A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

3. How do my students react in that part of the class?
4. What are the effects of the change(s) that I
attempt
? 
Box B. What did Andrea do to gather information?
A. surfed the web for answers.
B. asked a colleague to observe her class.
C. asked some colleagues about wrapping up.
D. asked students’ reactions
As you’ve seen, Andrea used different kinds of data to 
answer different exploratory research questions. And when 
it came to the action research part of her research, she 
used similar data sources, so that she could clearly see the 
effects of her new activities.
In this chapter we’ll be looking more closely at the different 
possible sources of information you can use, how you can 
access them, and how you can match them effectively to 
your research questions.

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How can I explore? | 
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Remember, we are concerned with ways of researching which don’t place too much of an extra burden on you as a busy 
teacher. Here, then, are some sources of information that secondary school teachers have actually managed to use 
without much extra work in the projects we’ve been involved in: 
Let’s see now what using each of these sources involves, 
and let’s consider some basic advantages of each of them 
– in other words, what they can be used for (it’s important 
to remember that you won’t be using all of them – just 
selecting from among them to suit your research 
question(s)). As you go through, make a mental note of 
whether each kind of data seems best suited to answering 
questions about: your own perceptions; others’ (e.g. 
students’) perceptions; or actual behaviour or 
performance. 
1. Your own written reflections and/or notes.
Reflective writing by you (e.g. immediately after a class, 
perhaps in note form, and/or in fuller sentences when 
you’re at home) is a good way to explore your own 
perceptions in relation to a particular topic or question 
– for example, self-questioning what you mean by 
something. Andrea used reflective writing to ask herself 
what an ‘effective’ ending to a lesson meant to her, for 
example. 
Unless you already keep a diary or reflective journal about 
your teaching, it can be difficult at first to start to write 
about your thoughts and feelings. If so, try writing in notes 
at first, and don’t forget that the writing is just for you – you 
don’t need to show it to anyone. Try to write as ‘freely’ as 
you can, as thoughts come to you, without worrying about 
punctuation, grammar etc.: so long as you can read it later, 
that’s fine. It can be hard to find time to write reflectively, 
but even 20 minutes doing it is time well spent!