries in the references section, which provide detailed bibliographical information about a source.

Writing for Success Copyright © 2015 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

8 Key Elements of a Research Paper Structure + Free Template (2024)

Table of contents

Brinda Gulati

Welcome to the twilight zone of research writing. You’ve got your thesis statement and research evidence, and before you write the first draft, you need a wireframe — a structure on which your research paper can stand tall. 

When you’re looking to share your research with the wider scientific community, your discoveries and breakthroughs are important, yes. But what’s more important is that you’re able to communicate your research in an accessible format. For this, you need to publish your paper in journals. And to have your research published in a journal, you need to know how to structure a research paper.

Here, you’ll find a template of a research paper structure, a section-by-section breakdown of the eight structural elements, and actionable insights from three published researchers.

Let’s begin!

Why is the Structure of a Research Paper Important?

A research paper built on a solid structure is the literary equivalent of calcium supplements for weak bones.

Richard Smith of BMJ says, “...no amount of clever language can compensate for a weak structure."

There’s space for your voice and creativity in your research, but without a structure, your paper is as good as a beached whale — stranded and bloated.

A well-structured research paper:

• Communicates your credibility as a student scholar in the wider academic community.
• Facilitates accessibility for readers who may not be in your field but are interested in your research.
• Promotes clear communication between disciplines, thereby eliminating “concept transfer” as a rate-limiting step in scientific cross-pollination.
• Increases your chances of getting published!

Research Paper Structure Template

Why Was My Research Paper Rejected?

A desk rejection hurts — sometimes more than stubbing your pinky toe against a table.

Oftentimes, journals will reject your research paper before sending it off for peer review if the architecture of your manuscript is shoddy. 

The JAMA Internal Medicine , for example, rejected 78% of the manuscripts it received in 2017 without review. Among the top 10 reasons? Poor presentation and poor English . (We’ve got fixes for both here, don’t you worry.)

5 Common Mistakes in a Research Paper Structure

• Choppy transitions : Missing or abrupt transitions between sections disrupt the flow of your paper. Read our guide on transition words here. 
• Long headings : Long headings can take away from your main points. Be concise and informative, using parallel structure throughout.
• Disjointed thoughts : Make sure your paragraphs flow logically from one another and support your central point.
• Misformatting : An inconsistent or incorrect layout can make your paper look unprofessional and hard to read. For font, spacing, margins, and section headings, strictly follow your target journal's guidelines.
• Disordered floating elements : Ill-placed and unlabeled tables, figures, and appendices can disrupt your paper's structure. Label, caption, and reference all floating elements in the main text.

What Is the Structure of a Research Paper? 

The structure of a research paper closely resembles the shape of a diamond flowing from the general ➞ specific ➞ general. 

We’ll follow the IMRaD ( I ntroduction , M ethods , R esults , and D iscussion) format within the overarching “context-content-conclusion” approach:

➞ The context sets the stage for the paper where you tell your readers, “This is what we already know, and here’s why my research matters.”

➞ The content is the meat of the paper where you present your methods, results, and discussion. This is the IMRad (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) format — the most popular way to organize the body of a research paper. 

➞ The conclusion is where you bring it home — “Here’s what we’ve learned, and here’s where it plays out in the grand scheme of things.”

Now, let’s see what this means section by section.

1. Research Paper Title

A research paper title is read first, and read the most. 

The title serves two purposes: informing readers and attracting attention . Therefore, your research paper title should be clear, descriptive, and concise . If you can, avoid technical jargon and abbreviations. Your goal is to get as many readers as possible.

In fact, research articles with shorter titles describing the results are cited more often . 

An impactful title is usually 10 words long, plus or minus three words. 

For example:

• "Mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria" (word count = 7)
• “A Review of Practical Techniques For the Diagnosis of Malaria” (word count = 10)

2. Research Paper Abstract

In an abstract, you have to answer the two whats :

• What has been done?
• What are the main findings?

The abstract is the elevator pitch for your research. Is your paper worth reading? Convince the reader here. 

✏️ NOTE : According to different journals’ guidelines, sometimes the title page and abstract section are on the same page. 

An abstract ranges from 200-300 words and doubles down on the relevance and significance of your research. Succinctly.  

This is your chance to make a second first impression. 

If you’re stuck with a blob of text and can’t seem to cut it down, a smart AI elf like Wordtune can help you write a concise abstract! The AI research assistant also offers suggestions for improved clarity and grammar so your elevator pitch doesn’t fall by the wayside. 

Get Wordtune for free > Get Wordtune for free >

3. Introduction Section

What does it do.

Asks the central research question.

Pre-Writing Questions For the Introduction Section

The introduction section of your research paper explains the scope, context, and importance of your project. 

I talked to Swagatama Mukherjee , a published researcher and graduate student in Neuro-Oncology studying Glioblastoma Progression. For the Introduction, she says, focus on answering three key questions:

• What isn’t known in the field? 
• How is that knowledge gap holding us back?
• How does your research focus on answering this problem?

When Should You Write It?

Write it last. As you go along filling in the body of your research paper, you may find that the writing is evolving in a different direction than when you first started. 

Organizing the Introduction

Visualize the introduction as an upside-down triangle when considering the overall outline of this section. You'll need to give a broad introduction to the topic, provide background information, and then narrow it down to specific research. Finally, you'll need a focused research question, hypothesis, or thesis statement. The move is from general ➞ specific.

✨️ BONUS TIP: Use the famous CARS model by John Swales to nail this upside-down triangle. 

4. methods section.

Describes what was done to answer the research question, and how.

Write it first . Just list everything you’ve done, and go from there. How did you assign participants into groups? What kind of questionnaires have you used? How did you analyze your data? 

Write as if the reader were following an instruction manual on how to duplicate your research methodology to the letter. 

Organizing the Methods Section

Here, you’re telling the story of your research. 

Write in as much detail as possible, and in the chronological order of the experiments. Follow the order of the results, so your readers can track the gradual development of your research. Use headings and subheadings to visually format the section.

This skeleton isn’t set in stone. The exact headings will be determined by your field of study and the journal you’re submitting to. 

✨️ BONUS TIP : Drowning in research? Ask Wordtune to summarize your PDFs for you!

5. results section .

Reports the findings of your study in connection to your research question.

Write the section only after you've written a draft of your Methods section, and before the Discussion.

This section is the star of your research paper. But don't get carried away just yet. Focus on factual, unbiased information only. Tell the reader how you're going to change the world in the next section. The Results section is strictly a no-opinions zone.

How To Organize Your Results 

A tried-and-true structure for presenting your findings is to outline your results based on the research questions outlined in the figures.

Whenever you address a research question, include the data that directly relates to that question.

What does this mean? Let’s look at an example:

Here's a sample research question:

How does the use of social media affect the academic performance of college students?

Make a statement based on the data:

College students who spent more than 3 hours per day on social media had significantly lower GPAs compared to those who spent less than 1 hour per day (M=2.8 vs. M=3.4; see Fig. 2).

You can elaborate on this finding with secondary information:

The negative impact of social media use on academic performance was more pronounced among freshmen and sophomores compared to juniors and seniors ((F>25), (S>20), (J>15), and (Sr>10); see Fig. 4).

Finally, caption your figures in the same way — use the data and your research question to construct contextual phrases. The phrases should give your readers a framework for understanding the data: 

Figure 4. Percentage of college students reporting a negative impact of social media on academic performance, by year in school.

Dos and Don’ts For The Results Section

✔️ Related : How to Write a Research Paper (+ Free AI Research Paper Writer)

6. discussion section.

Explains the importance and implications of your findings, both in your specific area of research, as well as in a broader context. 

Pre-Writing Questions For the Discussion Section

• What is the relationship between these results and the original question in the Introduction section?
• How do your results compare with those of previous research? Are they supportive, extending, or contradictory to existing knowledge?
• What is the potential impact of your findings on theory, practice, or policy in your field?
• Are there any strengths or weaknesses in your study design, methods, or analysis? Can these factors affect how you interpret your results?
• Based on your findings, what are the next steps or directions for research? Have you got any new questions or hypotheses?

Before the Introduction section, and after the Results section. 

