Once the initial information is gathered on your research topic, refine your action research question through a revision process.
Consider the study’s purpose and insights from your literature review. Given the course’s focus on enhancing teaching practices, questions typically address a problem in your classes, incorporating an intervention strategy or action aimed at achieving a desired outcome.
For intervention studies, ensure your question includes
- the problem,
- the intervention, and
- the expected outcome.
Include the setting if it adds clarity without complicating the question.
The flashcards below provide a few examples of formulating a clear and targeted research question.
Flash Cards
Poor and Better Questions
Refining Your AR Question
Step 1: Begin by writing your initial research question.
Documentation Tool
Step 2: Use the following Research Question Checklist to see if your research question meets all four criteria* of a good research question.
* If your question does not meet all of these criteria, continue to reformulate your question until it does.
Research Question Checklist:
- A problem
- An intervention/action to be taken to address the problem
- The outcome you would like to see from the intervention
- Your question cannot be answered with a yes/no
Your action research question must contain all the above elements.
Step 3: When you’ve finalized your research question, you can put it into the Action Research proposal!
Action Research Project Examples
View the following videos of previous learners as they talk about their action research projects. Note how their projects reflect the criteria discussed in this lesson.
Video
Video
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Aviation
Source: Centennial College. YouTube, 20 Mar 2019.
