Asking the Right Questions

Learning how to ask research questions seems to be something that would be perceived as an easy task, but is often a crucial step that causes a great deal of trouble for students. Individuals coming from a more traditional rigid learning environment to that of post-secondary where a more collaborative learning approach, takes a major shift in thinking.  

How does one shift thinking in order to ask the right questions, and take ownership for their own learning? 

I believe this takes time and practice, "as students become comfortable sharing ideas, they move on to more reflective reading and writing assignments, which they discuss" (Musante, S., 2010). Instead of inquiring and testing students on specific subject matter a more progressive and collaborative approach is to have them "take the knowledge they have and develop questions about what else they might want to know, and how they might achieve that knowledge" (Musante, S., 2010). 

Quick, J., & Hall, S. (2015) give some basic objectives for research questions:

• Appreciate the importance of a clear and focused research question
• To be able to use criteria such as PICO (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome) to frame an answerable question
• Understand the need for primary and secondary questions and the process of refinement
• To understand what a hypothesis is and how it differs from the aims and objectives of a study
• Be aware of over-interpreting the findings, post-hoc assumptions and spurious association
•  Understand the answer and appreciate negative results

References:

Musante, S. (2010).  Learning how to ask research questions.  BioScience, 60(4), 266. doi:10.1525/bio.2010.60.4.4.

Quick, J., & Hall, S. (2015). Part one: An introduction to the research process. Journal of perioperative practice, 25(4), 78-82.