What makes a Research Question Answerable?

1.  It asks about the real world rather than a hypothetical

Most of the practical questions we ask involve wondering what we should do about something.  These practical questions rarely make good research questions.  A good research question is one that can be answered by looking at the existing world: to things as they currently are, rather than to things as they might be, could be or should be.  Instead of asking, say, what an institution's policies should be on an issue, ask how people are responding to the existing policy or ask what their attitudes are toward a proposed policy. These are questions that can be answered in the real world, by observing or interviewing real people in real time.

The questions on the left ask what could be done or what should be done, while the questions on the right ask how things are actually being done and how satisfactory these methods are.

2.  You have real-world definitions of all the terms

Most of the things educators are interested in are broad concepts-things like children's understanding of mathematics, college students' attitude toward science, or teachers' beliefs about student diversity.  These terms need to be defined clearly enough that (a) you will be able to tell when you see them in the real world and (b) others will know what you mean by them.  What will you count as evidence of "understanding" or of "not understanding?"  What will you count as evidence of a teacher belief?   Some people recommend what they call "operational definitions," meaning that you are defining the terms specifically for the purposes of your own study.  For instance, you can say, "for the purposes of this study, the term 'understanding' means 'being able to respond successfully to the following questions or problems: . . .'"

The questions in the left column use terms that are not very well defined and leave you open to interpreting whatever happens as positive or negative evidence. The questions in the right-hand column translate these terms  into a set of specific kinds of outcomes that the researcher might be interested in.  You may disagree with the specific I offer in the second column, and if you do, you proving why it is important to define what YOU mean by these terms rather than letting everyone think they know what you mean.

3.  It has a manageable set of possible answers

You want to avoid questions that are so open-ended that the list of possible answers never ends.  For instance, the question, "What will happen if I do "x" in my classroom?" could have any number of answers.  Some answer might have to do with how students respond, some might have to do with the changes in lighting, temperature, or cleanliness of the room, and some might have to do with what parents or other teachers will think.  You need to focus your question on a particular list of possibilities that you think are important.  Instead of asking a broad question like what will happen if, ask whether students are more likely to do a, b, or c when you do x.    Instead of asking "Why does x occur?" ask whether x seems due to reason a, b, or c, which you have reason to believe are important possible influences.  Instead of asking, "how do teachers handle discipline problems," focus on a specific type of discipline problem and a list of specific ways of handling them that you think differ in important ways.

The questions on the left all allow an infinite number of possible answers.  Those on the right clarify  what the research is actually interested in. 4.  You cannot answer it with "yes" or "no"  Though you want a manageable number of possible answers to your question, you don't want the question to be so streamlined that it can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no."   You don't want to ask, "If I do "x", do the students do "a?"  Such a question begs a host of related issues such as how often students do a, how many students do a, and whether students are also doing b, c, or d, which might ultimately be equally or more important.

The question on the left can be answered with either yes or no, but they don't allow the researcher to give important details about what has actually transpired.  Those on the right provide more opportunity for detail.

©Mary Kennedy, 2006