A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

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| How can I explore?
After briefly revisiting Andrea’s story, we will learn 
about twelve different kinds of data source that 
teachers have found it realistic to use in Exploratory 
Action Research. We will then see how Mauro – 
another Champion Teacher – gathered data to
answer his research questions, and we will also see 
how useful it can be to combine several different 
sources of information. On this basis, we provide 
some tasks to help you decide how to gather data
to find answers for your own research questions.
5.1 Different sources of information
Let’s recall Andrea’s story, which we first came across
in Chapter Three. Her exploratory questions (EQs) were: 
1. What is a wrapping up?
2. What are the characteristics of my wrapping up?
3. How do my students react in that part of the class?
Once she had gathered enough information to answer 
these questions, she decided to try various new ways of 
wrapping up her class. As we saw at the end of Chapter 
Three, the basic ‘action research question’ (AQ) is always: 
4. What are the effects of the change(s) that I attempt?
Andrea didn’t clearly state this question in her report,
but it’s clear that, after she explored the situation, she 
decided to try out different activities at the end of her 
lessons, and in each case, tried to see how effective these 
activities were. In order to do this she compared what 
happened with what she had previously discovered.
Task 5.1 @
What, more precisely, did she do to try to answer her 
research questions (1., 2., 3., and 4.) ? Write (a), (b), (c)
and/or (d) next to each question in Box A below…
[Hint: (b) and (d) can be used more than once]
Box A. Andrea’s exploratory and action research questions:
1. What is a wrapping up? 
2. What are the characteristics of my wrapping up?