This essay offers an organizational critique based on ongoing observations and reflections from a two-year process of establishing collective gardens that honor Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Key findings include illuminating interconnected relationships among plants, animals, and people living near one another, new meanings of power, and why…

Inquiry activities generate rich opportunities for STEM learning and for assessment. When teachers pay attention to assessment information collected during the course of learning, they are able to interpret and make decisions about such assessment data in a timely fashion that can drive future planning and support student learning, for example…

This paper develops a cosmopolitical approach to multi-species inquiry in environmental education and its associated research. Drawing on Isabelle Stengers' concepts of "etho-ecology" and an "ecology of practices", the paper explores ethical and political questions of what it means to think-with nonhuman animals as sentient…

Researchers navigating the ontological turn in educational research have increasingly looked to art as an alternative to conventional modes of qualitative inquiry. However, the rapprochement between art and post-qualitative research remains problematic. While some see this turn coinciding with established genealogies in arts-based research, others…

This article calls for greater attention to the role of emotion and affect in classroom discussions where theoretical models of discussion and deliberation tend to emphasize the rationalistic elements called for in such pedagogical strategies. Using two examples drawn from secondary classrooms, the authors highlight the role of emotion and affect…

This article argues that one of the main goals of social or civic studies is to empower students. However, traditional teaching practices often have the opposite effect of disempowering students. Traditional teaching practices are understood to emerge from the history and context of public schooling, from early practices, which have been reified.…

Our particular flavor of inquiry-based learning (IBL) uses mathematical discourse, conversations, and discussions to empower students to deepen their mathematical thinking, building on strengths of students in the humanities. We present an organized catalog of powerful questions, discussion prompts, and talk moves that can help faculty facilitate…

The More Leaps project provided leading languages teachers in Australia the opportunity to work with a suite of professional learning materials and with colleagues in a collaborative inquiry community, aimed at exploring models of mentoring and developing improved leadership skills. Each participant developed a mentoring inquiry project, and these…

Drawing from their respective work at the intersection of music and science, the coauthors argue that engaging in processes of making music can help students more deeply engage in the kinds of creativity associated with inquiry based science education (IBSE) and scientists better convey their ideas to others. Of equal importance, the processes of…

All education proceeds within a complex array of epistemological and ontological factors that constitute a shifting and intricate learning environment for teachers, pre-service teachers and school students alike. We have expanded a "praxis inquiry" protocol into a "critical praxis" protocol for use in pre-service programs. A…

The National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) have been one of the leading reformed documents in the U.S. since its release. It has served as a foundation for all state standards and has supported the development of the newest standards documents recently released in the U.S. (i.e., Achieve Inc., 2013; NRC 2012). One of the most important…

We explored the experiences of first year chemistry students of an Enquiry-Based Learning (EBL) approach to learning spectroscopy. An investigation of how students' perceived confidences changed as a result of their experience of using EBL in the spectroscopy course was carried out. Changes in the students' perceived confidence, both in their…

Due to the variations of design and protocol in qualitative inquiry, researchers may inadvertently create problems for themselves in terms of the trustworthiness of their research. Miscommunication between participants and researchers can especially arise from the unique and unpredictable nature of human dynamics. In this paper I contend that such…

This article focuses on the practical issues in implementing instructional approaches based on constructivist views of learning. The authors do not view this as a procedural guide, but rather believe that the design of these inquiry based learning (IBL) approaches must be guided by the view of learning represented in constructivist frameworks.…

This article presents a detailed case study analysis of oral and written language expressed by Jacqueline Meyer, a teacher of elementary English Language Learners (ELL),as she struggled to navigate the current political terrain with her students. Ms. Meyer's district adopted commercial materials and increased the amount and substance of testing…