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Session 1. Framing a Researchable Question
Objective. Turn a classroom worry into a narrow, researchable question about your own class, check it with five tests, and record a baseline before you change anything.
Most teachers already carry questions: why do three pupils never answer, why does homework fall off in March? Action research turns that curiosity into a method small enough to fit inside ordinary teaching. This lesson goes deeper than the key ideas. It shows how to move from a feeling to a sentence you can test, and how to avoid the commonest mistake: a question so large that it never starts.
Key ideas
What action research is
- Action research is a small, careful study you do in your own class to improve your own teaching. You ask a question, try one change and look at evidence.
- It is not a big study that must prove something for every school. It answers: what works for my pupils, in my lessons, now?
- Course 5.10 taught you to reflect after a lesson. Here you reflect on purpose: you decide in advance what to look at and how.
From worry to question
- Start with what you really notice: 'Pupils do not finish the reading.' Then make it specific: which class, which task, how often, how many pupils?
- Turn it into a question with one change in it: 'If I do X, will more pupils do Y?' A question that blames pupils or parents ('they are lazy') cannot be studied.
- Ask 'What would I see if it got better?' If you cannot picture it, the question is still too vague.
Five tests for a good question
- MINE: the change is in my power. NARROW: one class, one skill. OBSERVABLE: I can count or collect something. DOABLE: 3 to 4 weeks, under 10 minutes a day. KIND: no pupil is worse off.
- Questions about the whole school, the weather, the family at home or the exam board fail the MINE test. Rewrite them around what you do in your lesson.
- A good question is small enough to feel almost too easy. Small questions get finished; big ones get abandoned in week two.
Baseline and success indicator
- Before you change anything, look at how things are now. This is your baseline: for example, 7 of 30 pupils answered aloud in a lesson.
- Decide what small change would make you say 'yes, this helped': for example 12 or more. Writing it down stops you from moving the goalposts later.
- Choose one change to try, and keep everything else as normal as you can. If you change five things you will not know which one worked.
The funnel from worry to question
Three rewrites, from feeling to question
A worry usually begins as a feeling: 'they are bored'. Rewrite it three times. First, describe what you actually see: 'seven of thirty pupils answer aloud'. Second, say what you will change: 'two minutes of partner talk before I take answers'. Third, say what you will count and when: 'pupils who answer aloud in the ten minutes after each question'.
After the third rewrite you have a question with a number inside it. Researchers sometimes picture this as a funnel or a cone, from a wide idea at the top to a small question at the bottom. The reading by a team working with trainers in Kazakhstan describes such a model for framing action research questions.
Questions one teacher cannot answer alone
Some questions fail not because they are unimportant but because they are not yours to change. 'Why do parents not care?' or 'Why are the school's results low?' depend on many people. Replace them with what you do: 'Does a note in the diary after each unit change how many parents sign?' 'Why' questions are good for wondering, but 'if I do X, will Y change?' is what you can test in four weeks.
Check also that the question does not label children. 'Which boys are weak?' sorts pupils into groups. 'Which pupils do not try the first question, and does a worked example help them start?' describes behaviour and offers help.
Examples from the classroom
From 'lazy' to a count
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 5 Uzbek language in Samarkand. She first writes, 'My pupils are lazy about writing.' A colleague asks what she sees. She counts and finds that in one lesson 9 of 32 pupils start the written task within a minute. Her question becomes: 'If I write the first sentence with the class on the board, will more than 9 start writing within a minute?'
Insight. Describing behaviour with a number replaces a label with something you can change and check.
The page nobody finished
Scene. Aziz in Fergana sets one textbook page to read before every geography lesson. In a two-minute written line, only 11 of 34 pupils say what the page was about. He drops 'pupils do not read' and asks: 'Will a three-question reading guide raise this number to 20?' He now has a baseline, one change and a target.
Insight. A baseline turns a complaint into a starting point.
Shrinking a huge plan
Scene. Malika in Tashkent first plans to raise motivation in all five of her literature classes, 140 pupils in all. After talking with a colleague she keeps one class of 31 in Grade 9 and one change: two minutes of silent writing before each discussion. She will count pupils who speak in the discussion.
Insight. One class, one change and one count make a question small enough to finish.
Common pitfalls
- Writing a question about 'motivation' or 'engagement' without saying what you would see in the room.
- Choosing a question about parents, the school or the exam instead of your own teaching.
- Planning to change several things at once, so that you cannot tell which one worked.
- Starting the change before taking a baseline, so there is nothing to compare with.
Rewrite Six Worries
- Open the Activity Kit: six SAMPLE worries from teachers (A to F) and the five-tests card.
- Pairs (12 min): for each worry say which test it fails, and why it cannot be studied as written. Write a short reason.
- Pairs (13 min): rewrite each worry as a researchable question with one change, one class and something you can count. Add a baseline you would collect first.
- Groups (10 min): pick your two best rewrites and read them to another pair. They apply the five tests and say 'yes' or 'make it smaller'.
- Alone (5 min): write your own worry from your own class as a question, and start your classroom action task from the Kit.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which worry was hardest to shrink? What did you have to give up to make it small?
- Which of the five tests did most worries fail?
- What will you count in your own class to know whether it got better?
Reflect
- What do you keep noticing in your lessons that you have never measured?
- Which of your worries is really about something outside your control?
- Who could be your 'critical friend' who reads your question and tells you honestly if it is too big?
Try it tomorrow
- Write a worry from this week as a sentence of what you see, with a number.
- Rewrite it as 'If I ..., will more of my ... ?' and check it against the five tests.
- Show the question to one colleague and ask them what they would count.
Further reading and links
A good question is small, yours to change, countable and kind, and it starts from a baseline.