70 Task 7.3 @ A number of stories that you have read in this book
describe how students were the source of suggestions
for classroom activities. Teresa (Chapter Four) was one
teacher who got some interesting ideas from students –
what did they tell her?
Implementing your own ideas One of the advantages of action research is that it provides
an opportunity for you to develop your own creativity
through the process of trying out new ideas, or adapting
established ones in your own classroom. By doing this
within an action research framework, you can observe the
impact of your creativity and collect useful data on how
effective the ideas are. We met a good example of this in
Chapter One, when we read about Paula’s secondary
school students who had difficulty remembering countries
and nationalities. Drawing on her experience, creativity and
knowledge of her learners, she came up with an idea for
creating a domino game that turned out to be an effective
solution to the challenge she faced. Learners both enjoyed
the game and learnt the vocabulary. Thus, in this instance,
Paula’s creativity as a teacher turned out to be the primary
source of her intervention.
Daniela (see 6.1) is an example of a teacher who found out
what students wanted but implemented actions which she
devised herself. After analysing her quantitative and
qualitative data, she
A. built a better atmosphere to help relax her learners,
including allowing them to change seats, having
interviews with students and parents, getting help from
the school psychologist and having class discussions.
B. implemented some different classroom activities to
encourage speaking, including pair and group work,
using nomination sticks,
1
more formative assessment,
and asking questions to check understanding.
Task 7.4 @ Go back to Tasks 6.1 and 6.2 in Chapter Six and re-read Daniela’s findings. Which findings mainly helped her decide
to do actions (a) and (b)? Check your answers in the answer key.
