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Refining Research Questions in Education: Characteristics and Best Practices

Explore the process of refining research questions in education, focusing on characteristics and best practices. Discover how to frame clear, significant, and ethical research questions. Enhance your skills to develop researchable and feasible inquiries.

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Refining Research Questions in Education: Characteristics and Best Practices

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  1. Week 5 (Sept.26,06) Frame & Refine Your Research Questions

  2. Agenda for Today Hot Topic Debate - Relate to our schools and teaching – (30) Process reading (30) ----------------- (10) Refine your research questions (30) Peer review – INTRO (20) About draft #1 (10)

  3. Agenda I Hot Topic Debate

  4. Hot Topic Debate • Is Full Inclusion of Disabled students desirable? Discussion Leaders: Jessica CarvelKatie DoughertyBrain RadcliffeMegan Kappauf

  5. Agenda II Process Readings

  6. Research Questions Develop & Refine What are characteristics of “good” Research Questions (Process readings)

  7. Characteristics of “good” research questions? • Brainstorming

  8. Researchable Why/Why not? • Should philosophy be included in the high school curriculum? • What is the meaning of life?

  9. Feasible? • Is humanistically oriented classroom effective?

  10. Clear? • How do teachers feel about special classes for the educationally handicapped? Defining terms

  11. Significant – worth investigating? • Weather getting the answers to a question is worth the time and energy (and often money) • Three important questions to ask about the value/significance of the study • 1 ? • 2 ? • 3 ? • Two weaknesses of student justification for a proposed study?

  12. Ethical?

  13. A Research Question: What’s Wrong? (5.2) • Do LD/ADHD students engage in meaningful discussions during literature circles? • How to fix this? • What are the core principles of framing a research question?

  14. How to Refine the Research Question? • Do LD/ADHD students engage in meaningful discussions during literature circles? • Four core principles: • Ask only real questions • Avoid yes/no questions • Eliminate jargon • Avoid value-laden words or phrases

  15. Question Refined • What happens when students identified with special needs engage in discussions during reading instruction? Researchable? Feasible Clear Significant Ethical (later) … …

  16. Characteristics of good research questions • Researchable • Feasible • Clear • Significant • Ethical (later) • … … How about your own question? Researchable, feasible, clear, significant, ethical…?

  17. 10 Qualities of a good research purpose and/or research question • It is grounded in a theoretical framework. • It is builds on, but also offers something new to, previous research. • It has the potential to suggest directions for future research. • It is a purpose or question that the researcher is sincerely interested and/or invested in. • It addresses directly or indirectly some real problem in the world.

  18. 10 Qualities of a good research purpose and/or research question (cont.) • It takes ethical issues into consideration. • It clearly states the variables or constructs to be examined. • It is not biased in terminology or position. • It has multiple possible answers. • It is simple, or at least manageable.

  19. Agenda III Frame and Refine Your Research Questions

  20. Frame/Refine your research questions • Group work

  21. Frame your Research Question • Form a group of 4/5 people • Share with the group your observation “what I’ve learned last week about teaching?” • Frame/refine your question and prepare for a 1-minute presentation/defense

  22. 1-minute presentation/defense • What is your research question and sub-questions? (Poster) • Why do you think it is a good/not-so-good research question? You sincerely interested and/or invested in? Researchable? Feasible? Clear? Significant? Real world problem Ethical? … …

  23. Agenda IV INTRODUCTION (Peer Review)

  24. Steps of in doing a research study (review) • Preparing a proposal describing the study to be done and its significance (Course Project). • Collecting and analyzing data. • Writing a report of the completed study.

  25. 3 major steps in doing a research study (Review) • Preparing a proposal describing the study to be done and its significance (EDU651) • Collecting and analyzing data (EDU652) • Writing a report of the complete study (EDU652)

  26. Components of a Research Proposal • Jigsaw

  27. Action Research example #1 • What is the structure of the research report? • Parts that make a whole • What is the background info-in what way does the author stated the problem? • What is the purpose of the study? • What are the research question and sub-questions?

  28. Format of a Research Report/Proposal Abstract • Introduction • Problem Statement • Purpose of the study • Research questions • Definition of terms • Review of the literature • Methodology • Results/Findings (Research Report) • Significance of the study (Text/body – 12-16 pages double spaced) References Bibliography Appendices

  29. Introduction Components (Draft #1) • Problem Statement/Background information • Purpose of the study • Research questions • Definition of terms An annotated bibliography of 8 entries

  30. Pear Review

  31. Q & A for Draft #1

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