A handbook for Exploratory Action Research

A. Exploring your own perceptions
B. Exploring others’ perceptions
C. Exploring behaviour (including performance)
Write numbers from 1. to 12. next to A., B. and C. below. 
Then check your answers in the answer key at the back
of the book.
Focus
Kind of data
A. Exploring your own 
perceptions
B. Exploring others’ 
perceptions
C. Exploring behaviour 
(including performance)

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How can I explore? | 
48
5.2 Mauro’s story
Below is a story of research by Mauro Sáez, a Chilean 
teacher who was interested in exploring better ways to 
organise his class. Read his story, paying special attention 
to the ways he gathered evidence. 
Mauro’s story
“The topic of my research is how to arrange my 
classroom. Why did I choose this topic? I attended a 
seminar “Summer Camp” where tons of interesting topics 
were exposed and I was amazed and ready to put them 
into practice. As the academic year started, there was 
one idea that I noticed that wasn’t working for most of my 
classes, and it involved rearranging my students’ seating. 
Taking that into account I wanted to find out the way that 
best suits my students when it comes to the arrangement 
of the classroom and how they perceive it.
So I stated my exploratory questions as the following:
■
−
How do my students act when they are sitting 
individually?
■
−
How does the sitting arrangement affect individual 
work?
■
−
How do students feel about individual work?
For collecting my initial data, I asked a colleague to observe 
my classes (one where they had to work individually, 
collaboratively and in groups) and to write down the 
behaviour of the students during the class. Of course, in 
order to provide a better observation, I also considered my 
experience as an English teacher and the regular behaviour 
of my students. In addition to that I video-recorded a full 
class in order to obtain some information by myself. As for 
the data collected from students I created three surveys, 
one each for a class when students had to work individually, 
in pairs and in groups.
I gathered the information provided by the surveys and 
took into account the most repeated ideas provided by 
the students in order to organize the information. I also 
consulted with my colleagues about the observations 
done by my colleague and myself and they all agreed that 
the behaviour is repetitive through different subjects.
Students show a proper behaviour when working 
individually but there is a repetitive pattern that most
of the students show in class, noticed by the observing 
teacher as well as myself, which is that whenever they 
have questions they look for a classmate to clarify their 
doubts in the first instance; after that, if the doubt was not 
clarified, they reach out to the teacher for help – so I 
started to suppose that students naturally prefer to work 
with their peers rather than by themselves.
When it came to the students’ opinion, they do prefer to 
work with their classmates but they do not prefer working 
in groups because they mainly feel that at least one 
classmate is not going to work properly. A few students 
prefer to work on their own, while most of them point out 
that working in pairs is the best class arrangement that 
suits them in terms of working in a more productive and 
comfortable environment.
After finding out the results, I asked the school 
authorities’ permission to change the classroom 
arrangement in order to start implementing pair work. 
The pairing was a bit difficult because I had to consider 
the emotional and disciplinary aspects of the pairings.
Luckily I know my students well, so I could pair them up 
according to their needs and their compatibility. I then 
implemented activities and classes where my students 
had to work in pairs.
I was impressed by the results obtained by the students
in the final test, where there were over 95% of students 
with grades from 4.0 to 7.0, while there was only 4% 
disapproval for the lessons themselves.
As my planning did not originally include activities in pairs 
I had to create a new set of activities for my class that 
involved collaborative work. I think that this experience 
helped me to take into account my students’ opinion in 
relation to how I do my classes and created a comfortable 
environment.
I now think that I will include from the beginning of the 
year activities where my students can work in pairs, and
I will also encourage my colleagues to implement pair 
work, as the experience is turning out to be very 
productive, not solely in academic results but in the 
students’ attitude towards the class.”