A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

Category
Your own issue(s)
A. classroom management 
 
B. appropriate materials 
 
C. particular areas of teaching
 
D. students’ attitudes, achievement or motivation 
 
 
E. any other
 
1. Andrea’s story about ending lessons
Motivation and category:
2. Leyla’s story about writing
Motivation and category:

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31 
| What shall I explore – and what are my questions?
4.2 Your own motivations – and 
narrowing down your focus 
The motivations we suggested above can lead you to 
understand your classroom, your students and your 
teaching better and/or change them, via teacher-research. 
To do research, though, you first need to choose a 
particular topic, in other words narrow down to a major 
focus from all the possible focuses you could have. The 
following activities will help you do this: 
Task 4.3 
Bearing in mind your answers to Task 4.1, try to write 
sentences for each of the following situations: 
a) Things that worked and you would like to explore further:
I am happy about
b) Doubts or questions you have about your students and 
their learning: 
I am unsure about
c) Things that didn’t work – you would like to know why:
I am unhappy about 
You may have found that there are several topics that you 
would like to explore and feel are worth pursuing further. 
However, some topic areas are likely to be easier to 
approach and/or are more relevant than others for you and 
your learners. To narrow down your list, we suggest 
considering what we call ‘MUSE’: the extent to which each 
possible topic for research is