Previous scholarship has signaled the potential of practitioner inquiry for fostering an inquiry stance among teacher candidates during preservice teacher education. Little is known, however, about the relationships teacher candidates assume vis-à-vis knowledge construction -- a core dimension of inquiry stance -- as they inquire. The study…

This study used a cluster randomized controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of two approaches to increasing middle school students' science learning when using an inquiry-based science curriculum. Eighty-nine schools, with 253 teachers and 20,591 students, were randomly assigned into one of three conditions: (a) a treatment condition in…

Despite global interest in inquiry as a teaching and learning approach for school geography, little is known about teachers' knowledge and beliefs for teaching geography through inquiry. This paper reports on findings from a survey of 44 Victorian secondary teachers' knowledge, beliefs and practice of teaching geography through inquiry. Our…

One of the main objectives of science education is to produce students and, in general, a society that is scientifically literate. To achieve this objective, teachers across the different educational stages must work on science at school, so it is essential that students in education degrees reach scientific competence, but for this, it would be…

This article analyzes the ways in which action research during preservice teacher education influences the development of a critical inquiry stance. By following eight preservice teachers as they conducted action research in their final semester of student teaching, this article demonstrates how action research created the space for preservice…

This article conceptualises and presents the authors' framework for critical reflection-on-action. 'He Anga Huritao' (translated as a 'framework for reflection') was developed as part of the dialogic discourse intended to transform how New Zealand beginning teachers reflect on their practice. The framework makes reference to concepts of teacher…

Formal teacher preparation programs are facing the challenge of ineffective instruction of educational theories. It is partly because educational theories are taught through direct instruction, which could lead to problems such as impersonality and low motivation of pre-service teachers. In addition, it is also an unwieldy task for teacher…

As Agricultural Education shifts to a more science-based curriculum to help fulfill shortcomings of the current United States science test scores, teachers implementing Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) is becoming more important. For Agriculture Educators to do this, training is necessary for both new and experienced educators. This study was…

Background: Effective teaching of university chemistry in an online environment not only requires teachers to have specific discipline content knowledge; it also requires them to have knowledge and skills in technology-enhanced teaching practices. When transitioning from traditional face-to-face teaching into online contexts, teachers must learn…

Science teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning are a vital component of teachers' professional competence and are often assumed to impact classroom practice. To date, these beliefs have been predominantly investigated regarding teaching and learning in general or for a particular science subject (e.g., physics). It remains to be determined…

Scholars have theorized about the growing movement of teacher research, where school-based practitioners engage in systematic examinations of their own work. They have argued that teacher research challenges relationships of knowledge and practice, as teacher-researchers are likely to ask different questions and offer different perspectives…

Experts argue that preservice programs should focus on a defined set of core teaching practices and structure their curriculum around them. Such experts argue that practice-based teacher educators must "represent" and "decompose" core practices with novices and offer them opportunities to "approximate" those practices…

This article utilises narrative inquiry as a means to explore reflexively our roles as two scholars/teacher educators with extensive experience in education and international development initiatives in East and Southern Africa. It focuses on a teacher professional development program in Tanzania we helped initiate and facilitate for more than five…

Developing learners' critical thinking skills through inquiry-based teaching has been an important aspect of science education. This is an exploratory study aimed at investigating the practice of inquiry-based teaching in schools that use a foreign language (English) in teaching science content. To address the issue, we conducted video…

This paper reports on a study that investigated the potential of using Appreciative Inquiry for exploring the development of three beginning science teachers in the Solomon Islands. Using the four phases of an Appreciative Inquiry framework, the teachers followed a process that allowed their strengths to be identified through the analysis of their…