Inquiry from the perspective of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) can vary, but one common taxonomy is that of Hutchings (2000) who described 4 types of research questions (though the first two types are the most common). You can watch her explain these types of questions in this video (~4 minutes) and/or read the description below:
- “What works” questions look at the effectiveness of our pedagogy and what we do in the classroom.
- “What is” questions describe something: students’ learning, their prior knowledge, how you approach teaching a particular topic, a problem in the classroom, etc.
- “Vision of the possible” is a type of question that examines the outcome of an innovative change in pedagogical approach on issues of SoTL, particularly student learning or other academic behaviours/outcomes.
- “Formulating conceptual frameworks” help us to better understand teaching and learning by proposing how they work theoretically.
What makes a good research question?
Based on the thinking/reading you did last week about your topic, and considering the approach you think best to take based on the taxonomy I just described (there isn’t one “right” answer, there are many!), begin crafting the research question(s) that you will focus on. A good research question is:
- Interesting (to you!): If the question isn’t interesting to you, you will lose your motivation and will find it more difficult to complete the project. Find a topic (and team!) that you will enjoy 😊
- Realistic and Feasible: Is this something you can actually investigate? Do you/your research team have the expertise/knowledge required (or can you outsource that expertise, e.g., statistics)? Do you have adequate time to complete this project?
- Narrow (not too broad): if a question is too broad, it won’t be something you can actually answer with your research project. You should also be sure to clearly identify your variables within your question (e.g., “increase student learning” is not specific enough; “better score on Test 2” is specific enough for you to be able to answer)
- Novel and Relevant: It doesn’t necessarily need to be innovative/ground-breaking – it can be a replication someone else’s research on college students- but it does need to have something new about it and be something someone will care about (Side note: I know that care about a lot of things, so just assume it’s something people will care about!)
- Ethical: Are there any potential ethical considerations (for participants, the college, or you in your professional capacity). As a member of the Research Ethics Board (REB), I can also help you consider your project form this lens 😊
Final tips
- Make sure to operationalize/define the terms in your research question (what does “good performance” or “happiness” or “improve mental health” mean? How will you measure that?)
- You can also ask your favourite Generative AI (e.g., Copilot) to help you fine-tune your topic into a research question, or ask it how you can improve your research question once you’ve come up with something.
- What is your hypothesis? What do you think you will find/show with your project (based on what you’ve read or your gut feeling (for now)? This is another place where you could leverage GenAI’s vast knowledge to see what it would predict based on published literature (but be sure to fact-check to make sure the output doesn’t contain any hallucinations!)
- Here are a few examples of research questions for you to consider. Feel free to take these for your own future project or adapt them to your needs if they interest you (Please note that they aren’t currently specific enough (because that part needs to come from your specific course, assessment, pedagogical approach, etc.), but I’m happy to work with you on that!
- “What motivates students to come to class regularly/What internal rationalizing do students make when they miss class?”
- “Will incentivizing class attendance with points increase student attendance?”
- “Can explicitly reframing interactions with students during the first 3 weeks of class in a way that helps to develop instructor rapport (i.e., intentionally inviting) result in better student engagement/attendance in class?”
- “Will students be more honest about their (un)authorized use of Generative AI in an anonymous survey?”
- “Does adding personalized messages to students using intelligent agents increase student grades on the final test?”
That’s all for this month! Next month, we’ll look at specific methodology and the Research Ethics Board application(s)