Based on the pre-writing questions, five main elements can help you structure your Discussion section paragraph by paragraph:

• Summary : Restate your research question/problem and summarize your major findings.
• Interpretations : Identify patterns, contextualize your findings, explain unexpected results, and discuss if and how your results satisfied your hypotheses.
• Implications: Explore if your findings challenge or support existing research, share new insights, and discuss the consequences in theory or practice.
• Limitations : Acknowledge what your results couldn’t achieve because of research design or methodological choices.
• Recommendations : Give concrete ideas about how further research can be conducted to explore new avenues in your field of study. 

Dos and Don’ts For the Discussion Section

Aritra Chatterjee , a licensed clinical psychologist and published mental health researcher, advises, “If your findings are not what you expected, disclose this honestly. That’s what good research is about.”

7. Acknowledgments

Expresses gratitude to mentors, colleagues, and funding sources who’ve helped your research.

Write this section after all the parts of IMRaD are done to reflect on your research journey without getting distracted midway. 

After a lot of scientific writing, you might get stumped trying to write a few lines to say thanks. Don’t let this be the reason for a late or no-submission.

Wordtune can make a rough draft for you. 

All you then have to do is edit the AI-generated content to suit your voice, and replace any text placeholders as needed:

8. References

Lists all the works/sources used in your research with proper citations. 

The two most important aspects of referencing are: 

• Following the correct format; and 
• Properly citing the sources. 

Keep a working document of the works you’ve referenced as you go along, but leave the finishing touches for last after you’ve completed the body of your research paper — the IMRaD.

Tips For Writing the References Section

The error rate of references in several scientific disciplines is 25%-54% . 

Don’t want to be a part of this statistic? We got you.

• Choose quality over quantity : While it's tempting to pad your bibliography to seem more scholarly, this is a rookie mistake.   Samantha Summers , a museum professional based in Canada, is a published researcher in Medieval History and Critical Philanthropy studies. According to her, “Adding in a citation just to lengthen your bibliography and without engaging deeply with the cited work doesn’t make for good writing.” We ought to listen to her advice — she has three Master’s degrees to her name for a reason. 
• Select the correct referencing guide : Always cross-check with your chosen journal’s or institution’s preference for either Harvard, MLA, APA, Chicago, or IEEE. 
• Include recent studies and research : Aim to cite academically ripe sources — not overripe. Research from the past half-decade or so is ideal, whereas studies from the 80s or 90s run a higher risk of being stale. 
• Use a reliable reference manager software : Swagatama recommends several free resources that have helped her get her research organized and published — Zotero and Mendeley are top contenders, followed by EndNote . 

By the end, your References section will look something like this:

Ready, Get, Set, Publish!

Dust yourself off, we've made it out of the twilight zone. You’ve now got the diamond of the structure of a research paper — the IMRaD format within the “context-content-conclusion” model. 

Keep this structure handy as you fill in the bones of your research paper. And if you’re stuck staring at a blinking cursor, fresh out of brain juice? 

An AI-powered writing assistant like Wordtune can help you polish your diamond, craft great abstracts, and speed through drafts! 

You've got this.

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How to Write the First Draft of a Research Paper with Paperpal? 

Do you encounter writer’s block during the first draft of a research paper? Crafting a clear outline from your initial ideas and notes can feel like a daunting first hurdle. Many researchers and students struggle with the initial stages of research paper writing. Uncertainties about content structure, information selection, and weaving complex findings into a cohesive narrative can lead to staring at a blank page. 

Table of Contents

• AI-generated outlines with a personalized approach 
• Identify gaps to strengthen your research paper 
• Step 1: Creating a research paper outline  
• Step 2: Breaking down the outline into sections  
• Step 3: Drafting the research paper  

A glimpse into academic forums and social media gives a clear picture that many researchers across the world go through similar problems while writing the first draft of a research paper. Where to begin? What should I write? How to begin? How to compile 2-3+ years of research into a 2500 or 5000-word research paper? If you’re grappling with these concerns, do not worry. You’re not alone.   

Researchers face a mountain of work when it comes to writing papers. Paperpal decided to tackle this challenge and, in the process, discovered some fascinating writing habits: 

• Start verbally: Some researchers find their flow by talking through their ideas first. They record themselves or brainstorm with a friend, then use these spoken notes as a springboard for their draft. 
• Write on the go: Others prioritize keeping their thoughts flowing freely. They write in bursts, leaving the structuring and editing for later. 
• Divide and Conquer: For some, especially new researchers, a structured approach works best. They break the paper into sections, focusing on building each one in detail before assembling the final draft. 
• Outlines: Many researchers swear by outlines. Outlines provide a roadmap, complete with headings, subheadings, and key points. This saves time in the long run by eliminating the need for major restructuring later. You can focus on polishing the language and adding academic vocabulary during the final edit . 

Inspired by the outline method, Paperpal set out to create a tool that would give researchers a head start. This led to the development of Paperpal’s AI-generated outlines, which build a rough skeleton for your draft, allowing you to flesh out each section with confidence. 

How do Paperpal’s AI-generated outlines help you write the first draft 2x faster?   

Unlike traditional outlining methods, Paperpal doesn’t just provide a generic structure. Paperpal’s AI-generated outlines identify the key topics that form the backbone of your draft, providing a clear structure without sacrificing crucial elements. 

AI-generated outlines with a personalized approach

Paperpal goes beyond just suggesting topics. It seamlessly integrates your input, including notes, ideas, and research findings. This ensures the generated outline reflects your unique perspective and aligns perfectly with your project goals. This personalized approach not only streamlines the drafting process but also fosters a sense of ownership, keeping you engaged and motivated. 

Identify gaps to strengthen your research paper

After creating an outline based on your notes, Paperpal takes things a step further by helping you flesh out each section with content suggestions. Let’s say you’re working on the introduction of your research paper . Paperpal not only analyzes your notes to generate an outline, but it also identifies potential gaps in your research. It can then suggest content additions like knowledge gaps, research questions, and rationale statements to address those weaknesses. This comprehensive support streamlines the writing process for your first draft, making it smoother and more effortless. 

Researchers who have incorporated Paperpal into their workflow, have achieved higher levels of academic writing productivity . The result? Producing the first draft of a research paper in a shorter time frame, without making it completely AI-driven. 

How to write the first draft of a research paper with Paperpal?  

Paperpal redefines the way researchers approach academic writing, transforming the once-daunting task of drafting into a breeze. Here’s a walkthrough of writing the first draft of a research paper with Paperpal.  

Step 1: Creating a research paper outline

• Sign- up to Paperpal and open a new or existing document.  
• Navigate to Templates , select Outlines and choose Research Article to begin.  
• Fill out the necessary details in the required fields according to your needs. Add your research notes to the Brief Description section and click on Generate .  

Paperpal gets you started on the right foot by analyzing your information and generating a comprehensive outline. This roadmap for your draft breaks down the content into clear, logical sections: 

• Background: Sets the context for your research. 
• Topic Importance: Highlights the significance of your research area. 
• Existing Knowledge: Summarizes what’s already known about the topic. 
• Knowledge Gap: Identifies areas where further research is needed. 
• Rationale: Explains why your research is important to address the gap. 
• Research Question: Formulates the specific question your research aims to answer. 
• Aim/Objective: Defines the overall goals and desired outcomes of your research. 
• Hypothesis: Makes a prediction about the expected results of your study (optional, not all research papers require a hypothesis). 

Paperpal’s outline provides a head-start to structure and write your research paper. This process helps in laying a strong foundation for your writing and refining it effortlessly.  

Step 2: Breaking down the outline into sections

Once you have the initial outline, you can further refine it by dividing it into subsections. This helps you explore each aspect of your research in detail, ensuring thorough coverage of your topic. You can choose from pre-built sections like Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion and start developing one by one.  

Step 3: Drafting the research paper

Start your research paper’s draft based on the outline and custom section enhancements. During the writing phase, Paperpal also offers insights into using its features:   

• Incorporating references and additional content as required  
• Rephrasing, shortening sentences, and refining language and structure using Paperpal’s Edit and Rewrite options  
• Refining your draft by adding citations and specific information relevant to the topic via Paperpal Research. This ensures originality, and clarity, and adds value to your writing.  

