How to develop the action research question

1. Developing the question

2. 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

3. 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:

4. 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

5. Does management style influence
teacher enthusiasm?
I’m going to try a bottom-up approach to
change management and evaluate
teacher responses

6. 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

7. Who will your collaborators be?
- students, clients, colleagues -