The theme of this issue of "Education in Science" focuses on what delegates could "take away" from the Reading 2011 ASE Annual Conference and includes ideas and information about science education research. There were a variety of presentations, ranging from reporting about action research projects where the success of interventions was described to other, bigger and less practice-oriented projects, such as the Wellcome Project reviewing young people's views of science. These presentations provided glimpses into the ways that research is carried out, but usually focused quite pointedly on the findings rather than the methods applied. This article presents a review of different kinds of presentations on research at the Annual Conference and highlights the range of views about and of practitioner research in science education.