By streamlining the journey from raw research to a polished draft, Paperpal helps students, researchers, and academics overcome common writing hurdles and achieve greater productivity. Whether you are a seasoned researcher or a student, Paperpal serves as a trusted companion, guiding you through each stage of the drafting process. Unlock academic writing potential with Paperpal. Get your free Paperpal account today!  

Paperpal is a comprehensive AI writing toolkit that helps students and researchers achieve 2x the writing in half the time. It leverages 21+ years of STM experience and insights from millions of research articles to provide in-depth academic writing, language editing, and submission readiness support to help you write better, faster.  

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MLA Works Cited Page: Format, Template & Examples

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / How to Cite Sources

How to Cite Sources

Here is a complete list for how to cite sources. Most of these guides present citation guidance and examples in MLA, APA, and Chicago.

If you’re looking for general information on MLA or APA citations , the EasyBib Writing Center was designed for you! It has articles on what’s needed in an MLA in-text citation , how to format an APA paper, what an MLA annotated bibliography is, making an MLA works cited page, and much more!

MLA Format Citation Examples

The Modern Language Association created the MLA Style, currently in its 9th edition, to provide researchers with guidelines for writing and documenting scholarly borrowings.  Most often used in the humanities, MLA style (or MLA format ) has been adopted and used by numerous other disciplines, in multiple parts of the world.

MLA provides standard rules to follow so that most research papers are formatted in a similar manner. This makes it easier for readers to comprehend the information. The MLA in-text citation guidelines, MLA works cited standards, and MLA annotated bibliography instructions provide scholars with the information they need to properly cite sources in their research papers, articles, and assignments.

• Book Chapter
• Conference Paper
• Documentary
• Encyclopedia
• Google Images
• Kindle Book
• Memorial Inscription
• Museum Exhibit
• Painting or Artwork
• PowerPoint Presentation
• Sheet Music
• Thesis or Dissertation
• YouTube Video

APA Format Citation Examples

The American Psychological Association created the APA citation style in 1929 as a way to help psychologists, anthropologists, and even business managers establish one common way to cite sources and present content.

APA is used when citing sources for academic articles such as journals, and is intended to help readers better comprehend content, and to avoid language bias wherever possible. The APA style (or APA format ) is now in its 7th edition, and provides citation style guides for virtually any type of resource.

Chicago Style Citation Examples

The Chicago/Turabian style of citing sources is generally used when citing sources for humanities papers, and is best known for its requirement that writers place bibliographic citations at the bottom of a page (in Chicago-format footnotes ) or at the end of a paper (endnotes).

The Turabian and Chicago citation styles are almost identical, but the Turabian style is geared towards student published papers such as theses and dissertations, while the Chicago style provides guidelines for all types of publications. This is why you’ll commonly see Chicago style and Turabian style presented together. The Chicago Manual of Style is currently in its 17th edition, and Turabian’s A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations is in its 8th edition.

Citing Specific Sources or Events

• Declaration of Independence
• Gettysburg Address
• Martin Luther King Jr. Speech
• President Obama’s Farewell Address
• President Trump’s Inauguration Speech
• White House Press Briefing

Additional FAQs

• Citing Archived Contributors
• Citing a Blog
• Citing a Book Chapter
• Citing a Source in a Foreign Language
• Citing an Image
• Citing a Song
• Citing Special Contributors
• Citing a Translated Article
• Citing a Tweet

6 Interesting Citation Facts

The world of citations may seem cut and dry, but there’s more to them than just specific capitalization rules, MLA in-text citations , and other formatting specifications. Citations have been helping researches document their sources for hundreds of years, and are a great way to learn more about a particular subject area.

Ever wonder what sets all the different styles apart, or how they came to be in the first place? Read on for some interesting facts about citations!

1. There are Over 7,000 Different Citation Styles

You may be familiar with MLA and APA citation styles, but there are actually thousands of citation styles used for all different academic disciplines all across the world. Deciding which one to use can be difficult, so be sure to ask you instructor which one you should be using for your next paper.

2. Some Citation Styles are Named After People

While a majority of citation styles are named for the specific organizations that publish them (i.e. APA is published by the American Psychological Association, and MLA format is named for the Modern Language Association), some are actually named after individuals. The most well-known example of this is perhaps Turabian style, named for Kate L. Turabian, an American educator and writer. She developed this style as a condensed version of the Chicago Manual of Style in order to present a more concise set of rules to students.

3. There are Some Really Specific and Uniquely Named Citation Styles

How specific can citation styles get? The answer is very. For example, the “Flavour and Fragrance Journal” style is based on a bimonthly, peer-reviewed scientific journal published since 1985 by John Wiley & Sons. It publishes original research articles, reviews and special reports on all aspects of flavor and fragrance. Another example is “Nordic Pulp and Paper Research,” a style used by an international scientific magazine covering science and technology for the areas of wood or bio-mass constituents.

4. More citations were created on  EasyBib.com  in the first quarter of 2018 than there are people in California.

The US Census Bureau estimates that approximately 39.5 million people live in the state of California. Meanwhile, about 43 million citations were made on EasyBib from January to March of 2018. That’s a lot of citations.

5. “Citations” is a Word With a Long History

The word “citations” can be traced back literally thousands of years to the Latin word “citare” meaning “to summon, urge, call; put in sudden motion, call forward; rouse, excite.” The word then took on its more modern meaning and relevance to writing papers in the 1600s, where it became known as the “act of citing or quoting a passage from a book, etc.”

6. Citation Styles are Always Changing

The concept of citations always stays the same. It is a means of preventing plagiarism and demonstrating where you relied on outside sources. The specific style rules, however, can and do change regularly. For example, in 2018 alone, 46 new citation styles were introduced , and 106 updates were made to exiting styles. At EasyBib, we are always on the lookout for ways to improve our styles and opportunities to add new ones to our list.

Why Citations Matter

Here are the ways accurate citations can help your students achieve academic success, and how you can answer the dreaded question, “why should I cite my sources?”

They Give Credit to the Right People

Citing their sources makes sure that the reader can differentiate the student’s original thoughts from those of other researchers. Not only does this make sure that the sources they use receive proper credit for their work, it ensures that the student receives deserved recognition for their unique contributions to the topic. Whether the student is citing in MLA format , APA format , or any other style, citations serve as a natural way to place a student’s work in the broader context of the subject area, and serve as an easy way to gauge their commitment to the project.

They Provide Hard Evidence of Ideas

Having many citations from a wide variety of sources related to their idea means that the student is working on a well-researched and respected subject. Citing sources that back up their claim creates room for fact-checking and further research . And, if they can cite a few sources that have the converse opinion or idea, and then demonstrate to the reader why they believe that that viewpoint is wrong by again citing credible sources, the student is well on their way to winning over the reader and cementing their point of view.

They Promote Originality and Prevent Plagiarism

The point of research projects is not to regurgitate information that can already be found elsewhere. We have Google for that! What the student’s project should aim to do is promote an original idea or a spin on an existing idea, and use reliable sources to promote that idea. Copying or directly referencing a source without proper citation can lead to not only a poor grade, but accusations of academic dishonesty. By citing their sources regularly and accurately, students can easily avoid the trap of plagiarism , and promote further research on their topic.

They Create Better Researchers

By researching sources to back up and promote their ideas, students are becoming better researchers without even knowing it! Each time a new source is read or researched, the student is becoming more engaged with the project and is developing a deeper understanding of the subject area. Proper citations demonstrate a breadth of the student’s reading and dedication to the project itself. By creating citations, students are compelled to make connections between their sources and discern research patterns. Each time they complete this process, they are helping themselves become better researchers and writers overall.

When is the Right Time to Start Making Citations?

Make in-text/parenthetical citations as you need them.

As you are writing your paper, be sure to include references within the text that correspond with references in a works cited or bibliography. These are usually called in-text citations or parenthetical citations in MLA and APA formats. The most effective time to complete these is directly after you have made your reference to another source. For instance, after writing the line from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities : “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…,” you would include a citation like this (depending on your chosen citation style):

(Dickens 11).

This signals to the reader that you have referenced an outside source. What’s great about this system is that the in-text citations serve as a natural list for all of the citations you have made in your paper, which will make completing the works cited page a whole lot easier. After you are done writing, all that will be left for you to do is scan your paper for these references, and then build a works cited page that includes a citation for each one.

