A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

Before the change
“I gave students a piece of paper and I told them to write 
what happened the previous class, I did that in Spanish
so all of them had the same chances to express their 
ideas. These were my findings: 23 did not remember;
3 did not answer; 8 answered correctly.”
After the change
“I repeated the same procedure from the first observed 
class, I asked my students to write on a piece of paper
(in Spanish) what they remembered from the previous 
class. Their answers were: 30 of them remembered the 
previous class (most of them remembered the activity
of the map); 4 of them did not remember.”
Using this information alone, ask yourself the critical 
question we have suggested – in other words, what else 
(other than Andrea’s new ideas for wrapping up lessons) 
could have influenced the change that we’re noticing
in the data?
Commentary
If Andrea relied on this data alone, the difference could
be explained by any of the following:
1. Coincidence – there are always variations between 
lessons in how much students remember;
2. They may have found the second lesson topic more 
interesting, or it may have been easier;
3. Andrea may have been better prepared for the
second lesson;
4. Andrea may have been trying harder for the whole 
lesson, and not just changing the way she ended it;
5. The students may have tried harder, especially if they 
knew that Andrea was hoping for success;
6. It may be because the wrapping up activity was new 
that the students remembered much more. If she does 
the same activity every lesson, the novelty may wear 
off and they will remember less.
Luckily, Andrea collected much more data than this. After 
introducing a range of wrapping-up activities, she also 
asked students to choose their favourite ones, and she got 
a colleague to observe her lessons before and after 
implementing the change. Thus, we can again see the 
importance here of triangulating. After she carefully and 
critically interpreted all of these different sources of 
information, and considering other things that could have 
influenced the findings, Andrea was confident that her new 
strategies for wrapping up lessons were helping learners to 
remember more.