Basic Principles of

Experimental Design and

Data Analysis
• Have you ever tried out a new teaching
idea in your classroom and wondered
whether it really helped your students to
learn?
• Are there aspects of the way you teach
that you would like to improve?
 Finding your focus
These kinds of questions can help guide your thinking in these early
stages:
•What new approaches to learning or teaching are you interested in
trying?
•What will make you a more effective teacher?
•What gaps are there between your current teaching situation and what
you would like to see happening?
•What needs of your students are not being met?
•What do you want your students to know, understand, or do better
than they currently do?
•What language skills would you like your students to improve?
• Keep a diary or brief notes of teaching, learning or
administrative activities in your workplace over a chosen
period of time (e.g. a week, month). Read over the diary at
the end of this time and identify some of your key thoughts,
ideas or concerns.
• Brainstorm some starter statements:
I don’t know enough about how my students . . .
My students don’t like . . . Why is this?
I’d like to find out more about what my students do when
they . . .
• Make a list of questions about things in your workplace that
have puzzled you for some time.
• Observe (preferably over a period of time) a
typical situation in your place of work. What
stands out for you from your observations? What
research questions or issues do they suggest?
• Find a favourite article. Think about how the
issues it presents can be related to your
classroom. What questions or issues does the
writer address? What questions or issues does
the writer leave out that you would like to know
more about?
The possibilities for AR are endless and could
include any of the following broad areas
• Increasing learner autonomy
• Integrating language skills
• Focusing on language form
• Understanding student motivation
• Developing writing skills
• Promoting group work
• Making classrooms more communicative
• Trying out new materials
• Finding new ways to do assessment
• Integrating technology into class activities
• Helping students to develop self-study techniques.
• Reflection point
• Take 10–15 minutes to think about your
philosophies and beliefs about teaching. Answer
the questions listed on the following page and
examine your personal views on them.
• Take your notes in the Research Journal
• Share your opinion with a partner
 Discussion
• What do you believe about your role in the classroom? (facilitator,
guide, director, expert, friend, disciplinarian, mentor, authority?)
• How do you want your students to behave towards you? (equal role,
subordinate role, ‘knowledgeable learner’ role, ‘empty vessel’ role?)
• What do you believe is the purpose of your students’ language
learning? (have fun, pass exams, increase knowledge about
grammar, gain cultural sensitivity, increase employment prospects,
fulfil syllabus requirements, develop intercultural awareness,
appreciate global diversity, develop critical thinking,become citizens
of the world?)
• What attributes or attitudes do you believe your students have about
learning languages? (few or none, enthusiasm, no motivation,
teacher-dependent, limited attention span, openmindedness, lack of
relevance, commitment, rigour, helplessness, lack of interest?)
• What kind of instructional techniques do you believe work best in
your classrooms? (games, rote-learning, dialogues, role-plays,
puzzles, quizzes, substitution drills, dictations, grammar tests,
interactive tasks, translation?)
• What kind of materials or resources do you consider to be the most
effective? (course books, authentic texts, newspapers, websites,
teacher-prepared handouts, CD/DVD/TV recordings, board games?)
• Watching a video 1
• Watching a video on Steps to AR.
• Please define the 5 stages of AR.
• Watching video 2
• AR project – reading comprehension
• Making notes on:
• The main stages
• Limitations
• Discussing the research question from a point
of personal experience
• Reading a scenario
• Reading a scenario based on a practical experience.
• Making notes on:
• The main problem
• Ways of solving the problem
• Discussing the research question from a point of
personal experience
• Watching a video on Main Street Academy
Safe Measures Program which is a
comprehensive approach to helping schools
improve school climate and learning.
• State the problem
• The main stages
• Who is involved into the AR program
 Action point
Use the following strategies to begin identifying your
possible research areas.
•Get together with one or more teacher colleagues or form
a group with others in your teacher development course.
•Use the Table to begin mapping out broad ideas. Before
you complete it you might want to look back at your pre-
reading responses. Or you could discuss the questions in
the table with colleagues.
What is my broad topic area?