Need help creating an MLA works cited page ? Try the MLA format generator on EasyBib.com! We also have a guide on how to format an APA reference page .

2. Understand the General Formatting Rules of Your Citation Style Before You Start Writing

While reading up on paper formatting may not sound exciting, being aware of how your paper should look early on in the paper writing process is super important. Citation styles can dictate more than just the appearance of the citations themselves, but rather can impact the layout of your paper as a whole, with specific guidelines concerning margin width, title treatment, and even font size and spacing. Knowing how to organize your paper before you start writing will ensure that you do not receive a low grade for something as trivial as forgetting a hanging indent.

Don’t know where to start? Here’s a formatting guide on APA format .

3. Double-check All of Your Outside Sources for Relevance and Trustworthiness First

Collecting outside sources that support your research and specific topic is a critical step in writing an effective paper. But before you run to the library and grab the first 20 books you can lay your hands on, keep in mind that selecting a source to include in your paper should not be taken lightly. Before you proceed with using it to backup your ideas, run a quick Internet search for it and see if other scholars in your field have written about it as well. Check to see if there are book reviews about it or peer accolades. If you spot something that seems off to you, you may want to consider leaving it out of your work. Doing this before your start making citations can save you a ton of time in the long run.

Finished with your paper? It may be time to run it through a grammar and plagiarism checker , like the one offered by EasyBib Plus. If you’re just looking to brush up on the basics, our grammar guides  are ready anytime you are.

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Advances and Challenges of Collaboration as a Learning and Research Field for Mathematics Teachers

• Open Access
• First Online: 04 June 2024

Cite this chapter

You have full access to this open access chapter

• Dario Fiorentini 7 &
• Ana Leticia Losano 8  

Part of the book series: New ICMI Study Series ((NISS))

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This chapter systematizes relevant issues highlighted by the papers presented at ICMI Study 25. Such issues are presented considering four perspectives: 1) different forms and meanings for collaboration; 2) what do we investigate, how do we investigate, and who investigates collaboration?; 3) the complex relations between collaborative groups and classroom practice; and 4) possibilities for scaling up collaborative professional development initiatives. Through the discussion of such perspectives, on the one hand, we seek to reflect on the advances and possibilities of collaboration considered as a field of investigation and as a process that promotes professional development. On the other hand, we aim to identify some of the challenges that collaboration confronts nowadays.

You have full access to this open access chapter,  Download chapter PDF

1 Introduction

After receiving the invitation from the editors of this volume to write this chapter, we decided to organise our discussion in four perspectives that, in our view, systematise relevant issues highlighted by the papers presented at ICMI Study 25. Such perspectives are:

different forms and meanings for collaboration;

what do we investigate, how do we investigate, and who investigates collaboration?:

the complex relations between collaborative groups and classroom practice;

possibilities for scaling up collaborative professional development initiatives.

Through the discussion of such perspectives, on the one hand, we seek to reflect on the advances and possibilities of collaboration considered as a field of investigation and as a process that promotes professional development (PD). On the other hand, we aim to identify some of the challenges that collaboration confronts nowadays.

For this purpose, we build our arguments by drawing on two references. Firstly, the chapters included in this book, the papers presented at the ICMI Study 25 conference mentioned in those chapters, and other complementary literature resources. Secondly, we draw on our experiences of collaboration with teachers in Brazil. To do so, we refer to our participation in the Grupo de Sábado [Saturday Group] (GdS), a Brazilian collaborative group operating for more than 20 years. The GdS gathers schoolteachers, teacher educators, graduate students and pre-service teachers interested in learning about and researching on mathematics teaching practice. As we will show in this chapter, the GdS differs from many groups and collaborative initiatives presented in this book in several ways. Thus, it provides a counterweight that reveals and interrogates some of the ideas assumed by diverse research endeavours focused on mathematics teacher collaboration.

2 Different Forms and Meanings of Collaboration

In England and the U.S., the movement of collaboration among teachers gained visibility and recognition in the 1970s, when Stenhouse ( 1975 ) systematised a type of action research or design research aimed at improving learning and teaching through inquiry. Such a framework involved a cycle of four steps: examining current practice, making decisions, planning optimal learning environments; implementing the findings in the classrooms with reflection. This movement gained strength in the U.S. in the 1980s, mainly in the context of in-service teacher education. At that time, it was adopted stressing its potential contributions to teachers’ PD. Considering that not all PD initiatives are collaborative, the term ‘collaborative PD’ has come to be used by the pertinent literature to differentiate those that are.

By the end of the twentieth century, according to Hargreaves ( 1994 ), collaboration had already become a “meta-paradigm of educational and organizational change in the postmodern age” especially because it made possible the articulation and integration of “action, planning, culture, development, organization, and research” (p. 244). Collaboration was recognised as a creative and a “productive response to a world in which problems are unpredictable, solutions are unclear, and demands and expectations are intensifying. In this kind of context, the promise of collaboration is extensive and diverse” (p. 244). Since then, collaborative work and collaborative research among professionals from different institutions and levels of education have emerged worldwide as a response to the social, political, cultural, and technological changes that are taking place on a global scale and that jeopardise the traditional ways of organising PD initiatives (Fiorentini, 2004 ).

This movement gave rise to several models and conceptualisations of collaboration and collaborative research. Besides, models were recovered and adapted according to different sociocultural realities: that was the case of the Japanese Lesson Study (LS). It emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, but only came to the attention of educators outside Japan in the late 1990s, due to the systematisation conducted by Yoshida ( 1999 ). Since 2000, educational researchers have tried to use the LS model, adapting it to different cultural realities (Isoda, 2020 ). We suggest that the study of these processes of modification and adaptation of models of collaboration is a great opportunity for our research field. On the one hand, it would enable us to systematise and discuss diverse theoretical perspectives of collaboration, revealing different meanings assigned to collaboration. On the other hand, it would allow us to identify and problematise each model's educational possibilities, contributions, and limitations.

da Ponte et al. (Chap. 2 , this volume), drawing on Robutti et al. ( 2016 ), conceptualise collaboration as “a group of participants, who work together pursuing a common aim, by establishing some joint working processes in which active involvement, balanced roles and caring relationships are central features” (p. 21). In our view, such conceptualisation is relevant, since it includes PD initiatives that promote horizontal or dialogical relations among teachers and teachers’ educators. However, we consider that this conceptualisation does not enable us to distinguish between superficial and deeper or sustainable forms of collaboration (Azorín & Fullan, 2022 ). In addition, this broad conceptualisation makes it difficult to analyse diverse collaborative initiatives in relation to their impact and appropriateness in different circumstances and sociocultural contexts (Hargreaves, 2019 ).

In what follows, we discuss briefly these different conceptualisations of collaboration, especially since it seems to have been an issue little discussed during the ICMI Study 25 conference. To “work together pursuing a common aim” may happen, for instance, in situations of contrived collegiality (Hargreaves, 1994 , 2019 ), especially when subjects are requested to participate in groups without having the possibility of negotiating the group’s goals. Besides, it could happen in a group that lacks a common culture of sharing and negotiating practices and meanings. In a similar direction, both Azorín and Fullan ( 2022 ) and Hargreaves ( 2019 ) stress that a group becomes effectively collaborative and sustainable when it develops collaborative professionalism .

Such a notion refers to a learning community whose members, even having different knowledge, develop joint practices, negotiate their goals and carry out collaborative research. Therefore, the development of collaborative professionalism demands time: a time that cannot be pre-established by administrators or teacher educators, since it depends upon the disposition and upon the previous experiences of the members. Similarly, our years of participation in the GdS and other collaborative groups, as well as the research we conducted (Fiorentini, 2004 , 2013 ; Losano et al., 2021 ), point to the fact that groups are not born collaboratives. Instead, they became collaboratives over time. For example, when new members join the GdS, their participation during the first 6 months involves experiencing and reflecting on practices historically produced by the group over the years—practices oriented at planning, implementing and analysing investigative classroom tasks.

