This practical guide can be used by teachers who wish to develop their professional expertise by investigating their teaching in a systematic and organised way.

This practical guide can be used by teachers who wish to develop their professional expertise by investigating their own teaching in a systematic and organised way. It is also invaluable for teachers or trainee teachers who have to produce a professional project or dissertation as part of a training programme. This will help teachers to design and implement a research project which is derived from their normal practice, with results which should be of direct relevance to them. It is user-friendly and includes: - exemplar articles and extracts which show how the research techniques can be implemented - 'Personal review' sections which help readers to think about the ideas being discussed and relate them to their own situation - commentaries which follow up issues raised in the 'Personal review' sections - chapter summaries - a glossary of all technical terms.

1 Why action research?
2 Selecting and developing a topic
3 Collecting the data
4 Field-notes, logs, journals, diaries and personal accounts
5 Verbal reports
6 Observation techniques: recording and analysing classroom skills
7 Interviews and questionnaires
8 The case study approach
9 Training and evaluation: teaching materials
10 No teacher is an island: some approaches to sharing ideas
Concluding remarks
Glossary of research terms
Suggestions for further reading
Bibliography
Index