Developing the question

Your Question

• Needs to be specific to one particular subject• Needs to be measurable• Needs to be achievable in the timescale

• Does not have to be something large or clever. Maybe it only focuses on a simple change you can make to your teaching or resources

Action Research Questions normally consider the researcher to be inside the research and are more personal

Social Science question view the research from the outside

The following examples demonstrate how to a Social Science question can be viewed so that it becomes an Action Research:

Question:

What is the relationship between teacher motivation and teacher retention?

Action:

I’m going to change the way I timetable staff and evaluate staff responses

Does management style influence teacher enthusiasm?

I’m going to try a bottom-up approach to change management and evaluate teacher responses

Will a different seating arrangement increase student participation?

I’m going to introduce several different strategies in seating arrangements and evaluate student participation in each of them

Who will your collaborators be?

- students, clients, colleagues -