To understand better what we mean, let us consider, for example, the study by Cooper ( 2019 ) that was analysed by Krainer, Roesken-Winter and Spreitzer (Chap. 8 , this volume), using the RATE tool to highlight the relationships among Actors, Goals and Relevant Environments. It is an Israeli PD initiative that gathered twenty primary schoolteachers, two mathematicians and a facilitator with a Ph.D. in mathematics education, who was the study’s author. The goal of the initiative was to bring together two groups that could share their perspectives on teaching integers, crossing boundaries between the world of primary school and the world of academic mathematics.

Such a goal emerged from the requirement, external to both groups, of the Israeli Ministry of Education, establishing that, “primary-school teachers need ‘to enroll in mathematics PD initiatives to specialize in mathematics’ (p. 71)” (cited by Krainer et al., Chap. 8 , this volume, p. 8). Such collaborative arrangement gathered representatives from two fields of study, enabling sharing perspectives about how to teach integers. The group facilitator also gave her feedback, valuing the contributions of the two communities. The author concluded that the initiative allowed teachers to benefit from the mathematicians’ perspective. In addition, it enabled mathematicians to achieve sensitive understanding. According to Cooper, collaboration contributed to mathematicians paying more attention to their students’ ideas, opening spaces for discussion in their university math classes. Primary teachers, on the other hand, were able to build more mathematical confidence.

There is no doubt that there was learning involved in this PD initiative. Each subgroup learned something from the dialogue with the other. Each participant mobilised a surplus of vision and knowledge (Bakhtin, 2003 ) in relation to the other. Notwithstanding, is it possible to state that such learnings are sustainable and have the potential of transforming the participants’ teaching practices? We suggest that this short PD initiative opened up the possibility of negotiating and developing a joint project around a common goal in the future. From this experience, mathematicians and primary teachers could engage in a sustainable project focused on teaching and learning mathematics at school (Azorín & Fullan, 2022 ). Thus, they could establish a “genuine collaborative work” according to the expression used by Esteley et al. (Chap. 3 , this volume). Our point is to reinforce the etymological meaning of the verb ‘to collaborate’, which means to work together ( collaborare from Latin) around a common objective, defined or negotiated jointly by all the participants.

Voluntariness is another relevant condition for participation in a collaborative group (Esteley et al., this volume). Although participation can be initiated on a mandatory basis, a PD initiative may become effectively collaborative if the participants have opportunities to jointly define their goals and actions. Several articles presented at the ICMI Study 25 Conference show that this scenario is feasible within a school (Collura & Di Paola, 2020 ) or an educational system (Canavarro & Serrazina, 2020 ; Soto et al., 2020 ). However, those authors stressed that such success depends on the way in which the leaders build, in collaboration with the participants, the group design and dynamics.

Hollingsworth et al. (Chap. 10 , this volume) shed light on this process. They report on a teacher who participated in a collaborative group that was part of the network of Research Institutes in Mathematics Teaching (IREM—France). IREM usually promotes collaboration between the university and the school, improving mathematics teaching and teachers’ PD. Thus, the collaborative IREM group sought to address a problem that had emerged during the annual conference of this network. Teachers lacked didactical resources to teach logic effectively in secondary education, as recommended by the new curriculum.

The group members were two university teachers, three high-school mathematics teachers, and a French language teacher. During the first meeting, they collectively defined the group goals and work schedule. Thus, they agreed the group would produce classroom tasks to develop the students’ logical reasoning. The tasks were tested in their classrooms before being analysed and disseminated to other teachers. The two university teachers initially assumed a traditional role, providing mainly theoretical content and perspectives. Over time, they also assumed a more collaborative role, analysing and discussing the teachers’ proposals. One of them actually ended up leading the group.

To sum up, the analysis of the papers presented at the ICMI Study 25 conference reveals diverse meanings for collaboration, and different and rich ways of promoting it among mathematics teachers. Such analysis also brings to the forefront two relevant features of our conceptualisation of this notion: collaboration requires time and demands shared negotiation of goals and actions. We identified such features by drawing on the literature focused on collaboration as well as on our years of experience collaborating with teachers.

Considering such diversity of meanings for collaboration, we suggest some future directions for research. How do diverse ways of promoting collaboration contribute to transforming teaching practice? What are their contributions to teachers’ learning? How do mathematicians, mathematics educators and teachers negotiate mathematical meanings and reconstruct their professional knowledge? How does that knowledge differ from the school and/or academic tradition?

3 What Do We Investigate, How Do We Investigate and Who Investigates Collaboration?

The works presented at the ICMI Study 25 Conference indicate the presence of two privileged research perspectives. The first concerns the study of collaboration, its resources and its theoretical–methodological bases . This perspective was the focus of three themes covered in this event, highlighting the following descriptive aspects: the theoretical, epistemological, and methodological bases to promote and investigate the collaboration of mathematics teachers (Chap. 2 , Theme A, this volume); the design and dynamics of collaboration, with an emphasis on its goals, its environments and the different collaborative actors and their roles, interactions, and identities (Chap. 4 , Theme C, this volume); the tools and resources mobilised and produced to support and organise the collaboration (Chap. 5 , Theme D, this volume). The second research perspective focused on the effects of collaboration . Such perspective had a dual emphasis: (1) on participants’ PD and learning as well as on the growth of the collaborative community; (2) on the improvement of curriculum and teaching linked to the collaborative process (Chap. 3 , Theme B, this volume).

The discussion of the theoretical bases of collaboration is relevant, since it is an emerging field of study. Furthermore, the discussion of this issue during the ICMI Study 25 addressed a limitation noted by Jaworski et al. ( 2017 ): only one-third of the papers analysed by Robutti et al. ( 2016 ) explicitly stated their theoretical bases. Although the theoretical aspects in collaboration were the main focus of Theme A, they were also discussed by all themes and were present in all parallel plenary sessions.

Regarding the studies focused on the resources and tools produced in/for collaboration, the authors who contributed to Theme A argued that theory can be seen as an important tool for designing and developing relevant and sustainable collaborative projects. Concretely, such theories may be useful for analysing the contributions of collaborative groups to teachers’ learning, curriculum development, or teaching improvement. This point was also made by authors who contributed to Theme D, albeit placing greater emphasis on the resources of collaboration. Brodie and Jackson (Chap. 9 , this volume), for instance, considered knowledge and representations of professional practices as resources. Differently, Robutti et al. (Chap. 5 , Theme D, this volume) highlighted the dialectical nature of resources. Thus, they argue that, on the one hand, resources are essential for challenging teachers’ thinking and practices, producing the desired results of collaboration. On the other, such results become resources that can lead to new cycles of collaborative learning.

We value the emphasis given to resources in/for collaboration during the ICMI 25 Study Conference. However, we would like to call attention to one resource that, in our view, has great generative power and was not discussed in this volume: the narratives written by participants of collaborative groups. According to our experiences in the GdS (Fiorentini & Carvalho, 2015 ; Fiorentini et al., 2018 ; Losano et al., 2021 ), narratives written by teachers are relevant resources to represent their histories of participation and learning processes. Therefore, narratives increase collaborative work and provide rich material for analysing teachers’ learning. In addition, teachers’ narratives are loaded with affections, meanings and perceptions of the support (or lack of) provided by their schools to introduce innovations in teaching practices. Hence, they also reveal forms of teacher resistance and the strategies they develop to mobilise their agency, implementing in their classrooms aspects of what they learn in the collaborative group.

Narratives written by teachers who participate in collaborative groups are “means and products” (Robutti et al., Chap. 5 , this volume, p. 3) of collaboration. From their authors’ point of view, these narratives are not only the means (semiotic mediation), but also a way in which they develop their collaborative professionalism and identity in dialogue with other professionals and members of the group. Thus, by becoming the authors of published narratives disseminated to a wide audience, they also become agents of change in the school culture and productive members of a broader educational community (Hargreaves, 2019 ; Fiorentini, 2013 ). From the point of view of teachers’ educators, once published, narratives become relevant resources to support pre-service and in-service PD initiatives (Fiorentini & Carvalho, 2015 ).

In collaboration, all voices have value and need to be heard, as each member has a surplus of vision and knowledge (Bakhtin, 2003 ) about the practices of teaching and learning mathematics at school. In this sense, the organisers’ decision to give teachers a platform to share their experiences while participating in collaborative projects was quite pertinent to the purposes of ICMI Study 25 (Hollingsworth et al., Chap. 10 , this volume). We suggest that encouraging participating teachers to write narratives about their learning in this context is another way to give them voice and authorship and to value their perspectives.

