For those of you not in formal programs, you might be less inclined to do the reading. However, you will lose out as some of your best ideas might come from seeing what others have done.
If you don't not have access to digital libraries you can still find a great deal of information on the web by using Google Scholar.
This will help you find academic articles and often let you read chapters out of books. Google will assume you are looking for academic materials. Find a small number of studies that deal with your topic and try to create an integration of what you have learned from reading these studies. Even if you just write a page synthesizing your reading that will help you move forward. Action research will help you develop your own "living theories" (see the Educational Journal of Living Theories - http://ejolts.net).
For those of you not in formal programs, you might be less inclined to do the reading. However, you will lose out as some of your best ideas might come from seeing what others have done.
If you don't not have access to digital libraries you can still find a great deal of information on the web by using Google Scholar.
Start your search with http://scholar.google.com
This will help you find academic articles and often let you read chapters out of books. Google will assume you are looking for academic materials. Find a small number of studies that deal with your topic and try to create an integration of what you have learned from reading these studies. Even if you just write a page synthesizing your reading that will help you move forward. Action research will help you develop your own "living theories" (see the Educational Journal of Living Theories - http://ejolts.net).