An important goal of science education is for students to understand the nature of science. Science education has raised the question of what science is, how scientific knowledge is developed and how people participate in this process under the conceptual umbrella of 'nature of science' (NOS). This study aims to look at the effectiveness of the…

Having a well-founded insight into the characteristics of teachers inquiry-based attitude (IA) supports operationalising IA as a learning goal in teacher education (TE). The aim of this study is to refine the notion of IA from an ill-defined global concept into something with reliable and valid characteristics. To do so, data were gathered on…

This qualitative case study presents three novices in urban schools who enacted curricular projects as participants in a university-based professional development program. This experience created an opportunity for practical risk taking, enabling them to consider the consequences of curricular choices in personal terms. Such professional…

An investigation of the function of the term "inquiry" in the field of social studies is made in this conference paper. Inquiry as an activity of student investigation is examined. The distinction is made between student-centered and scholarly-based inquiry in social studies classes. Two perspectives are discussed--inquiry as a process and inquiry…

The writings of 33 authors in either curriculum theory or social studies are analyzed to determine whether each author supports structure-discovery views, reflective-inquiry views, or expresses views that tend to reflect both positions or neither position regarding the new approaches to teaching social studies. The structure-discovery method is…

This paper presents four principles to be followed in the development of experience-based curriculum. The principles have been extrapolated from John Dewey's theory of experience ("Experience and Education," 1938). They are discussed in this paper in terms of several existing curriculum materials for elementary and secondary education.…

The plea of this bulletin, the second and full revision of The Problems Approach and the Social Studies copyrighted in 1955 and 1960, is for teachers to do more with the reflective method in their classrooms. It draws upon the latest and most pertinent insights distilled from research, theory, and practice associated with reflective thinking;…