The term 'classroom research' is slightly ambiguous in that it can have both a narrow and a wide interpretation. In the narrow sense of the word, it just refers to the dynamics of classroom interactions and procedures, and data-gathering is based on and restricted to what is going on in regular classrooms (cf. van Lier 1988). However, in the context of learner autonomy it seems wiser to subscribe to a wider sense, which includes characteristics of the learners, teachers, the learning process itself and the broader socio-political context in which classrooms are embedded, in order to facilitate interpretations of the procedures and developmental processes in autonomous classrooms and their learning outcomes.