A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

1. We 
the different strategies she 
used to motivate her students. 
2. We 
the background of the 
students Camila is concerned about.
3. We 
what all of her students think 
about the strategies she used. 
4. We 
what makes Camila conclude 
students are not motivated. 
5. We 
how students actually react
in class to certain activities. 
As you have probably realised, there are many things we 
(and Camila) don’t know for sure about this situation and 
that we need to know in order to understand it better. 
Task 1.4 @ 
Let’s try a similar exercise with the situation narrated by 
Paula. If you or Paula would like to understand better the 
successful situation she talked about in 1.1. what kinds of 
information could be gathered? 
Read some of the signs she got (box A) and then write the 
letter(s) of the method(s) you think she could use to collect 
better information (box B). You can check your answers in 
the answer key. Note: There may be more than one answer 
for each of 1. to 5. 
Box A. Signs
Box B. Ways to collect information
A. Take notes about what students do and say.
B. Assess how students’ vocabulary learning has
improved with a vocabulary test
C. Ask students to write their opinions about the lesson
D. Ask a colleague to come in and take notes on what
he/she has seen
E. Make a video-recording of students in class to look
at their behaviour, attitudes and language use. 
Commentary
As we suggested above, signs of what’s working and not 
working are important in your everyday teaching, and 
reflecting on them can help you develop as a teacher. 
However, sometimes they only give you a partial view
of a situation and to understand it better – and/or change
it if necessary - gathering more and better information
can be essential. 
For this, you will need to go beyond just reflecting about 
your practice ‘in your head’ and will need to do some 
‘research’, gathering as much good information, or ‘data’,
as you can to understand a situation more clearly and fully.
2 
Concise Oxford English Dictionary