Describes researcher and teacher-researcher analyses of inquiry teaching of the nature of science to prospective elementary teachers. Discusses the difficulties with presenting a cogent and comprehensive picture of the nature of science, the teacher's pivotal role in initiating discussions of science and scientists' work, and the strengths and…

Presents a five-activity sequence designed to help students understand the effects of population doubling. Activities consider the effects of population doubling on human interactions, drinking water supplies, and food supply. Students also develop graphs of data and write research papers. (WRM)

Eighteen months after a women's advocacy group leveled sex-discrimination charges against 25 prominent college athletics departments, the Department of Education has cleared eight of the institutions, and 10 others have agreed to give more scholarship money to women athletes. However, some are unhappy about the investigation process, claiming…

Describes a project in the Detroit Public Schools that provided television set-top Internet access devices to Latino families as part of a project to link the school and home in an inquiry-based science curriculum. Discusses early phases of adoption of the Internet and NetTV devices by families. (Author/LRW)

This paper argues that there has been academic amnesia in the field of self-study with respect to the intellectual heritage underlying self-study as a way of understanding teaching practice. From Aristotle to Dewey, the concept of practical inquiry or deliberation has been a recurrent theme. However Schwab's exploration of the role of the…

A limited body of research examines the extent to which social studies teachers are actually utilizing primary sources that are accessible in traditional classroom-based formats versus web-based formats. This paper initiates an exploration of this gap in the literature by reporting on the result of a survey of secondary social studies teachers,…

In the flurry of activity surrounding the implementation of No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) student proficiency mandates, the federal requirement to have a "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom by 2005 seemed like an impossible goal. However, 2005 has come and gone and the highly qualified teacher crisis never happened. In this…

In this article, the author discusses "The Biology of Food" course. This course--a large lecture course with no laboratory section--is a mixture of kitchen chemistry, post-eating food metabolism, origins of different foods (from crop breeding to evolution), and ecological and environmental impacts of farming and harvesting practices. Nearly every…

Inquiry can be implemented in various ways, ranging from simple classroom discussions to longterm research projects. In this article, the authors developed a project in which high school students were introduced to the nature and process of scientific discovery through a two-week guided inquiry unit on "limnology"--the study of fresh water, which…

This paper explores how teachers with different teaching styles conceptualized and implemented a multimedia-supported problem-based inquiry (PBI) unit. We focus on how the teachers supported student thinking and examine underlying belief, knowledge, and dispositional factors that may account for differences in the teachers' practices. We…

This chapter argues that a critical analysis of the interlocking notions of class, race, and gender is needed to enable adult education to respond to growing inequalities.

Involving students in inquiry-based exercises is much more difficult than simply providing activities for them to do in the classroom. While active learning suggests students are physically participating in the lesson, inquiry learning requires that they are also mentally participating in it. Academic theorists agree it is more the mental…

Math in a Cultural Context (MCC) was developed from ethnographic work with Yup'ik elders and teachers. The need for culturally based curricula seems obvious to those in the field of educational anthropology, but not necessarily to policymakers. Two case studies of novice teachers, one cultural "insider" and one "outsider,"…

This paper reports on a 2-year study designed to investigate the trajectory of change in an urban 5th grade teacher as she introduces science inquiry using the Web-Based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE). Data for this study included videotapes and transcripts of classroom instruction, and audiotapes and transcripts of interviews conducted with…

Learning science in a meaningful way involves more than doing a series of activities directed towards anticipated outcomes. Learning science entails teacher and children talking together as "co-constructors" of knowledge (Barnes, 1976). Karen Gallas (1995) has described her long-term observations of the kinds of talk which contribute to…