Action research is an approach where, often as a group, you identify questions that you want to answer, and then you try to find the answers through what you do: the actions of the people you work and play with, and of yourself. For example, you might want to find out which children like music. Having identified this question, as a group of researchers, you could think of different ways in which you’d be able to tell if individual children liked music or not. You might think about if some children liked some music but not others, whether some liked listening or preferred making their own sounds. Action research is a way of finding your own answers to questions, based on observations and analysis. It’s also a way of focussing your attention – on your particular questions.