PLAN
Research Design
- Finding a focus
- Designing a question
Introduction
Your research design needs to be developed within the Plan Phase of the action research cycle (see also What is research section). During this phase you will generate your focus and research question, design your Creative Action and the accompanying ethics processes, data collection and analysis procedures which will enable you to answer your question. Dependent on the time you have available this will happen in different ways (see Introduction for 5 hour, 25 hour and 40 hour models).
This module concentrates on finding your focus and designing your question in relation to your Creative Action, alongside planning in when you will do your ethics, data collection and analysis. You have already spent time considering your Creative Action in Module 4. Here you will focus on:
Finding the right focus for you within the field of creative teaching and learning is an extremely important starting point for your action research. You need to select a focus that you are passionate about and personally invested in. It should relate to creativity and/or creative pedagogy in your classroom; it should also be related to a teacher or student practice that can and should be improved or developed. See also the Creativity section for further pointers here.
Designing the right question for you in your action research is important. Dependent on the time and resource you have available your question should be manageable and answerable. It should not be a question that is answered with a yes/no; action research is much more successful if it focuses on the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of practice and learning. And you definitely shouldn’t already know the answer to it!
Activity 1: the basics of designing my research
Use the RJ Research Design Activity document to start to pull together your ideas in each of the categories:
- Research Focus – draws on Creativity Module
- Research Question – draws on Activity 2 below
- Creative Action – draws on RJ Creative Action Activity
- Timing of Data Collection – decide when you will do your Data Collection (you will plan what this looks like in the Data Collection Module)
- Timing of Data Analysis – decide when you will do your data analysis (you will plan what this looks like in the Data Analysis Module)
- Timing of Reporting writing – decide when you will start and finish writing your report (you will plan what goes into this in the Reporting Module)
As you move through the different modules on this website you will expand on each of these sections via the activities available there. So, this document is a brief starter template upon which you will expand in each module that you work through. Note, the Creativity module and the Creative Action module have already asked you to contribute to the RJ Research Design Activity.
Activity 2: Developing your research question
Firstly, generate as many statements and questions as you can. You might like to use your Research Journal Diary for this activity. Respond to the following prompts in relation to the creative skills and pedagogies you have identified in your research focus:
I wonder if….
I am noticing that………
I want to find out……..
I have a problem with…..
What if I change …………
I would like to get better at…….
Next, in conversation with your Dialogue Partner or Group if you are working in one, start to refine this down into a list of possible ‘how’, ‘why’ or ‘what’ questions. It might help with breadth and focus to look at the list below of questions from PCC action research:
How does working on real-world projects lead to learners being powerful in their understanding?
How can children utilise creative skills to show empowered action in the Key Stage 1 Science curriculum?
How can children make use of creative skills (supported by dialogic and collaborative metacognitive thinking) to design their own scientific enquiry questions?
How might collaborative ‘learning friends’ empower children to take empowered action in their learning?
How do stories influence play for children in their early years?
How might immersive ‘real-world’ experiences influence empowered action in teenagers?
How do you develop children’s independence through the use of reflective and self-regulation strategies?
How do we encourage creativity through outdoor learning?
How do risk, immersion and play influence creativity in a Key Stage 3 English classroom?
Which approaches to real world learning lead to students demonstrating greater ownership and through empowered action?
How can teaching writing through embodied immersion impact innovation, imagination and playfulness?
How can we harness creative skills when thinking like a scientist?
How do creative pedagogies in the geography classroom lead to a deeper understanding of geomorphic processes?
You may have two or three possible questions at this stage – the following list may help you refine it down to one important question:
Do you have a what, why or how question? If not, how can you change it to become one?
Does your RQ refer to one or more elements of the creative skills or creative pedagogies frameworks? If not, go back to the skills and pedagogies and consider how you could more fully include them.
Are you passionate about it? Hopefully yes! But if not hone your question so that it’s genuinely something that you’d like to find out about in relation to your classroom
Does it relate to teaching and learning in your classroom? You may have a wider Dialogue group focus which is fine, but if not really try to make the questions relevant to your teaching.
Will you be able to collect ethics permissions from everyone involved or their parents if under 18? It’s vital that the answer to this question is yes, so please adapt your question to make it manageable in terms of ethics.
Is it manageable bearing in mind that you need to have results within your particular timeframe? Again, do make sure it’s manageable – now is the time to do this!
Remember not to finalise your research question too soon though – do make sure you sleep on it a little!
Enter your research question into the Research Design Template.
Further reading
McNiff, J. (2016). You and your action research project. Routledge. (Chapter 8: Getting ready: designing and planning your action research project)
FAQ
I thought I had a research design but it changed when I started thinking about data collection
You might write something down in the Research Design Template now that you change once you get to future modules, but you have to start somewhere. We often think that research is a linear process but it is always cyclical and you will find that as you develop ideas in one module, this means you need to change your plans in another module. In the early stages don’t worry if you are doing this. You may also find that you have to alter your research design if, for example you realise that a particular data collection technique isn’t going to work in the way that you intended. This is fine and part of being a responsive researcher; the key thing here is to document the changes you make and why at later stages so that you can be transparent about them in your reporting.
Can I include my students in designing the research?
It is very possible to include students from primary and secondary settings in action research. You can include students to varying degrees. They will obviously be included in your data collection, but you might also decide to include them as deeply as involving them in asking the research question. If you do this it will take much more time to make this process genuine, to give them a voice and to fully incorporate them in your plans. Equally, you may want to include them for example, just in your data analysis to help you interpret what you have found. It is worth thinking about their involvement early in the process and deciding whether you have the capacity to do this well.
