School science students can benefit greatly from participation in student-directed, open-ended scientific inquiry projects. For various possible reasons, however, students tend not to be engaged in such inquiries. Among factors that may limit their opportunities to engage in open-ended inquiries of their design are teachers' conceptions about…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a Local Systemic Change (LSC) initiative (N = 216) at Year 2 in a 5-year plan. Key questions were: What is the extent of school and teacher involvement?; What is the impact on teacher preparedness, attitudes, and beliefs?; and What is the extent of institutionalization? The model of…

The inquiry science process provides a perfect opportunity for students to practice relational meaning in language. As students design their experiments, negotiate their ideas with peers, and share their data and conclusions, they sharpen both their reading and written communication skills. This process needs to be mediated by having the teacher…

Teachers can easily identify what subjects their students have trouble with, whether it is transcription and translation, glycolysis and fermentation, balancing chemical equations, or vector analysis of forces acting on an object. Yet, no matter how teachers try to make these complex issues more accessible to students, or how new editions of…

Analyzing real motion with frame-by-frame precision can be conducted using modestly priced digital-video camcorders. Although well below the 1,000 frames-per-second threshold of high-speed cameras, commercially available camcorders grab 30 frames per second. A replay dissected at this lower frequency is fun to watch, challenges students'…

Educational researchers are increasingly using design as a means of advancing their understanding. Historically design in educational research has served as a way to implement theories for testing. The emerging design research paradigm treats design as a strategy for developing and refining theories. In this article, I discuss the lessons that can…

Forensic science courses encompasses the disciplines of biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics, which provides an opportunity for students to become engaged in all content areas within one course. The inquiry-based learning environment allows visualization of results almost immediately, facilitating student interest. The laboratory…

While simulations have widely been used to facilitate conceptual change in learning science, results indicate that significant disparity or gap between students' prior conceptions and scientific conceptions still exists. To bridge the gap, we argue that the applications of computer simulation in science education should be broadened to enable…

This exploratory study examined the feasibility of (a) a reading methods course promoting habits of inquiry in preservice teachers and (b) using "video cases" as a means of both promoting habits of inquiry and measuring the extent to which a preservice teacher has developed the dimensions of inquiry-based teaching. Three dimensions of inquiry were…

This article draws upon and integrates a number of distinct but overlapping areas of inquiry in the literature on teaching: teacher inquiry, reflective practice, spirituality and education, and contemplative practice. In it, we examine the implementation of a particular phenomenological form of teacher inquiry, the Descriptive Review, in an urban…

Geography is rapidly becoming more interactive, especially with the advent of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their adoption in the public and private sectors. The days of two-dimensional maps are quickly being replaced by geographic images that are stored electronically in computers and handheld…

Computer technology can be integrated into science inquiry activities to increase student motivation and enhance and expand scientific thinking. Fifth-grade students used the visual thinking tools in the Kidspiration[R] software program to generate and represent a web of hypotheses around the question, "What affects the distance a marble rolls?"…

Many mainstream content teachers are encountering, for the first time, K-12 students who are in the process of learning English as a second language (English language learners or ELLs), and this new population presents a significant challenge. Teachers are already familiar with many of the techniques available to help their ELLs comprehend…

As part of the training of students aiming to be primary science education specialists, Goldsmiths College, London, devised a plan to involve nine schools in a special project: a science investigation challenge. A teacher from each school would be trained to lead their pupils through the steps in developing a complete investigation for a…

This account draws on the experience of five final-year students of human communication and one tutor from the Manchester Metropolitan University who conducted collaborative research into life stages. The research was personally developmental for all those involved and resulted in an increased sense of personal power. The authors discuss the use…