Interviewing the author

A key task for students is to formulate questions that guide their research. However, in my experience, they struggle with this skill. Students can often articulate topics for research but find it harder to translate these into questions that guide their process. To facilitate this task, I encourage students to imagine they have an interview scheduled with the author of the book they are gathering data from. I ask them to prepare questions for a 30-minute interview. Then I encourage them to ‘interview the author’ by finding the answers in the book within a time limit. This way of framing the task has anecdotally proven successful in unlocking understanding for this part of the research process. Pretending to interview the author enables the student to think of this study skill in a different light that ‘provokes us to mental activity’ leading them to identify the ‘similar’ principles between the practice (Whitton, 2018). In this case, between preparing questions for a live interview and preparing questions for research. Imaginative role play for learning was briefly explored as part of the presentation, using Whitton’s work, Fostering imagination in higher education (2018). Participants then discussed the following questions, offering the chance for deeper collaborative analysis: Do you use imaginative role play to introduce any study skills to your students? Can you see any barriers or potential for misleading guidance using role play in this way? What opportunities could we provide for students to engage in imaginative role-play to further their understanding of particular study skills?