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Crafting Historical Inquiry Questions

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Crafting Historical Inquiry Questions

Evaluate, improve and plan questions for investigating Māori participation in the First World War. Strong inquiry questions are focused, open-ended and answerable using evidence from relevant sources.

Evaluate inquiry questions

Choose the best response for each question. For the question asking you to select stems, choose every suitable option.

1.Which inquiry question about Māori and the First World War is the least useful for a detailed historical investigation?

How did Māori enlistment and service affect communities in different regions between 1914 and 1918?
Did Māori take part in the First World War?
Why did some Māori support the war effort while others opposed conscription?
How did the experiences of Māori soldiers compare with those of Pākehā soldiers?

2.Which feature is most likely to make a historical inquiry question effective?

It asks for a single date and no explanation.
It is open-ended, focused on a defined context and can be investigated with evidence.
It assumes all people in a group held the same view.
It can be answered using only one modern website.

3.Select all the question stems that can help frame an analytical historical inquiry.

To what extent did…?
Did…?
How and why did…?
What were the effects of…?
List the names of…

4.A student asks, “How did Māori contribute to the war?” Which revision would give the investigation a clearer focus?

Specify a time period and a type of contribution, such as military service or political debate.
Remove the word “Māori” so the question covers everyone.
Change the question to ask whether Māori contributed.
Limit the question to one unnamed person's entire life.

Match questions to their strengths

Match each draft inquiry question with the feature it demonstrates most clearly.

Improve and plan

Use the examples and your knowledge of historical evidence to complete each response.

5.Rewrite this yes-or-no question as a focused inquiry: “Did Māori oppose conscription during the First World War?”

6.Improve this broad question by adding a specific focus and time frame: “What impact did the war have on Māori?”

7.Write a focused inquiry question about Māori participation in the First World War. Include a clear aspect to investigate and a time period or setting.

8.For the sample inquiry “How did debates over conscription affect Māori communities in New Zealand from 1916 to 1918?”, name three kinds of primary source that could help answer it. Briefly state what each source might reveal.

9.Imagine a written source describing Māori soldiers in uniform during the First World War. Give one question you could investigate using this description alongside other evidence, and explain one limitation of relying on the description by itself.

10.The Māori Battalion was a Second World War unit, not a First World War unit. Evaluate this draft about the First World War: “What happened to Māori members of the Pioneer Battalion?” Identify one feature that makes it difficult to investigate as written, then revise it into a more focused historical inquiry question.