A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

particular types of data to ….
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analysis, and interpretation.
In Chapters Four and Five, you read about how you can 
explore areas of interest by collecting classroom data. 
Chapter Six showed how you can make sense of the data,
so you can understand the situation better: why an activity
is successful, why a particular problem happens, or what
our learners think about something we do, for example.
In Chapters Seven and Eight we will see how, on the basis
of the new understandings you have gained through 
exploration, you can bring about change, in other words, 
how exploratory research can turn into action research.
Follow-up
In Chapter Five, you read about Mauro, a teacher who was 
interested in looking into his students’ reaction to different 
classroom layouts. As a result of his exploration, Mauro 
discovered that his students prefer one classroom layout 
over another; which one? How did he discover this?
After Mauro reached this understanding, he decided to try 
some activities to evaluate their effects. What did he do? 
Read his full story here: 
http://bit.ly/Mauro-Saez

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7. What shall I change?
Now we’ve been through the process of exploring, we come to the ‘action’ 
part of ‘Exploratory Action Research’. It’s time to see if you want to change 
anything. If you do, this chapter will help you both to plan for change and
to implement the changes you plan. Chapter Eight will focus on observing 
the effects and reflecting on what impact the action had. 

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67 
| What shall I change?
7.1 Is ‘new action’ needed?
We’ve seen how exploration can lead you to a better 
understanding of a particular puzzling, problematic,
or even successful situation. Based on your analysis and 
interpretation of the findings, you need to decide whether 
some kind of new ‘action’ is now needed. Let’s first look
at the possibility that no new action is necessary.