A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

Task 2.3 @
Answer these questions according to Lorena’s story: 
We mentioned above that research has the following 
characteristics; 
1. question(s) to be answered
2. systematic collection of data
3. analysis of the data
4. answer(s) to the question(s) 
Were all these things present in what Lorena did? 
Answer: Yes!
Who made the research decisions? 
Answer: Lorena, the teacher.
So this is research – and it is research initiated and carried 
out by a teacher: in a word, teacher-research!
1. What were Lorena’s initial concerns?
2. What were Lorena’s initial questions? 

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What is teacher-research? | 
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Commentary
Lorena, a teacher, did research – for herself and for her 
learners. She starts with some puzzles – some questions 
(her own!) – including ‘In which listening activities do my 
students listen better?’ and ‘How is listening presented 
during the lesson?’ and she found answers by gathering 
‘data’ – from having one colleague observe her class and 
from asking students. She considered this data carefully 
(‘analysed’ it) and came to some conclusions about what 
areas to improve in the way she developed her lessons
on listening. 
Summary and follow-up
In this chapter we considered the way teachers often think 
research is not really ‘for them’; and we tried to demystify 
research, by breaking it down into stages and by showing 
how one teacher – Lorena – engaged in research which 
proved to be very useful for her and, potentially, for her 
students. This is teacher-research – research initiated and 
carried out by teachers themselves into issues of 
importance to them in their own work.
Follow-up
We invite you now to read the story of another Champion 
Teacher; Leyla Núñez. She was interested in understanding 
her students’ writing abilities. Find her complete story here: 
http://bit.ly/Leyla-nunez
In her story, Leyla gained insights from her colleagues.
How did she do this? In what ways do you think this is /
is not valuable? Leyla also collected information from
her students. What did she learn from this information? 
Finally, do you agree with the action plan she proposes? 
What would you add to her plan?
Champion Teacher; Leyla Núñez

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