Action Research

Principles

Published: 21st January 2010

The Nuffield Primary History Project's development work in schools has taken the form of action research. Action research is a way of improving your teaching.


Action research involves repeated cycles taking the form:

  • Identify improvement needed
  • Analyse the issues
  • Form teaching plan, drawing on your knowledge and experience, and on others' ideas and research
  • Teach, and gather evidence of the children's learning
  • Reflect, evaluate and replan.

Action research helps you to:

  • Systematically examine and tackle practical problems
  • Understand and reflect on your practice as a teacher
  • Develop professionally through investigating children's learning.

Why do action research?

  • It is self-educational, empowering and democratic
  • It gives you control over improvement in a context you understand
  • It offers a way to test and evaluate theory in practice.