Doing classroom research: a revision test

What's wrong with this:
"I want to see whether I can improve the pace of my lessons by talking less or having shorter activities so I will do both in the next three lessons and measure the pace of the lesson."
1. Two variables are in play so we will not know which one had the effect.
2. We can't measure pace in a lesson.
3. Talking less will not affect the pace.
4. Nothing.
Hypotheses should be:
1. disprovable.
2. ambitious.
3. variable.
4. based on the data we collect.
Conclusions should be:
1. disprovable.
2. based on the hypotheses.
3. tentative.
4. ones which show causality.
I want to find out what my learners think about the coursebook so I'll do:
1. a descriptive survey.
2. an analytic survey.
3. an experiment.
4. a set of tests.
I want to see if a two Dogme lessons a week reduces my learners' inhibitions concerning speaking in front of the whole class so I'll run:
1. a descriptive survey.
2. an analytic survey.
3. an experiment.
4. a test.
I want to make sure that all four reading texts I am using in this experiment are at the same level of difficulty so I'll:
1. put the texts through a word processor and get a Flesch reading ease figure.
2. count the words in each sentence to make sure they are roughly the same length.
3. analyse the word class percentages in the text.
4. make sure there are the same number of active and passive voice clauses in each text.
I tried a new technique for a listening text and my class performed much better on a comprehension test than they usually do. This shows:
1. that the new technique definitely worked.
2. that something has caused a change.
3. that trying new things always helps.
4. that it's a good technique for all listening lessons.
post hoc ergo propter hoc means:
1. after this therefore because of this.
2. after a change we have an effect.
3. all changes have effects.
4. small changes may have large effects.
Comparing learners' answers to questions such as Does this activity help you to learn better? may be unsuccessful because:
1. the question requires people to guess.
2. the question asks for insight into a personal cognitive processes.
3. learners will always say Yes.
4. learners never know what helps them learn.
What's wrong with asking:
Did this lesson help you? Please tick Yes, No, or Maybe.
1. We won't know how little or how much it helped.
2. Students will always say Yes.
3. Students will always tick Maybe.
4. The scale is wrong.
Qualitative data are sometimes useful to:
1. find out exactly what our learners think so we can make changes.
2. set the agenda for a proper descriptive or analytic survey.
3. determine whether our hypothesis was correct.
4. make judgements about the success of an experiment.
If we use a before-and-after technique in an analytical survey of a group then we are conducting:
1. a survey with a separate control group.
2. a survey which uses the group itself as a control.
3. a survey which will not tell us what changed.
4. a synchronous survey.
It is important to make a scale consistent in terms of what we want to measure being positive (scoring better than the mean) or negative (scoring below the mean) because:
1. not doing this makes the analysis very difficult.
2. we need to have clear questions for people to answer.
3. we have to give people the option to pick the middle ground.
4. we want to measure things.
We should avoid terms like difficult or interesting in Yes-No-response questions because:
1. they are gradable.
2. they are vague.
3. they are routinely misunderstood.
4. we can't measure the outcomes.
Presenting results diagrammatically is often helpful because:
1. it's prettier that way.
2. it is often easier to see patterns.
3. numbers are difficult to understand.
4. we get better results.

Doing classroom research: a revision test

Multiple-choice test