Field Notes and Action Research

Field notes and action research are two habits that turn a teaching career into a continuous improvement project. Field notes are short observations a teacher writes during or just after a lesson. Action research takes those notes one step further, into a small structured study of the teacher’s own practice.

What field notes are

Field notes are a running commentary the teacher keeps during a lesson. They record what happens in real time: what the teacher says, what students say, what students do, what questions arise.

Field notes are like a running commentary of the class from beginning to end. A reader looking at the notes later should be able to picture how the lesson unfolded.

Sample field note for a 40-minute lesson:

9:00 - Started with question: "Where does rain come from?"
Student responses:
- "From the sky" (Aslan)
- "From clouds" (Shagufta)
- "There are big shopping bags in the air" (Hassan, Class 1)

9:05 - Drew water cycle on board. Five students asked
"what is evaporation?". I tried explaining with the
Example of wet clothes drying.

9:12 - Three students still confused about evaporation.
They asked good questions: "Why does my hand feel cool
After washing?" Connected this to evaporation.

9:20 - Group work began. Group 1 (Hassan, Aslan, Mariam)
Finished labeling diagrams quickly. Group 3 (Shagufta,
Imran) struggled with placing condensation correctly.

9:30 - Read each group's work. 18 of 25 students
Correctly labeled all four parts. 7 needed corrections
On condensation.

9:38 - Closure: asked one student to summarize. Imran
Gave a clear explanation, even though his group had
Struggled. Suggests his understanding came late but
Clearly.

This level of detail is rich. It captures specific student names, specific moments, specific responses. Later, the teacher can read this and reconstruct the lesson.

How to keep field notes while teaching

A common objection: how can a teacher write field notes while teaching? They are busy delivering the lesson.

Solution 1: Ask a colleague. A teacher with a colleague observing can have the colleague keep the field notes. The colleague’s job during the lesson is to write what they see and hear. After the lesson, the two teachers review the notes together.

Solution 2: Write during student work time. A teacher is not talking the whole lesson. There are activities, pair work, group work, individual work, where students are busy. During those minutes, the teacher can walk around, observe, and jot quick notes. A small notebook in the teacher’s hand or pocket is enough.

Both methods produce useful notes. Both require the teacher to plan for note-taking, just like they plan for everything else in the lesson.

A new teacher might keep brief field notes (a few lines per activity). An experienced teacher who has built the habit may keep longer ones.

Why keep notes

Purpose 1: Keep a record of teaching. Notes preserve what was actually taught and how. A year later, the teacher can look back and remember what they taught and how it went.

Purpose 2: Plan for the future. When teaching the same content next year (or even the same lesson with a different class), the previous notes guide planning. What worked? What did not? What would I do differently?

When you teach next year, look at your notes from this year. You may follow the same plan. You may change parts. Either way, the notes inform the decision.

Purpose 3: Learn from experience. Reading old notes is itself a learning experience. The teacher revisits past mistakes, past successes, past student moments. The reflection deepens with time.

Purpose 4: Communicate with the principal. During appraisal or evaluation, the teacher needs evidence of their work. Notes provide that evidence. A teacher who can show their planning, their evaluations, their notes, and their reflections has a strong case for promotions and increments. A teacher with no records has only verbal claims.

There is a real-world problem. Many wonderful teachers do not keep records. At year’s end, they throw their notes in the trash. When their appraisal comes up, they have nothing to show. The administration sees no evidence of careful work, and the teacher loses out.

Purpose 5: Source material for action research. This is the largest purpose, covered next.

What action research is

Action research is research conducted by the teacher in their own classroom, aimed at improving teaching practice. Unlike academic research that aims at general truths, action research aims at this teacher, this class, this specific improvement.

Action research aims at improvement. The teacher takes some action and reflects on it. The action is systematic and scientific, even though it is small in scale.

A simple action research cycle:

1. Identify a problem. “My students struggle with multiplication word problems.”
2. Plan an action. “I will try teaching word problems with real-world objects (e.g., counting actual sweets) before introducing the symbolic version.”
3. Carry out the action. Teach the new method for two weeks.
4. Collect evidence. Field notes during lessons. Student work samples. Observations.
5. Reflect. Did the new method help? What changed? What did not?
6. Decide next steps. Adopt the method permanently? Modify it? Try something else?

The teacher who does action research is doing science on their own teaching. The improvement is grounded in evidence, not in guesswork.

Flashcard

What is action research, and how does it differ from academic research?

Tap to reveal

Answer

Action research is teacher-led classroom improvement research

Academic research: aims at general truths across many classrooms.

Action research: aims at this teacher, this class, this specific improvement.

The teacher takes a systematic action, collects evidence on whether it worked, reflects, and decides what to do next.

Field notes as evidence for action research

Field notes are the main source of evidence for action research. The teacher’s records of what happened in lessons provide the data the research is built on.

If a teacher’s action research question is “Does using real objects help students with multiplication word problems?”, the field notes from lessons that used real objects compared with lessons that did not provide the evidence. The teacher reads the notes, compares student responses across the two methods, and forms conclusions.

Without field notes, action research has no data. The teacher could form impressions and guess, but the impressions are unreliable. Memory is selective. Field notes capture what actually happened, in real time, while it was fresh.

A teacher building toward action research keeps notes from the start of their career. Even before they have a research question, the habit of recording teaching builds the evidence base they will eventually use.

How action research culture grows

One problem in many school systems: there is no tradition of teachers doing research. Schools are seen as places where teachers teach and researchers (in universities) do research. The two roles are separate.

This should change. Teachers should do their own research in their own classrooms. The research need not be published in academic journals (though it can be). It just needs to be systematic and to drive improvement.

A school where teachers do action research becomes a research culture. Teachers share findings with each other. Methods that work spread. Methods that fail get discarded. The whole school improves over time.

A new teacher entering the profession can be part of this change. They start by keeping field notes. They build the habit. After a few years, they identify a question and run a small action research project. They share the result with colleagues. The research culture grows from individuals.

Field notes have value beyond action research

Even without formal action research, field notes have value.

A teacher who keeps notes for a year has:

1. A detailed memory of what they taught.
2. Records of which methods worked with which content.
3. Notes on individual students’ progress.
4. Examples to share with colleagues.
5. Evidence to support appraisal claims.

These benefits accrue regardless of whether the teacher ever does formal action research. The habit of keeping notes is itself worthwhile.

When you have evidence, you have a foundation. Without evidence, every claim about your teaching is just a memory or an opinion. Field notes turn memory into record.

Flashcard

What five purposes does keeping field notes serve for a teacher?

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Answer

Record, planning, learning, communication, research

1. Record of teaching for future reference.

2. Planning future lessons based on past experience.

3. Learning from experience by re-reading past notes.

4. Communication with the principal at appraisal time.

5. Source material for action research.