Why am I interested in this
topic?
What do I want to know about
this topic?
How will it improve my
students’ learning or my
teaching?
What am I likely to learn about
by focusing on this topic?
 Research Questions
Question type Sample questions Comment
Does the question What improves motivation in The first question is too
have the right my class? broad and there will be
scope? too many learning and
teaching factors to point
to any particular
reasons
What kind of speaking for improvement.
activities will motivate my The second question
students? allows for a focus on a
particular skill area.
Is the question Can group work be extended The first question invites
closed or open in my classroom? a ‘yes/no’ response.
ended?
How can group work be The second question
extended in my classroom? allows for a range of
possibilities to be
identified.
Is the question How will using electronic
biased? dictionaries lead to higher
test scores in my
students’ writing?
How will using electronic
dictionaries influence my
students’ writing?
Does the question How will observation of my
allow for a logical students carrying out
connection listening tasks increase my
between the action understanding
and the outcome? of how best to develop their
listening skills?
The first question
already assumes that
the dictionaries will
make an
improvement.
The second does not
assume there will be
an improvement.
Finding that
something doesn’t
work may be as
important as finding
that it does.
Observation alone is
unlikely to result in
comprehensive
findings about how
students develop their
listening skills.
Is the How can I stop beginner low achieving
question Chinese students from using their first
ethical? language (L1) in my class?
Is the What kinds of listening tasks based on
question contemporary theories of communicative redundant information and
stated clearly language teaching used in a seventh
and grade classroom at Au Bord de la Mer
concisely? Secondary High School in the
Region of Normandy, France, can best
be applied to increase the listening skills
of EFL students in that class?
What kinds of listening tasks will assist
my EFL seventh grade students to
develop their listening
skills?
This question assumes first
that beginner Chinese
students are not able to
achieve well, and
second that using L1 is a
negative aspect of early
language learning – an
assumption that is not
supported by current
research.
The first question is full of
is very wordy.
The second question
indicates specifically what
kinds of tasks will be
investigated and what
the aim of the research is.
 Ethical issues
• Typically, AR is small-scale and carried out by an
individual, or a group of colleagues working
collaboratively together. For AR projects, you should
keep at least three important issues in mind:
• 1. Whose permission do you need for your research?
• 2. Who will be affected by your research?
• 3. Who should be told about your research when it is
completed?
 Practical task
• A “good” question can be defined as a
question that a teacher wants and is able to
answer. It is neither too broad, nor too narrow.
• A “bad” research question has none of these
qualities, but it can be converted into a “good”
question by going through the process
described above.
• Write 3 research questions.
• Do the Self-evaluation of your own research
questions according to the given criteria
• Peer evaluation.
• Converting “bad” research questions into
“good” research questions.
 Filling in the journal
Answer the following questions
• “If I tell my students the focus of my research won’t that
change the outcome?”
• “My students don’t understand English yet so what do I do?”
• “Do I need informed consent if I am using data collection tools
where I don’t need to know the identity of the participants?”
• “What if there are one or two students who don’t want to be
involved?”
• If I tell my students the focus of my research won’t that
change the outcome?”
• It might, but people need to be informed as fully as possible
so that they are not left concerned or puzzled.
• When collecting your data and reporting the research you
can show you are aware of this possible limitation on your
research.
• Students are in your class to learn, so learning is likely to be
more important to them than the fact you are doing research.
• Students often feel pleased to be ‘chosen’ and keen to be
‘insiders’ in the research.
• “My students don’t understand English yet so
what do I do?”
• If students are beginner learners, you may need
to get the consent forms translated or have them
explained by someone proficient in the students’
language.
• Explaining in first language is also necessary if
students have limited literacy in English and/or
their first language.
• “Do I need informed consent if I am using data
collection tools where I don’t need to know the
• identity of the participants?”
• If you are using something like written surveys where it
is not important for participants to identify themselves
you don’t need written permission.
• “What if there are one or two students who don’t want
to be involved?”
• You can still proceed with the research, but those
students should not be included in your data collection
or in reports on your research.