Brief background

Most people agree that the term ‘action research’ originated in the 1940’s with the social psychologist Kurt Lewin. Lewin was interested in taking research beyond books and looking at how it could bring about real social change. He developed a spiral cycle of steps in his process of action research which is very similar to that used by many involved in educational action research today.

Before you start a cycle of action research it is good to have a plan of your objectives, what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve them.

Peer observation can be a very important and useful part of the data gathering process within an action research cycle.

Using audio or video to record and collect data about what’s happening within your classroom can form a very useful part of the action research cycle.

Why use questionnaires?

Questionnaires can help you to get clear and concisely structured feedback from your students or observers. Writing a good questionnaire can be difficult though and you have to think very clearly about what information you want and how you word your questions in order to get that information.

Keeping a journal of your own thoughts, action research projects and general teaching observations and progress can be enormously beneficial, but it’s important to think about how you structure this and what to include.

Getting your students involved in your action research can be vitally important. Don’t be afraid to tell them what you are doing and why you are doing it and try to encourage them to be honest in the feedback they give you.

Download all the Action Research Toolkit articles, observation and student feedback forms here.