Small-Scale Research: Guidelines and Suggestions for Development

In the "Young Scientist of the Year" contest.school pupils with their teachers' guidance undertake mini-research projects in physical or biological science or technology.The projects are often ingenious and sometimes make a genuine contribution to knowledge.If teachers were invited to take part in an educational research contest to see who could produce the best contribution to education research, what would the response be?One obstacle which would deter many is the initial step of designing a mini-project which is worth doing and yet within the scope of an individual or two or three partners working mostly spare time.Of course.this is a problem for the "young scientist" also, as it is for students in advanced education courses (and for some of their tutors): the choice of topic and design of inquiry are often the most difficult but most important steps in the whole research process.Perhaps some of the suggestions about small-scale research which we give to our postgraduate students, may be of interest to teachers who have ideas of their own which they would like to shape up into a research project.For it is not necessary to have a large research team or a research