A key challenge in implementing inquiry-based learning in mathematics has been raising teachers' confidence and skills with unfamiliar pedagogical practices. The nature of inquiry in particular challenges traditional notions of teaching mathematics that dominate the field. Few studies have explored how teachers' perceptions of the nature of…

Studies into early mathematics education have reported that play, and active exploration, provide promising settings for early mathematics education (Ginsburg, 2006) as the early years is a time to engage children in a range of mathematical ideas to develop their mathematical capability (MacDonald, 2018). More recently, the Australian Association…

Providing effective leadership and mentorship to students often requires an understanding of power systems and a focus on amplifying marginalized voices. The author, who identifies as a queer white woman, in her years as a graduate student, has found that attention to voice is essential, but also messy. As Donna M. Lanclos reminds,…

This article describes the challenges encountered by a teacher educator and self-study practitioner as he attempted to facilitate a group of colleagues in learning about and engaging in self-study over a two year period. While competent in conducting self-study for himself, the author had never before tried to teach it to others. This led to…

In this article, Sarah M. Fine uses portraiture to explore the undertheorized question of what it means to teach in ways that align with the values of the restorative justice framework. The piece centers around the work of Nora, a veteran teacher-leader who explored this question in the context of her own classroom and, as a result, shifted her…

With increasingly rigorous standards and mounting high stakes testing, it seems harder than ever to motivate and engage struggling readers. In this article the authors provide an overview of the inquiry learning process, which details how providing students with choice and opportunities to collaborate with peers can keep students invested in their…

This article presents case studies of two novice teachers and their mentors who, without formal knowledge of self-regulation theory, established a classroom environment that promoted self-regulated learning. This case was drawn from a larger descriptive study of novice teachers learning to integrate a student-centered visual literacy instructional…

English teacher Cris Tovani knows from her experiences teaching elementary school that students are naturally curious. But, too often, students are so trained to be question answerers that by the time they reach high school, they no longer form questions of their own and instead focus on trying to figure out what answer the teacher wants. Tovani…

This article details the principles and practices animating an "ethnographic" method of teaching social theory. As opposed to the traditional "survey" approach that aims to introduce students to the historical breadth of social thought, the primary objective of teaching ethnographically is to cultivate students as participant…

If blended learning in K-12 schools is to truly provide a student-centered experience, there is a need understand the interplay between teacher beliefs and practices to better support teachers tasked with blended teaching. This case study of a small blended high school answers the question, "How do teachers experience blended teaching and…

At the University System of Maryland (USM), researchers have taken a close look at a recent series of initiatives piloting course redesign (2006-2014). The courses targeted were multi-section developmental and gateway courses with a history of high DFW rates (i.e., a high rate of students receiving a D, fail, or withdraw). The strategy was to…

The author, a 5th-grade teacher at an independent boys' school, gives a first-person account of how her constant assessments and requirement that her students be active participants in their own learning gainsays the need for high-stakes, standardized testing. She posits a "living assessment" that is intertwined, interactive and…

This article considers a school community initiating change in pedagogical practices to complement new-build premises in the context of demands for school improvement, but constraints on autonomy. We investigate how school leaders planned the change towards enquiry-based learning in flexible spaces, and how teaching staff prepared for the coming…

Traditional classroom instruction consists of teacher-centered learning in which the instructor presents course material through lectures. A recent trend in higher education is the implementation of student-centered learning in which students take a more active role in the learning process. The purpose of this article is to describe the discomfort…

This study examines the implementation of teaching strategies by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in inquiry-based introductory geology labs at a large research university. We assess the degree of inquiry present in each Physical Geology lab and compare and contrast the instructional practices of new and experienced GTAs teaching these labs. We…