The discussions presented in this volume, as well as our experiences of collaboration, reveal that the design and the resources have strong impacts on the effects of collaboration , which lead us to the second research perspective on collaboration mentioned previously. Such effects may be analysed in terms of teachers’ learning, community development and/or institutional improvement. These benefits highlight the multifaceted and complex nature of collaboration, given its different purposes and modes of organisation, as shown in Borko and Potari ( 2020 ).

The attempt to understand and theorise the learning and the development of teacher’ knowledge for-in-of-practice (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999 ) from participation in collaborative groups makes us return to the heading of this section. Considering who investigates collaboration, when we examined the papers presented at the ICMI Study 25 Conference, we verified that its authors are mainly mathematics educators, especially teacher educators or graduate students who participated in collaborative groups. Many of them also assumed the role of facilitators.

The focuses of such investigations include the two perspectives described above—that is, the study of collaboration and its effects. There is a clear trend toward developing studies about teachers. Such trend explores teachers’ learning, PD, professional knowledge or their roles in collaboration. These results indicate that there are still few collaborative investigations, that is research carried out collaboratively by university academics with schoolteachers. Of the eighty papers reported in ICMI Study 25, only two are of this nature.

In this sense, we stress that collaboration is also a good opportunity for both parties to investigate together. University academics and schoolteachers engaged in collaborative groups can negotiate the focus of the research and develop joint interpretations about the participants’ knowledge, actions and discourses, revealing knowledge situated in the collaborative practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991 ). Faced with the challenges of the current school context and the unfavourable conditions for schoolteachers to carry out research, they are left with the possibility of participating in collaborative inquiry groups, as underlined by some studies presented in ICMI Study 25 (Castro Superfine & Pitvorec, 2020 ; Uzuriaga et al., 2020 ).

Many of the Brazilian studies that assumed this perspective adopted the Relational Narrative Investigation (RNI) as a research methodology (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000 ). Cristovão and Fiorentini ( 2021 ) consider the RNI suitable for academics to develop investigations with schoolteachers, focusing mainly on teachers’ professional learning and the PD. In this investigative process, “teachers are also encouraged to investigate their practices, narratively, with the collaboration of teacher educators, especially when both are committed to discuss and understand what and how they learn in this context” (p. 35).

Thus, schoolteachers generally explore their professional work. They may, for instance, analyse their students’ or their own learning during a cycle of planning–implementation–reflection–evaluation of lessons. By sharing these investigations and findings in the collaborative group, teachers may problematize their practice, developing an inquiring and critical attitude towards their work and public policies in the educational field (Jaworski, 2008 ; Fiorentini, 2013 ).

Collaboration between schoolteachers and university academics is a powerful context for PD and for producing knowledge about school practice from a non-colonising perspective. In addition, we suggest that it is also a rich field of research for both, namely academics at the university and schoolteachers. Thus, we argue in favour of carrying out collaborative research with teachers, instead of conducting exclusively research about them. In recent years, this research perspective has flourished in Brazil and Latin America, fuelled by the expansion of the Lesson Study process. To map these investigative experiences and analyse their findings and contributions seems to be a relevant topic for research and discussion in an upcoming ICMI Study.

4 The Complex Relations Between Collaborative Groups and Classroom Practice

The chapters included in this volume show the wide variety of ways in which mathematics teachers can work and learn in collaborative groups. Chapter 3 (Theme B, this volume) reveals that each one of these ways of collaborating establishes different relations with regular classroom practice. For example, the initiative studied by Kooloos et al. ( 2020 ) connects the collaborative setting with teaching practice through the analysis of classroom videos to develop teachers’ noticing of students’ thinking. Soto et al. ( 2020 ) employed problems as a linking resource: teachers engaged in a community of practice were invited to solve problems, implement them in their classrooms and discuss such experiences in the community. Also, there are social contexts that developed powerful forms of school-based collaborative professional development. This is the case of Lesson Study in Japan or China, where the cycles of planning, implementing and analysis are job-embedded tasks with a long tradition. On the other extreme, the work of Heck et al. ( 2020 ) analysed a PD program based on the mathematics immersion of secondary teachers. The authors admit having trouble attending some of the program’s goals since, “discussions about the connections between what they experienced in mathematical immersion and teaching were infrequent or lacked depth” (Esteley et al., Chap. 3 , this volume, p. 33).

These examples highlight that PD in collaborative groups and regular teaching practice are different social, cultural and historical situations. Even in the cases in which the PD is strongly connected to classroom practice, the participants, the activities, the positionings, the times and the spaces specifics of collaboratives groups are not the same as the ones of regular classroom practice. Such understanding is evident in Brodie and Jackson’s words, in this volume, when they state that, “although collaborating with colleagues about teaching has become more common in recent years, by and large, classroom instruction remains a private endeavour” (Chap. 9 , this volume, p. 13). In our view, further work analysing the complex relationships among collaborative groups and regular classroom practice would be highly beneficial to the field. To pursue such a research interest encompasses theoretical and methodological challenges.

Considering theory as a way of understanding—i.e. theory as a means “to understand the educational phenomena related to teacher collaboration, by providing conceptual and/or methodological tools to analyse and understand phenomena from different perspectives”, in da Ponte et al.’s words (Chap. 2 , this volume, p. 15)—the challenge concerns how to conceptualise the relations between PD in collaborative groups and regular classroom practice. One possibility is to frame the problem in terms of ‘impacts’: we need to study how participation in collaborative groups impacts teachers’ classroom practice. This is a perspective frequently adopted and mentioned several times in this volume. Although we agree with the point being made, we would like to problematize the cause–effect metaphor underneath the notion of ‘impact’. Theoretically, this perspective assumes that teachers learn within the collaborative group and then apply such learning in their classroom.

Such an assumption is strongly questioned by socio-cultural perspectives—extensively employed in our research field—that stress the mutual relations among people, activity, and the social world. According to Lave and Wenger ( 1991 ), what teachers learn while participating in collaborative groups is situated in the practices and social arrangements developed by the group. Therefore, we cannot assume such knowledge will be directly transferred into the classroom setting without consideration of the different activities, goals, circumstances, and social positions (Lave, 1996 ).

The perspective of Kazemi and Hubbard ( 2008 ), squarely brought in Brodie and Jackson’s chapter, brings another important point in this regard: the relations between PD and classroom settings are not unidirectional, but multidirectional. Teachers’ participation in PD and classroom practice co-evolves, since they are engaged in knowing in both contexts and bring their knowledge across contexts.

The two premises presented previously—the one that states that there is no direct learning transference between different contexts, and the one that assumes that the relations between collaborative groups and regular teaching practice are multidirectional—bring to the forefront the challenges involved in theorising about the complex relationships between PD in collaborative groups and classroom practice.

In terms of methodology, we identify two main issues. The first one is related to the temporal dimension. It is possible to adopt a short-term perspective, considering only the period in which the teacher participates in the group. Otherwise, it is possible to employ a long-term perspective, addressing the question of the sustainability of outcomes, that is, to analyse if changes made in the context of collaboration sustained long-term changes in the classroom setting (Esteley et al., Chap. 3 , this volume). The second issue concerns the analytical procedures mobilised. In our view, it is necessary to develop methodological strategies to establish relations between data coming from the PD setting and data coming from the classroom and school settings. This would require a careful and creative endeavour. Further exploration of this issue might usefully inform directions for advancing research in this area.

Considering the theoretical and methodological challenges involved in researching the relations between collaborative groups and regular teaching practice, we believe that the chapters of this volume, as well as the papers presented at the ICMI Study 25, point to two promising directions to further our understanding of the topic. The first one is the study of the resources and how they are transformed while travelling between the collaborative group and the classroom setting. Considering Brodie and Jackson’s framework in this volume, we refer specifically to the representational resources created for and from collaboration. Frequently, participation in collaborative groups involves creating and/or adapting tasks, lesson plans, curricular material, websites, etc., as well as analysing students’ errors, assessment items or classroom videos. As stated in Chap. 9 (Brodie & Jackson) and Chap. 3 (Esterley et al., Theme B), resources are important products of collaboration and, in our view, can support important links between classroom practice and collaborative groups.

