Developing your Inquiry Question
What makes an inquiry question “good?”
Although we do our best to create an effective and manageable inquiry question from the beginning of the research process, it is very common to make changes to an inquiry question as we begin our searching. Don't worry if you start your research and find that you need to rewrite your question--the ability to recognize this need and to make necessary changes to a question is actually the sign of a skilled researcher.
Motivating and Meaningful Questions
If you are stuck on the creation of an inquiry question, start by asking yourself what education topics you would personally find most motivating or meaningful. Consider questions like:
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- What made you want to pursue a degree in education or a career in teaching?
- What excites you about being in the classroom?
- What aspects of teaching or working with students are you most curious about?
- In what areas do you think you have room to grow as a new teacher?
- What about your experiences being in schools so far has surprised you or led to questions?
- Is there anything in the BC curriculum that you want or need to explore further?
Responses to questions like these can often serve as the basis for great inquiry questions.
Staying open
Essential to the inquiry process is also a willingness to learn something new and an awareness of our own biases. Having a predetermined or desired outcome increases our chances of ignoring differing perspectives and excluding any research that doesn’t support our own claims or beliefs. Nichols and Cormack (2017) list “using multiple perspectives on practice” as a key principle of teacher inquiry (pg. 110), and the ways in which we frame our inquiry questions is one way to demonstrate that we are open to multiple perspectives.
Sometimes the phrasing of an inquiry question can demonstrate a lack of openness or a reliance on uninformed assumptions.
In the first version of the question, the outcomes and impacts of recess are assumed, with no indication that there is any previous research being used as a basis for this belief. The second version of the question eliminates any predetermined or desired outcomes, demonstrating much more openness on the part of the researcher. This more open question also leaves room for the researcher to uncover and include additional benefits or impacts that they may not have been previously aware of.
Making it Manageable
Determining the scope of your inquiry can be difficult, but creating an inquiry question that is manageable is key to completing your research well. It is common to begin the inquiry process with a fairly broad question--likely one that is too broad to reasonably be answered within the scope of the assignment. It is only when we begin to search for information to answer the question that we find far more research than we can manage to take in over the course of the assignment. This is a normal part of the research process and it does not require you to abandon your initial question. Instead, we look for ways to narrow down the original question in order to make the inquiry more manageable.
Note that, in some cases, we have the opposite problem and we start our search only to find that the inquiry question is too narrow. In those cases, reversing the above tips and removing one element from the question may help you to create a searchable question.
For example...
And remember...
You do not have to have your question perfectly phrased or scoped before you begin your reading and research. You can always start with a too-broad or too-narrow question and then adjust it based on your searching.
Your turn!
As discussed above, an important element of creating an effective and manageable inquiry question is finding the line between a question that is too broad and too narrow. For instance, if you were to suggest "What are the needs of refugee students?" as an inquiry question, you would likely be told that the question is too broad. If you suggested "How do writing activities impact the social emotional learning of refugee students in grade five in Vancouver School District?" you would be told that the question is too narrow.
What would you recommend as a manageable and searchable inquiry question about the needs of refugee students?
Submit the inquiry question you would recommend here. Links to an external site.
References:
Lankshear, C., & Knobel, M. (2004). A handbook for teacher research: From design to implementation. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.
Nichols, S., & Cormack, P. (2017). Impactful practitioner inquiry: The ripple effect on classrooms, schools, and teacher professionalism. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.