Although well researched in educational studies, inquiry-based learning, a student-centred way of teaching, is far away from being implemented in day-to-day science and mathematics teaching on a large scale. It is a challenge for teachers to adopt this new way of teaching in an often not supportive school context. Therefore it is important to…

The overall aim of this quantitative non-experimental study was to investigate the degree to which content-focused professional development, active based-learning professional development and teacher self-efficacy predict student performance in reading, within persistently low-performing schools. The need to investigate professional development in…

An experience theory is required if the education is to be wisely carried out (John Dewey). Education is a discipline that saves lives if it is qualified, but loss of which could not be made up throughout generations if it is not qualified. The roots of society are based on the education, and educated masses and civilizations could either move…

This article attempts to explore the extent to which Lecturer e-Training Program (LeP) supports lecturers in their preparation for student-centred teaching. LeP was conducted in a blended mode, that is, it involved an online self-paced learning module followed by an interactive online discussion and ended with a face-to-face action learning. It…

An evaluation of the effectiveness of a large-scale professional development (PD) programme delivered to 258 schools in Queensland, Australia is presented. Formal evaluations were conducted at two stages during the programme using a tool developed from Desimone's five core features of effective PD. Descriptive statistics of 38 questions and…

The purpose of this investigation was to explore changes in undergraduate and graduate teaching assistants' (TAs') content knowledge and beliefs about teaching within the context of an inquiry-based laboratory course. TAs received professional development (PD), which was informed by the TA training literature base and was designed for TAs…

Quantitative skills are an important competency for undergraduate biology students and should be incorporated early and frequently in an undergraduate's career. Community colleges (CCs) are responsible for teaching introductory biology to a large proportion of biology and prehealth students, and quantitative skills are critical for their careers.…

This is a reflective essay based on the experience of developing a structure and function module within a new integrated medical curriculum. Our hope is that the insights we gained during a 4-yr journey in a new medical school will be transferable to others engaged with curriculum development. Here, we present an interpretive analysis of our…

A study of a discipline-specific teacher development project designed to prepare teachers to implement a series of core instructional practices for pre-collegiate history teaching is described as a model that can be applied to any content discipline. Teachers were surveyed concerning the success of the project in achieving the goals it set,…

The purpose of this study was to explore to what extent the in-service chemistry teachers improved their PCK after attending the training program at the Faculty of Education. The research questions were: (1) How do in-service teachers' personal perceptions about the teaching/learning process change after attending the training course at the…

The study identifies the relationships between active learning, student teachers' self-regulated learning and professional competences. Further, the aim is to investigate how active learning promotes professional competences of student teachers with different self-regulation profiles. Responses from 422 student teachers to an electronic survey…

We present an inquiry-based, aquatic science professional development (PD) for upper-elementary, middle, and high school teachers and examine changes in student outcomes in light of participating teachers' characteristics and the grade band of the students. Our study lends support to the assertion that inquiry- and content-focused PD, paired with…

Undergraduate introductory biology courses are changing based on our growing understanding of how students learn and rapid scientific advancement in the biological sciences. At Iowa State University, faculty instructors are transforming a second-semester large-enrollment introductory biology course to include active learning within the lecture…

With increasing demands on student achievement as set forth by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (2001), teachers are the catalyst for improving their students' performance (Marzano, 2000). Existing studies on the use of formative assessment as a process by which teachers elicit information of their students' progress and use that information to…

Inquiry-based learning methods, coupled with advanced technology, hold promise for closing the science literacy gap for English learners (ELs) and students with learning difficulties (SWLDs). Project ESCOLAR (Etext Supports for Collaborative Online Learning and Academic Reading) created collaborative online learning units for middle school science…