We believe that the situated perspective proposed by Brodie and Jackson, in this volume, is a fruitful approach to the problem of analysing how resources are transformed as they travel back and forth between the collaborative group and the classroom. Such a perspective assumes that, “the use of tools and artifacts to mediate learning relies on people assigning meaning to them […] and these meanings are shaped by the broader contexts in which tools and artifacts are used” (Brodie & Jackson, Chap. 9 , p. 4). This assumption is evident in our experiences in the GdS when a task or a lesson plan, carefully planned during several meetings, is subtlety—or sometimes substantially—transformed when implemented by the teacher in her classroom.

For instance, while interacting with her students, the teacher modifies the duration of the task or emphasises one aspect of the task over others. How and why do these transformations take place? What can we, and the teachers, learn from them? In addition, when we consider a long-term perspective, the evolving nature of resources comes to the forefront. Prior resources developed inside collaborative groups are often retrieved and adapted by teachers to be employed in their teaching at present. How are these resources shaped by the users over time? When, why and how are they recovered and adapted? Such questions highlight the complexity of the transformation operated over the resources when they travel from the collaborative group to the classroom, and vice versa . We believe that research focused on such issues deserves our attention and study.

The second promising direction for studying the relations between collaborative groups and regular teaching practice is to focus on the teachers. They regularly cross the boundaries between the collaborative group and the school context, introducing elements of practice and ways of knowing and of being from one context into the other. In this process, they become boundary brokers (Wenger, 1998 ). To co-ordinate their affiliation to both communities is a delicate endeavour, since it often requires reconciling, implicitly or explicitly, competing expectations. How do teachers manage to develop a sense of themselves among such conflicting practices and discourses? What conflicts do they experience in this process? How do teachers solve them? What do they learn in the process?

Another possibility is to adopt the notions of professional identity and agency. While participating in the GdS, teachers come to know other ways of understanding mathematics teaching and learning. In addition, they engage in reflexive processes that often problematise the implicit rules and identities fostered by the school world. Teachers also implement classroom activities inspired by these new perspectives and, later, they share and analyse such experiences in the group. Thus, participation in the GdS enables teachers to take a stance in front of the demands and expectations of the school world, gradually expanding their room for manoeuvre to make decisions and choices concerning their work (Vähäsantanen, 2015 ).

The collaborative group allows its members to experience new ways of being teachers, engaging themselves in an evolving process of identity development. Over time, teachers also expand their agency. They become actively involved in conceiving and directing their teaching practice according to their purposes, principles, and interests, as well as to the requirements and possibilities set by the school context (Losano & Fiorentini, 2021 ). How do teachers develop new positions and roles in the school and the collaborative group? How do they recover practices and discourses coming from one context to develop senses of themselves as mathematics teachers in the other? In our field, research on teachers’ identity and agency has flourished over the last decades. We suggest that further exploration of the process of identity and agency development of teachers who participate in collaborative groups could provide opportunities to develop our understanding of teachers’ professional growth across contexts.

5 Possibilities for Scaling-Up Collaborative Professional Development

In our view, collaboration is a way of transforming the colonising relationship commonly established between the university and the school. In this way, collaborative groups, such as the GdS, are an opportunity for university teachers and schoolteachers to engage in joint learning processes and imagine together ways of facing the current challenges involved in teaching and learning mathematics.

The great potential of these groups is underlined throughout this volume. Thus, the question posed by Hollingsworth et al. (Chap. 10 , this volume), is particularly relevant: “How might effective collaborative group activities and outcomes ‘reach’ more mathematics teachers?” (p. 23). To respond to such a question is a complex endeavour, because, in our perspective, collaboration cannot be imposed in small-scale projects and much less in large-scale initiatives.

A partial answer to this issue can be found in our experience with collaborative groups in Brazil. The sustained work of some of those groups allowed many schoolteachers and university teachers to have relevant experiences of participation. Many of these members moved to other regions of Brazil due to personal or career opportunities—a common thing in a country with continental dimensions such as ours—and decided to promote and cultivate collaborative groups in the new institutions in which they began working. In addition, collaborative groups also developed practices oriented at disseminating their work. Thus, they created and organised diverse events—congresses, seminars, etc.—and journals devoted to presenting and discussing teachers’ reflexive work developed from their participation in collaborative groups.

In addition, books containing narratives written by teachers who participate in collaborative groups began to be published. In such narratives, teachers problematised and analysed classroom situations, producing knowledge- of -practice (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999 ). These dissemination processes inspired many school and university teachers to constitute collaborative groups over the country. In a snowball effect, collaborative groups expanded and gained legitimacy inside the mathematics education community in Brazil (Carvalho, 2014 ).

The expansion of collaborative groups in different regions of the country happened informally and spontaneously. In this scenario, the participation of schoolteachers, pre-service teachers, mathematics educators and researchers in such groups is still little or not recognised by public policies (Gonçalves et al., 2014 ). The members of many collaborative groups devote their own time to participating in the group. In this way, they prioritise their PD over other responsibilities. Moreover, several of the members that abandon the GdS make that decision based on their difficulties to balance group participation with work or familiar commitments—to take care of their children or attend to the demands of a new job.

As stated by Brodie and Jackson in this volume, the issue of the resources made available for collaboration by public policies, “draws attention to the deeply cultural, political and historical contexts in which teachers’ collaboration occurs across different contexts, and the many inequalities that still pervade our school systems” (Chap. 9 , this volume, p. 8). To expand opportunities for collaborative PD public policies that explicitly support collaboration are needed. Such policies should provide time and spaces for professional collaboration, as well as value and acknowledge teacher collaborative work.

Some of the papers presented at ICMI 25 suggest a promising possibility of scaling up collaborative PD: the development of blended professional networks that gather schoolteachers, pre-service teachers, mathematics educators and researchers. Two examples of these networks are described in this volume. The first one is mentioned in Chap. 3 (Theme B, this volume) and refers to the research conducted by Heck et al. ( 2020 ). In this project, groups of teachers from different cities in the United States were engaged in PD involving both synchronous and asynchronous activities. In such a network, teachers were immersed in mathematical activities connected to their teaching practice. The second example is described in Chap. 10 (Hollingsworth et al.) and concerns Shelly, a teacher who participated in an online professional learning network directed at promoting “quality mathematics instruction, mentorships for new teachers, and curriculum development” (p. 3) via social media.

Both examples highlight the potentialities of online or blended collaboration. They enable access to “many participants from different geographically distant regions and from a variety of contexts […] bringing together a myriad of perspectives” (Esteley et al., Chap. 3 , this volume, p. 48). In this way, such networks have the potential of connecting teachers in distant or isolated contexts. They also make possible to gather professionals who work with different student populations, enriching the personal learning experience. In addition, social media enable teachers to receive real-time feedback for lesson development, as Hollingsworth et al. stated in this volume. Social media open up new possibilities of collaboration, reaching, in seconds, a vast public and allowing extended discussions in which people from all around the world can contribute. Finally, online communities are often flexible, embracing new educational tends more rapidly than mainstream educational circles.

Inspired by such experiences, as well as by our last research projects, we suggest that blended collaborative networks would be a powerful way for scaling up collaboration. Considering the demands and interests coming from classroom teaching practice, the members of such networks would organise themselves in small groups. Such small groups would congregate teachers, pre-service teachers, facilitators and researchers interested in discussing one topic related to teaching practice considered particularly problematic. Each group would negotiate its goal and the activities it would develop—for example, to plan and implement classroom tasks oriented at teaching a specific mathematical topic or analysing textbooks or classroom material. The small groups would gather periodically face-to-face or online. The network would act as a support space. Thus, all their members would meet more sporadically to share and discuss the work of the small groups.

In addition, the members of the network would be able to help and support each other through interactions via digital technologies. Once the small groups achieve their goals and complete their activities, the members of the network would reorganise themselves, forming new small teams. This kind of collaborative network would be organised according to a bottom-up model, since it would have the autonomy for establishing its agenda through the negotiation of aims and topics explored by the small groups.

