ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the students’ narrative accounts of their literature review writing experiences, aiming to understand how the students interacted with their learning contexts and how such interactions potentially promoted or prevented their use of critical thinking skills. Framed by activity theory, eight individual stories are presented to illustrate major issues in each group. Those issues are discussed in relation to students’ thesis writing and postgraduate learning within each institutional setting. Drawing on Engeström’s concept of expansive learning, it compares two kinds of learning that can happen through literature review writing: Receptive learning and expansive learning. The comparison shows that if literature review writing is to realise its educational potential of enhancing students’ critical thinking, it is necessary to increase students’ autonomy enacted in the writing process rather than merely focussing on the instrumental purpose of producing high-quality written drafts.
