A basic framework for writing up your action research project

In your write-up, however you structure it, you will have to show that you have achieved
the four overall learning outcomes of the module, which are:

On completion of this module, the successful student will be able to:

1. Successfully conduct an action research project, investigating an aspect of their own
professional practice, in an ethically sound fashion;
2. Produce a high-quality research report, which demonstrates the participant’s ability to:
critically self-evaluate; justify the choices of professional action to be taken; and critically
evaluate the effects of actions taken;
3. Critically discuss their own research methodology and approaches (including
consideration of both your own roles and the roles of other participants in the project), and
evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these;
4. Critically evaluate what impact the research project has had on their own personal and/
or professional development.

The overall assessment format is:

An action research project report (5,000 words – to assess learning outcomes 1,2 & 3)
A critical reflection on the participant’s own learning and development (1,000 words – to
assess outcome 4)
Please note that the maximum permitted length for both sections of the assignment is
6,000 words.

The framework I suggest below is flexible. There may be all sorts of good reasons that you
might want to vary it - and that’s always fine. However, the following basic framework is a
good starting point and, in my experience, works well for most people. (For more on this,
please also refer to Chapter 13 of McNiff & Whitehead, ‘Writing your report’)

In the framework below, the headings in bold are the main sections; questions / ideas
under each section heading are there to help get you started. Again, you do not have to
answer all of these or follow them to the letter - they are just prompts and ‘thought-
starters’. (By the way - if you read this outline plan carefully alongside the learning
outcomes, you will see that they are all achieved if you follow the plan in full. If you decide
to modify the plan, you need to be sure you are still covering all the learning outcomes.)

• What did I want to investigate when I started this project?

• Where did your initial idea come from?
• If you thought that there was a ‘problem’ that you needed to work on, why did you
think this was a ‘problem’? What was going on in class / with your students ? What
were you noticing?
• If you didn’t start with a ‘problem’, then what were you setting out to achieve?
• Why was that important to me?
• You can be quite personal here. What was your aim with the project for yourself?
What did you want to achieve? Why?
• One thing that’s important in a personal project like this is at some point to
discuss your educational values - this would be a good place in the essay to do this.
• How did I find out what the situation was like at the outset?
• Having had your initial idea - how did you check that it was really worth pursuing?
Did you discuss it with anyone else? With other tutors? With potential students? (So
- for example - if you thought there was a problem with students not doing enough
practice between lessons and you wanted to improve this - how did you check that
 you were right about the lack of practice? There could be other things going on -
such as the course being at too high a level for them leading to de-motivation, for
example.)
• What did I think I could do about it? What options did I consider?
• Here, you need to show two things: 1 - that you didn’t just do the first thing that
came into your head, and that you did consider some different possible options; and
2 - you need to show awareness that other people will already have thought about
the same educational issues as you.
• So, this is where you need to show you have done some relevant background
reading, and also show how what you learned from this influenced your decision
making process.
• We need to see that you are aware of the wider field of education as it relates to
your own project.
• You may also want to draw on some educational theory here to show how this
influenced your thinking.
• As with your essay for Module 2, it’s useful to think about how the ‘big’
educational ideas we’ve studied on the course - which are all quite general and
overarching - relate specifically to your own situation.
• What did I actually decide to do? Why?
• This relates to the last bullet point above.
• You need to explain why you felt that out of all the things you could possibly do,
the course of action you actually chose seemed the best one to you.
• How did I generate evidence to show what happened as a result of my actions?
• So, as you start to undertake your actions, you will need to generate some
evidence to see whether what you are doing is working or not. This would include
things like getting information from students about what they are experiencing
(questionnaires ... discussions ... feedback); your own observations about your
classes; peer feedback; student results and performance ... etc
• You need to explain what you did - and why you did it like this.
• You will need to think about your ‘methodology’ here: why did you think that the
way you chose to get evidence was a good and appropriate way of doing so? Did
you consider any other ways of getting evidence? So - say you used a
questionnaire - why did you do that, and not interviews? That’s the discussion we
need here.
• What worked well and what didn’t?
• This is where you say what happened during your project, and evaluate the
successes and failures.
• You don’t need to pretend that it was all a great success, by the way! You are not
expected to be perfect - and research often goes down blind allies. So - where
things didn’t work, don’t be afraid to say so.
• Why?
• This is an extension of the above, and you try to explain why things happened as
they did.
• Again - this is another place to relate your own project to the wider world of
education. Are there any theories / models / research you can draw on that shed
light on your own project?
• What have I learned from this project? What conclusions have I drawn from this
experience?
• So - if you were to step back from your project and share the main findings with a
colleague - what would you tell them?
• Can you draw any conclusions that are more general than the particular situation
you have investigated.
 • Say - again - you were looking at helping students to practice more efficiently
between classes. You will have looked at this just in the context of the specific class
you were teaching to your specific bunch of students - and some of what you will
have learned will relate just to this. However, you should also have some broader
conclusions - advice you would now give to someone else with different students,
playing a different instrument, or in another year, but who still wants to help their
students practice better.
• How can I show that the conclusions I have come to are reasonable, accurate and
based on the evidence I have generated?
• We can always interpret what has happened in more than one way - so how do
you justify your own interpretation as being reasonable and sensible - and can you
be sure you have concrete evidence to back up your claims?
• Evaluate your research methodology
• How effective do you think your approach to the research was? How solid was
your methodology?
• If you were to do this piece of research again (or another piece of educational
research), then what could you do to do it better next time?
• PLEASE NOTE - writing about your research methodology relates to learning
outcome 3. For some reason, this was the weakest area in the essays last year -
and several people actually had to do a resit because they didn’t cover this area.
Weird! Don’t fall into that trap!
• What has influenced me as I have done my project? What ideas and theories have
I used? What has been my role and what role have other people had?
• If you haven’t already done so (and you should have!) - this is the place to make
sure you show some of your reading (and it is there to show you are aware of the
wider education world, and can use reading and ideas to help yourself with your
own practical research).
• You will have been very personally involved in your work, so can you show how
you have tried to be as objective as possible? How have you had other people help
you and input their opinions as a balance to your own?
• How have I developed as a professional?
• In which ways have you grown during the project? What have you learned? What
skills have you developed? Have you noticed yourself change in any way?
• This can also be quite personal if you wish - you may have found yourself
becoming more confident, for example.
• How am I going to use what I have learned to improve my work in the future?
• We would hope that having done this project will leave a lasting legacy - so, what
will you do differently in the future as a result of what you have learned?
• Another approach that works well here is to say what you thinking of changing
next in your teaching; why; and what you hope to achieve. This shows your
commitment to an ongoing cycle of development and can be a very effective way of
ending the report on a high note.