Several works discussed in this volume showed that the Covid-19 pandemic challenged many aspects of teaching and teacher education. In the present context, it is unlikely that teacher education would return to its previous traditions. Thus, developing effective online or blended opportunities in which teachers could work and learn through collaboration, such as the ones we are suggesting, is an urgent endeavour.

Despite their potential, we cannot be naïve about the constitution of this kind of network. Thus, we anticipate some challenges to be faced. As Esteley et al. stated in Chap. 3 , “collaboration is essentially about relationships, about finding a common ground to have support for the possible changes” (p. 4). Gathering together people who work in different places, with diverse publics and resources could produce rich exchanges. But it also demands establishing shared understandings among the members. In addition, collaboration frequently requires adopting an open attitude and sharing uncertainties, problems or ambiguous situations of teaching practice. Therefore, each member should feel safe and embraced, trusting that the interactions inside the network would be oriented toward seeking alternatives in a non-judgmental way.

The division of responsibilities and roles inside each small group and in the network also requires fine-tuned negotiation processes. Also, it is necessary to set up carefully the processes through which each group delineates its topic and the resources—technological or not—that are best suited for each one of them. If collaboration is not established instantaneously in groups interacting face-to-face, this would neither happen in blended networks.

Considering that many agents would participate in the network, careful scheduling for interactions among the members can also be challenging. Brodie and Jackson (Chap. 9 , this volume) point out another challenge located in a different dimension—nowadays, there are still “inequalities between rich and poor in relation to access to the internet” (p. 22). We had already co-ordinated online teacher education initiatives, in which teachers should take a one-hour boat trip on a Saturday to reach their school, since only there do they access a stable internet connection. Thus, when establishing blended collaborative networks, we cannot assume that all the teachers in the region or the country would have the same online accessibility.

How to promote trustful relationships among members of blended networks? What practices and strategies support transparent negotiation processes inside the network? How can technological tools contribute to these processes? How to cope with the inequalities regarding access to technological devices? We suggest that the development of studies centred on these issues would provide a more accurate vision on the advantages and disadvantages of blended collaboration.

6 Final Remarks

In this chapter, we have made an effort to highlight the advances resulting from the ICMI Study 25, drawing mainly from the systematisation carried out in the chapters of this book. The contributions of this systematisation allowed us to understand better the possibilities and potentialities of collaboration for the PD of teachers who participate in collaborative projects.

We believe that this progress would help us—and the rest of the members of the mathematics education community— to design better opportunities of collaboration, as well as to gain understanding about the development of collaborative communities. On the other hand, the studies in this volume also showed that collaboration is a complex and multifaceted undertaking (Theme B), since it depends on the conditions and dispositions of the participants and on the support of the institutions of which they are part.

In this direction, we argued that the possibility of collaboration does not entirely depend on the institutions’ desire to promote it, nor on the willingness of participants who want to work together. Collaboration is a cultural practice that needs time to be developed. In our view, teachers’ communities are not born collaboratively, even if that is the initial intention of their members. Therefore, no ideal model designed to foster collaboration can be applied without adapting it to local conditions and cultures, as Isoda ( 2020 ) has shown about the international diffusion of Lesson Study. The chapters of this book also acknowledge the importance of material and theoretical resources to support the design of collaborative PD and to conduct research in this context (Themes A and D).

In this regard, we argued in favour of using teachers’ written narratives (Fiorentini, 2013 ; Fiorentini & Carvalho, 2015 ). We believe they provide rich opportunities for teachers to investigate their own practice and reveal their learning processes. We also highlighted the methodological potential of Relational Narrative Investigation as a framework that enables developing joint research with teachers. In this direction, our analysis of the papers presented at ICMI Study 25 suggests that a great challenge in our research field is to describe and characterise the knowledge-of-professional-practice produced inside collaborative groups and how it is co-produced by its members.

In addition, the chapters of this volume also delineate issues concerning the way collaborative groups relate to other settings. In particular, the study of the relations between collaboration and regular classroom practice emerges as a relevant and exciting topic for further research. We suggest that the notions of resources, professional identity and agency may be key concepts to develop nuanced and rich analysis in this direction (Themes C and D). Such theoretical constructs have the potential of moving forward simplistic perspectives based on cause–effect relations to measure the ‘impact’ of collaboration.

Finally, another challenge faced by teachers and researchers interested in fostering and investigating collaboration is how to scale up opportunities of collaborative professional development. Such challenge becomes more urgent since the work of the ICMI Study 25—starting with the literature review presented at ICME 13 (Robutti et al., 2016 ) and finishing with the synthesis of the papers presented at the conference in this volume—had shown the immense potentialities of collaborative groups. Considering the uncertainties of the global context, the possibility of cultivating blended collaborative networks seems to be highly promising.

The chapters of this volume stress that teacher collaboration, especially among teachers with different knowledge and views on practice, is multi-faceted and takes diverse forms in different parts of the world. However, in each of these forms of collaboration, what is learned and how it is learned has its own singularities and nuances that are different from other traditional learning and PD processes. This is one of our challenges as researchers in the field of collaboration: namely, to systematise and theorise these epistemological processes of co-learning and co-production of knowledge from practice. Collaboration, therefore, is a fertile and still little explored field that demands continuity of studies and socialisation, discussion and systematisation in events, as was the case of ICMI Study 25.

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• Published: 27 May 2024

Evidence of ongoing volcanic activity on Venus revealed by Magellan radar

• Davide Sulcanese   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5472-3197 1 , 2 ,
• Giuseppe Mitri   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8390-458X 1 , 2 &
• Marco Mastrogiuseppe   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9902-8115 3 , 4  

Nature Astronomy ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Geomorphology
• Volcanology

The surface of Venus has undergone substantial alterations due to volcanic activity throughout its geological history, and some volcanic features suggest that this activity persisted until as recently as 2.5 million years ago. Recent evidence of changes in the surface morphology of a volcanic vent has been interpreted as a potential indication of ongoing volcanic activity. To investigate more widespread alterations that have occurred over time in the planet’s surface morphology, we compared radar images of the same regions observed from 1990 to 1992 with the Magellan spacecraft. We found variations in the radar backscatter from different volcanic-related flow features on the western flank of Sif Mons and in western Niobe Planitia. We suggest that these changes are most reasonably explained as evidence of new lava flows related to volcanic activities that took place during the Magellan spacecraft’s mapping mission with its synthetic-aperture radar. This study provides further evidence in support of a currently geologically active Venus.

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Data availability.

The Venus Magellan SAR F-BIDRs used in this work are available from the PDS geosciences node ( https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/magellan/fbidr/index.htm ). Magellan altimetry data were extrapolated using the Altimeter and Radiometry Composite Data Record, which is also available from the PDS geosciences node ( https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/Magellan/arcdr/index.htm ). Magellan Stereo-Derived Topography used in this work is also available from the PDS geosciences node ( https://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/missions/magellan/stereo_topography.htm ). The source data images used for this paper can be found at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10875314 (ref. 47 ).

Code availability

The data have been processed using Matlab. Codes are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thank our collaborator G. Alberti for helping in processing Magellan radar products. G.M., D.S. and M.M. acknowledge support from the Italian Space Agency (Grant No. 2022-15-HH.0).

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International Research School of Planetary Sciences, Università d’Annunzio, Pescara, Italy

Davide Sulcanese & Giuseppe Mitri

Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Geologia, Università d’Annunzio, Pescara, Italy

Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Elettronica e Telecomunicazioni, Università La Sapienza, Rome, Italy

Marco Mastrogiuseppe

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Contributions

D.S. led the writing of the paper, conducted all the analyses and interpreted the geological and geomorphological results presented in this article. G.M. was responsible for the conceptualization of the project and the manuscript, provided support in manuscript writing and assisted in the geological interpretation of the data. M.M. provided support in the analysis of the data, particularly in the radar and altimeter data analysis, and the interpretation of the results pertaining to the radar part. He also contributed to manuscript writing, specifically in the sections related to the electromagnetic models and alternative hypotheses regarding the radar section.

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Correspondence to Davide Sulcanese .

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Sulcanese, D., Mitri, G. & Mastrogiuseppe, M. Evidence of ongoing volcanic activity on Venus revealed by Magellan radar. Nat Astron (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02272-1

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