This toolkit has been created for you to use flexibly within your team. You can use this toolkit to explore and communicate different definitions and etymologies of words that you might each bring to the project as well as assumptions about their meanings across disciplines. 

Your Research Lexicon is a tool to use to find shared understandings and definitions within your team. 

 Download and print the Research Lexicon toolkit cards and prompts here: Brigstow Institute Research Lexicon toolkit (PDF, 3,073kB)

Step 1: A warm up

(We suggest 5 - 10 minutes)

Place the blue cornered cards in a pile blank side facing up on the table. 

Turn over a card and each person answers the following two questions, over two rapid rounds in turn:

• What does this word mean to you?
• Why does this word mean that to you?

When you have finished turn over another card and continue until time is up.

Step 2: Talking about research

(We suggest 40 - 60 minutes) 

This time use the cards with the yellow corners. Turn over all cards and lay them on the table face up. One person chooses one term that is important to them to begin with and each person answers the following three questions in turn:

• What does this word mean to me?
• Why does this word mean that to me?
• What does my definition suggest about the assumptions of my discipline / practice?

Work through as many cards as you wish - we find that most teams tend to spend 15 - 20 minutes on a term that generates more discussion.

Step 3: Individual reflection

(We suggest 15 minutes)

You might find it helpful to take a moment to reflect on the activity working through the research terms. What did you find surprising? Had you realised your assumptions before this discussion? What do you need to be mindful of when working together? Where fif you find the most similarity and difference in the definitions and assumptions?

Step 4: The meeting point

(We suggest 20-30 minutes)

As a team, identify the terms that will be particularly relevant and important for your research project. 

Work briefly through each to provide a working definition for each that you'll adopt for the purposes of your research. 

Try not to aim for a general 'lowest common denominator' definition but one that draws on the richness of your earlier discussion and disciplines/ practices.

Which words will you need to revist throughout the project? 

Additional activities

You might find it useful to try to lay out the key cards relating to the research you are going to undertake in some kind of order - so what will you do first, second etc. Can you agree on an ordering? Is it linear or more iterative?

Are you curious to try this process with some other words? Maybe some thematic / topic terms from your research? eg 'sustainability', 'ageing' etc.