A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

Task 4.8 @
Look at the following questions and decide whether they are ‘SMART’ or not. If not, which of the SMART criteria do they fail 
to meet? You can check your answers in the answer key.
1 
Our definition of SMART is modified from the original.
Exploratory question
SMART?
Criterion
1. What affects my students’ learning English?
No
Not realistic or measurable
2. When do my students use English to communicate with
each other?
3. Why don’t my students learn?
4. How many times do my students use their dictionaries
when doing their homework?
5. How can films promote my students’ motivation?
6. How often in my lesson do my students work in pairs? 

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What shall I explore – and what are my questions? | 
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Task 4.9 
Have a go, with a partner, in a group, or on your own, at ‘SMARTing’ the exploratory research questions you wrote down
at the end of section 4.5 (in Task 4.7) above. How can you make them more Study-focused, Measurable, Accurate, Realistic, 
Topic-focused? Write down your revised questions here:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Task 4.11 
Leave your own questions in 4.9 above to ‘rest’ for 24 hours. Then, look at the questions and ‘SMART’ them again. Also, this 
time, ask a critical friend or a mentor to look at them and SMART them as well. Write down your revised questions here:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Summary and follow-up
This chapter took you, step by step, through a process from having various concerns in your mind to deciding on one of 
them to focus on (via MUSE); to devising research questions which explore your own perceptions, others’ perceptions and/
or behaviour; and then to making your questions as ‘SMART’ as they can be. Deciding on research questions is one of the 
most difficult, and yet most important parts of the (teacher-)research process. Questions are never ‘perfect’, though, and 
it’s probably time to move on. We will move forward, in the next chapter, to deciding on what kinds of information, or ‘data’, 
will help you answer the research questions you have come up with.