Developing evaluation skills: Lesson 4

questionnaire/survey, internet search, Look in newspaper, magazine, book. To know what family/ friends think, use interview, questionnaire, survey. 1.4 Select, organise and record relevant information from a range of sources and ndings from research, using appropriate methods. Any relevant example.

Developing research skills: Lesson 4

Lesson 4 focuses on the features of a good research question and how to start constructing research questions. It follows on from work done in Lesson 1 to develop learners’ understanding of what a good research question looks like and how to write as well as identify good and bad research questions.

CAMBRIDGE STAGE 7 RESEARCH LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1.1 Construct relevant research questions

LEARNING GOALS

To develop knowledge and understanding about: • the features of a good research question • how to write a good research question • how to write sub-questions to help answer research questions

How will I know if I reach my goals? Good for: Learners to give examples of their learning from the lesson. They can complete the table at any point in the lesson, but they might do it at the end.

Resources needed

Learner's Skills Book 7; your own Language Support handout (if appropriate); Challenge topic (e.g. ‘Education for all – Learning at home instead of at school’); see Worked Example for the Main activity.

Prior learning (approx. 5 mins) Good for: Building on previous knowledge, learning and understanding. This might be from Primary Global Perspectives, from other subject areas, or from Global Perspectives lessons (especially Lesson 1). Activity: Review learning from Lesson 1: Features of a research question – a question that people care about, a question that is not too broad, too narrow or too vague, a question that allows for information to be found/ an answer. Differentiation: Allow learners to look back in their Learner's Skills Book 7. Some will not need to. Learners can work in pairs for support. Suggested answers: Any reasonable and relevant response, but responses will be from Lesson 1. Not topic specic.

Starter activity (approx. 10 mins) Good for: Judging the quality of research questions using features already discussed. Activity: Giving reasons for their judgement of the quality of the research questions. Ways of working: Individually, in pairs and whole-class discussion. Suggested answers/ideas: 1 A fairly good question. People care about this

topic; it is not too broad, too narrow or too vague, and information can be found. However, you might want learners to consider whether it is arguable (for later in the lesson). 2 Not such a good question. People do care about the issue, but it’s a little narrow as it focuses just on Neverland. There is unlikely to be very much information to answer the question. 3 A good question. People care about this issue;

it’s not too broad, narrow or vague, and there is information about it. It can also be argued.

Main activity (approx. 20–25 min) Good for: Making research questions even better. Explores further features of a good research question. Activity: Discussion about all the features of a good research question, including: • Clear: Does the sentence structure of the question make sense? Is it a question? Would someone else know what you are asking?