As schools endeavor to provide all students with access to computational thinking and computer science, the hackathon emerges as a competitive and high-energy event that uses authentic problems to motivate learners to engage in the domain of computing. This article presents the design case of a hackathon for teenagers as enacted over five…

Background: Teachers can have a significant impact on student interest and learning in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects and careers. Teacher self-efficacy can also significantly affect student learning. Researchers investigated the effects of teacher professional development and integrated STEM curriculum development on…

The Maker Movement has taken the educational field by storm due to its perceived potential as a driver of creativity, excitement, and innovation (Honey & Kanter, [Honey, M., 2013]; Martinez & Stager, [Martin, L., 2013]). Making is promoted as advancing entrepreneurship, developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)…

This study offers an analysis of the learning of practicing teachers as they acquire a deeper knowledge of mathematics. While some professional developers have shifted part of their focus to helping practicing teachers acquire a deeper knowledge of mathematics (e.g., Stein & Silver, 1996), the results from studies often describe what translates…

A program for prospective elementary and secondary teachers emphasizing inquiry and problem solving techniques for use in the classroom is described. In the conceptual framework of this program, a situation is defined as a set of circumstances that teachers commonly encounter, and an issue is a theoretical, ethical, or methodological question. A…

Philosophy for Children, a program incorporating teaching methods of inquiry among groups of students and designed to introduce students to philosophy through texts designed to generate discussion, has grown enormously since its inception in the late 1960s. Experimental research on the program's impact has demonstrated significant gains in…

A method of discovery learning in which students learn the technique of observing and formulating questions is applied to landscape archaeology. This method demands that the relationship between tutor and student be adjusted so that the tutor becomes a fellow researcher rather than a conveyor of information. (Author/CSS)

The article presents the Student Interest Unit (SIU) 0-100 (an instructional strategy based on student interest) approach to motivating gifted and talented children. (PHR)

In this article knowledge productivity, a process that creates conceptual artifacts, is used as a way to investigate the outcomes of collaborative and enquiry-oriented activity by teaching professionals. It is an outcome of the motivation to learn (self-regulation) in that it studies the issues from different professional perspectives (reflection…

Describes the Integrated Secondary Teacher Education Program (I-STEP), offered at Northern Arizona University, which educates teachers for middle school careers. Describes program features: (1) integration; (2) field experience; (3) inquiry and problem--based learning; (4) intense collaboration; and (5) alternative student assessment models. (KB)

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional approach that has been used successfully for over 30 years and continues to gain acceptance in multiple disciplines. It is an instructional (and curricular) learner-centered approach that empowers learners to conduct research, integrate theory and practice, and apply knowledge and skills to develop…

The "componential" theory of intelligence explains intelligence in terms of three types of component processes that make up intelligent performance. The first of these, "metacomponents," are the higher-order or executive processes that one uses to plan what one is going to do, monitor what one is doing, and evaluate what one…

The document describes a practicum which developed a unit on critical thinking that applied Jerome Bruner's discovery-learning method and also incorporated the unit within the curricular requirements of elementary education majors at Castleton State College in Vermont. It is presented in five sections and an appendix. Section I provides…

A set of instructional materials and methods, designated Inquiry Development Program, was designed to teach children how to learn independently. The student was presented with an event which had an outcome that ran counter to his expectations. Motivated by his curiousity, he then searched for an explanation to the discrepancy between what he…

Teaching enquiry methods, that is, skills concerned with constructing knowledge from available information and searching for new information, is the subject of this study, which provides a background to the subject as well as a review of research. The study sought to answer the question of whether problem-solving performances of primary school…