A key distinction between an education doctorate, or Ed.D., and other doctorates in the field of education is the development of scholar practitioners armed with knowledge and skills to successfully lead change in their profession. Critical inquiry is one such skill, increasingly taught in many Ed.D. programs in some form of applied research…

Shifting to an inquiry-based practice can be challenging. How should teachers get started? How many times should teachers plan for inquiry? What do teachers do when students struggle with inquiry? How long does it take for students to buy in to the inquiry process? These kinds of questions, and the concerns that underlie them, can create an…

Human dignity is a complex, though essential, concept for students to master. Inserting human dignity into existing curricula provides students with more opportunities to consider the problems of vulnerable classmates and the status of human dignity and rights in the United States and around the world. Using parts of the US modern Civil Rights…

Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is an active-learning pedagogy that emphasizes content mastery as well as the development of process skills like critical thinking and problem solving. Although published POGIL materials are available in several STEM disciplines, there are still a number of courses within a variety of disciplines…

High quality teaching involves deep content knowledge, understanding students and their learning processes, and complex skills of teaching and assessment. Students who experience high quality teaching tend to achieve higher annual growth rates. This study used a descriptive, qualitative research model to explore excellence in social studies…

This paper considers a curriculum design motivated by a desire to explore more valid pedagogical approaches that foster critical thinking skills among students engaged in an Environmental Science course in South Africa, focussing specifically on the topic of Citizen Science. Fifty-three under graduate students were involved in the course, which…

A gap has existed between the tools and processes of scientists working on anthropogenic global climate change (AGCC) and the technologies and curricula available to educators teaching the subject through student inquiry. Designing realistic scientific inquiry into AGCC poses a challenge because research on it relies on complex computer models,…

Educators in the social studies content area have struggled for over a century with how to best instruct their students in critical thinking. A growing group of researchers in the discipline of history, one of the major components of social studies education, support teaching the domain-specific skills of historical thinking through the process of…

This piece shares preservice teachers and instructors reflections on their perceptions of a course on Spanish language arts methods in Puerto Rico. The course was redesigned to focus on interrelated curricular and pedagogical aspects such as literacies as situated social practice, funds of knowledge, popular culture and critical literacy. In…

Environmental planning education has become crucial given the projected implications of climate change for human settlements and nature. However, despite the identified importance of educating planners with regards to sustainability and environmental issues, there has been limited discussion of the topic within literature. In particular, there has…

A study investigated effects of particular units of study on gifted elementary and middle school learners (n=2,189). The use of an integrated literature and writing unit produced significant gains for gifted learners in key aspects of language arts as assessed by demonstration of high-level thinking on performance-based measures. (Contains…

North Carolina State University (NCSU) is a Research Intensive (Research I) university located in Raleigh, the state capital. Increasingly over the past ten years, NCSU faculty interested in issues of teaching and learning have used the term "inquiry-guided learning" (IGL) to describe the kind of learning they are trying to promote. The…

Only a few general principles are provided as a foundation for an effective program. However, what is new is the emphasis on human groups as a basis for organizing a single social studies discipline. Some questions are suggested concerning what should be investigated about groups, and what the students need to understand. 1) What causes human…

This resource guide sets out a structure from which units, semester courses, or one-year courses may be developed in Canadian economic studies in the senior high. The Ontario Department of Education lists five possible aims for courses developed from this resource guide: 1) student awareness of fundamental problems, basic forces at work, and key…

The conference aims for primary school social studies teaching are: 1) to create an awareness and an understanding of the evolving social and physical environment as a whole, together with the rational use and conservation of these resources for development; 2) to develop a capacity to learn and to acquire basic skills together with the skills of…