Book excerpt: How do we know what works in primary schools? How do we make sure that we are always learning from fellow teachers, always learning from the children we teach and always moving forward? The answer lies in research. In understanding, conducting, disseminating and learning from research. But what do we mean by research, and how do we ′do′ it? This book is your guide to research in primary education. It takes you through both important established theory and recent developments in research and explores what these mean right now for primary education and classroom settings. It helps you to conceive, conduct, write up and share your research with others. It looks at how you can access research findings to improve your classroom practice and deepen your understanding. It examines how you can use research in your classroom everyday to continually enhance teaching, and how you can shape and frame the questions you ask to help you get to the answers you need. If you are a trainee teacher doing a research project as part of your course, or a qualified teacher doing further study, this text includes all the guidance you need. If you are a teacher wanting to find out what works best for your class, in your school, right now, this text will show you how to harness the power of small or large scale research to help you find the answer.