From the Series "Social Studies Education: The Elementary School -- Focus on Inquiry.

Provides ideas for helping students find sources and discover a topic for a research paper and discusses students' research processes, focusing on the need to allow students time to make meanings out of the facts they gather. (SRT)

The authors describe an experimental curriculum they developed, whose central core is the child's recognition of his uniqueness, identity, and legitimacy as a real person. The curriculum is based on the belief that the basis of a child's learning is himself and his need to get information about his world. (JB)

Critically examines the "English ethnographic tradition's" view that classroom instruction transmits propositional knowledge. Uses observed classroom discourse to argue that instruction in fact produces knowledge, both propositional and "how-to". (MCG)

Elementary teachers and principals enrolled in an elementary education graduate course developed this guide which interprets and applies the concept of inquiry teaching and learning. The purpose of the guide is to bridge the gap between the theory of the inquiry process and its use in the classroom. It is written for use by elementary educators as…

Describes an activity that demonstrates a teaching-learning model in which students ask yes or no questions to determine an unknown number on a number line. Provides a sequence of five steps to carry out the activity and suggestions for extending and expanding the activity for different grade levels. (MDH)

Curriculum guidelines are given for social studies instruction in primary grades in New South Wales. No compulsory topics are suggested, but the rationale, objectives, and areas of inquiry provide a framework within which teachers can work. Based on the assumption that social studies should contribute to the development of individuals who can…

This is a report of a study conducted by a group of teachers to discover the extent to which students in the first three years of school were aware of the phonetic system of their native language (French) with emphasis on the means they used to analyze it. In the first year, the children discovered phonetic oppositions by touching their lips and…

Describes the use and rationale of "Silent Teaching," a teaching technique in which the teacher remains silent as students generate and evaluate hypotheses while trying to understand an as-yet undiscovered concept. (MDH)

A study is described of heuristic devices useful in learning both native and second languages. The study concerns particularly the means used by very young students (second and third graders) in vocabulary acquisition and in the establishment of semantic relationships. It was of concern to verify if (1) the children would use their knowledge of…

Based on a longitudinal study of language development, this book charts the language development of 32 British children from shortly after their first birthdays to the end of their elementary education, and explores a number of questions related to this development. Chapter 1 describes the children and their families, chapter 2 discusses the…