Developing Your Research Question
Through both individual and group work, this activity helps students learn to develop and assess the qualities of an effective research question, then using those strategies to draft a preliminary research question of their own.
Author:
Christine Alfano
Activity name:
Developing Your Research Question
Class:
PWR 1/ PWR 2
Activity brief description:
This activity leads students through the process of identifying the qualities of a strong research question through conversation, looking a models, and then moving on to create a question of their own to guide the preliminary stages of their research.
Activity goals:
- To help students understand the philosophy behind starting research from questions (rather than from hypothesis) and the principles of a strong research question
- To give them the opportunity to practice assessing and shaping research questions
- To allow them to draft a research question for their own project and receive targeted feedback on how to strengthen it
Activity details:
This activity combines whole-group conversation/framing, individual work, small group work, and whole-group share outs. See the handout for additional details.
Image by Ana Muncio (lamunix)
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