It is expected that you are continuing with the issue from the Activity 1 and/or 2 – then follow to explore the topic selected in Activity 1 or 2.  Using Activity 3 as separate single activity is also possible. In this case you need to select an issue that will be the topic of the research. There are two possibilities:

a.   (discussion) Let students decide about specific topic(s) they will be working on. The theme of the topic should be focused, we recommend to choose some actual urgent societal issue like deforestation of Amazonian forest, war in Ukraine, climate change or some topic in the range of the class like historical event from some specific period etc.

-        Let the students explain why they choose this topic (personal interest, actuality etc. Do not go to details, see step II).

b.   (assignment) OR You choose the topic according the subject of class or some specific issue you would like students to work on. (see above Before you start)

-        Briefly explain the topic (do not go to details about possible controversies and different points of views) and go to the next step.

The aim of this phase is to identify important aspects of the issue. The outcomes from the Activity 2 can be very well used as a basis for orientation in the issue. 

a.   (discussion) Discuss in class with students:

Q: What is important in the concerned issue?

                                                               i.      Setting aside relevant information from irrelevant based on the purpose and goals of research.

Q: What are the relevant actors?

                                                             ii.      You can start brainstorming all the actors and then exclude the irrelevant ones from your choice.

Q: What are the opposing narratives, perspectives and opinions?

                                                           iii.      This is an important phase, be meticulous and open minded towards opinions you yourselves do not agree. Making them an input to research, understanding them, that does not mean that you agree with them.

Q: What topics should be covered (explained) to get relevant picture about the issue?

                                                           iv.      Limit to narrow topics and try to go in depth, being too general in too many topics is of no use for the research purposes.

Q: What problems to solve? How are these problems perceived by different actors?

Q: Solutions for what we want/need to find?

-        Use template 3-I Summary of important aspects

-        If needed (e.g. to safe time or the topic is broad) it could be better to give students assignment to prepare before the class as a home exercise/assignment

The aim of this phase is to formulate the “Problem” or “Solution” you want to solve by the research. We can call these as defining the main goal of the research, defining the research questions, formulating hypothesis and criteria to judge them:

Q: What is the exact issue for investigation?

Q: How can it be translated into specific set of questions?

Q: (for inductive research questions) For exploratory research ask what do you want/need to find out?

Q: (for deductive research questions) If the students can already formulate assumptions / opinions / explanations / arguments about the issue (from preresearch phase) than we can actually ask question as: Is this …. really true (did that happened, did that caused that, do they think or did that)?

For such questions make students formulate hypothesis to be tested and the criteria that will used to test the hypothesis:

Q: How can the research question be translated into hypothesis? (basically assumption/arguments to be further tested)

Q: Criteria formulation: Based on what evidence we will decide whether the hypothesis is correct?

Example hypothesis: Assumption or claim (mine or someone’s else’s) that family background is connected to views on climate change.

Example research question: Does the education of parents (attained level, field) affect views on climate change?
Possible criteria to judge the hypothesis:

Criteria1: If at least one parent has technical secondary education, their children are more skeptical to climate change

Criteria2: If both parents have university degree, then their children are more likely to be active in climate change discussion

NOTE that exploratory and deductive (testing a hypothesis) research can be well combined in one research activity.

NOTE be careful not to miss any important (crucial) aspect of the issue concerned (based on preresearch). In other words make sure to ask questions relevant for the selected issue.

Q: Did we cover all the crucial aspects of the issue and based on our main goal of the investigation? Are we going to get the relevant answers to understand the issue to formulate concussions (find explanation, discard or confirm the main arguments, find solution, etc.)

-          make sure to use the know-how about the actors involved and their perspectives and our biases learned in Activity 2

Choosing the right method is actually answering following questions:

Q: How will be the research conducted (How will we do it)?

Q: What are the best ways (according our needs and resources) to collect the data and information to (the evidence)

o   First decide whether you will do (need to do/can do) field research to get primary data or will just use secondary data based on desk research

o   Choose quantitative or qualitative approach (or combination)

o   See the methods field research described in Module 3

-          Basically most used for quantitative questions (How much? How many?) are surveys

-          Basically most used for qualitative questions (Why?) are interviews

o   See sources on the internet for desk research described in Module 1

Provide students with template A3&4-I Research design to design the research for their research goal -> research questions -> criteria to judge the research questions upon:

In this phase the main activities include:

§  For the desk research: collecting the documents, data sets etc.

§  Preparation for the field research:

o   designing the questionnaires for surveys and interviews

-          remember the research criteria

-          concrete structure (topics of the questionnaire:
what we need to know x not what all can we know)

-          formulating the questions

-          setting the scales (for surveys)

o   program the survey questionnaire if planned to be done on-line (e.g. use Google Forms)

o   getting the contact information to be able to reach the respondents

o   it might be useful to do so called piloting – using your research method on a small sample, reflecting on it and making changes if necessary (e.g. you find out that some questions are misunderstood)

o   prepare for the realization of the survey and interviews

In this phase the main activities include:

o   Realization of the desk research – looking for sources and collecting the data and information

o    Realization of the field research

-          contacting the respondents to participate in the surveys and/or interviews and collecting data

See details how to conduct the research (use the concrete methods) in Module 3.

Give students time to gather data (help them if needed).

-          make sure to use the know-how about how to find reliable data on the internet learned in Activity 1

·         see Module 1 about required quality of data (relevance, validity, reliability of the source)

-          see Module 3 about how to conduct research

see Module 1 about how to collect reliable information on the internet 

• Analyze data collected in the research phase

o   Use descriptive statistical methods for quantitative data (see examples in Module 4)

o   Make synthesis of the qualitative data and information collected

• Based on evidence (data and information) that was collected during the research we should prove or dismiss the hypothesis:

       Use four tests to test the strength of the evidence (see detail in the Module 4)

Straw in the Wind test

Hoop test

Smoking Gun test

Doubly Decisive test

• Formulate conclusions – decisions to be made.

o   discuss with students what are the findings and conclusions from the research

-          you can discuss different narratives of the issue and perspectives of different actors

-          you can discuss how different actors influence the issue (what is their role)

-          you can discuss biases involved (see Module and Activity  2 for more detail)

-          when dealing with conspiracy theories: discuss with students

o   IMPORTANT: do not forget to discuss the unknowns (what do you still do not know or you would need more time/resources to find out)

• Ask students how further research (compared to the “first impression“) changed their perspective from their first impression – what changed, what was surprising, what stayed the same

o   discuss the role of the research in gathering knowledge on chosen topic

-          discuss what data and information the used methods actually bring (desk research, interviews, surveys)

-          concerning the desk research you can discuss the quality of data (sources) students encounter (remember the criteria for quality of data form Module 1)

• We recommend to do a check (discussion) with students whether all the basic principles of making sense of information were followed (see detail in the Module 4):

  Consider all available data and information

  Consider all relevant aspects

  Coherence, causation

  Consistency in the principles

  Understand assumptions

  Acknowledge what we know and what we do not know

o   the goal is for the students to reflect the activity and to remember the key principles of making sense of information