If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there. –Lewis Carrol Research questions in educational research Span 601c/SLaT

Science What are the basic steps of the scientific method? ID problem Clarify Determine kind of info. Organizing info. Interpreting results In your notes, answer the following question, then ask a partner: Does the scientific method utilize each of the other 4 ways of knowing?

Science What are the basic steps of the scientific method? ID problem Clarify Determine kind of info. Organizing info. Interpreting results In your notes, answer the following question, then ask a partner: Does the scientific method utilize each of the other 4 ways of knowing?

Research Questions Why are research questions important? Are they difficult to write? Why/Why not?

-- Research questions -- Some Bad Some Good Is it feasible? Is it clear? Is it significant/meaningful? Is it ethical? Do they involve relationships? (helpful but not necessary) With a partner comment on which of these questions are “good” and “bad”? Is study abroad effective? Is it best for students to study in groups or individually? How does negative feedback as opposed to positive feedback effect the accuracy of children’s speech?speech? Does motivation improve grammatical accuracy in learners’ L2? Is there a relationship between pronunciation learning and cultural sensitivity?

Will it work? How do teachers feel about special classes for the educationally handicapped? What’s the problem? Take 1 minute and rewrite the question in an effort to improve it. Try another one. Does participation in immersion programs affect college enrollment? Is it feasible? Is it clear? Is it significant/meaningful? Is it ethical? Do they involve relationships? (helpful but not necessary) With a partner comment on which of these questions are “good” and “bad”?

Improve clarity by defining terms People are complicated So researching people is complicated... Some things are hard to describe in concrete visible terms… Especially important things... Define happiness, love, pain, knowledge… What do we do? Dictionary approach i.e. use more words What is learning?

Operationalize What’s that mean? Define something in terms of how it will be measured. Here’s one example...one example... Let’s try to operationalize speaking skills. Motivation - which of these are good operationalizations.

Let’s Write Research questions stem from problems/concerns/curiosities/intr igues Here’s one of mine: Dr. Martinsen and the story of the dissertation Which of the following factors, interaction with native speakers, cultural sensitivity, or relationship with host family, predict improvements in speaking skills during short-term study abroad? Take 1-2 minutes and write down as many interesting issues or problems that you have encountered in the language classroom or in your reading. What are the characteristics of good research questions? Is it feasible? Is it clear? Is it significant/meaningful? Is it ethical? Do they involve relationships? (helpful but not necessary) Take 1-2 minutes. See if you can write some research questions based on the issues you wrote before. Just free flow… Don’t think. Share with a partner

Hands on... With a partner look at articles... Review the research q’s And decide if they are good, bad, so-so – 1 minute.