The function of the child-centered school is to facilitate learning so that learners become the workers and teachers become collaborative learning enhancers. Four curriculum strands (self-readiness-competence-inquiry) are woven into a learning model that integrates learning styles, curriculum structure and subject-matter organization,…

Linguistic content analysis, method of encoding textual data by categorizing key words and identifying relationships, was developed to assess degree to which science was portrayed as process of inquiry within high school biology textbook series. The frequency of science as a process of inquiry increased from 1956 to 1965, then showed a pattern of…

Examines how the structure of learning communities shapes the teaching/learning task, and describes the kind of pedagogical adjustments that learning communities demand of students and faculty. Notes that the structure creates avenues for intellectual and pedagogical exploration; the attitude of shared inquiry and mutual, responsible community can…

Recommends that teachers combine multicultural education with an inquiry-based approach to social studies to help students critically examine society. Addresses the different obstacles when adopting this approach and offers an example of the inquiry method at work. Identifies 12 essential questions and controversial issues to use in classroom…

Identifies the essential features of critical inquiry and shows how it differs from the critical procedures often recommended by educators. Explains the implications of the inquiry process for teaching criticism. Provides a model of critical-inquiry instruction by suggesting three basic instructional strategies for teachers and describing an…

Describes an activity on charting 6th and 7th grade students' ideas about a potential science project. Summarizes a five week project on creating a new ride or redesigning existing rides in an amusement park, including research and sketches, final drawings, models of rides, and class presentations. (YDS)

Presents evidence that early and primary school learning exhibits features that previously were thought typical of adult learners only. Reconceptualizes child-centered primary education in light of theories on expertise, conceptual change, and epistemological development. Explores a theoretical approach to learning called progressive inquiry…

Examines the use of four versions of narrative inquiry with preservice teachers: response to practicum experiences, responses to reading, small and large group discussions, and reflection papers. Each helps students explore narrative assumptions that contribute to their images of teaching, enabling them to explore unexamined parts of their…

Explores the stance of the teacher in the teaching of reading within a literature-based classroom. Describes one elementary teacher using a holistic, inquiry-based curriculum. Discusses fundamental beliefs informing his practices; the informative and transformative role of literature; strategy-sharing sessions with the class; and becoming…

Reviews three projects that use a graphing calculator linked to a calculator-based laboratory device as a portable data-collection system for students in chemistry classes. Projects include Isolation, Purification and Quantification of Buckminsterfullerene from Woodstove Ashes; Determination of the Activation Energy Associated with the…

Presents advice to teachers on how to help elementary students make decisions about their own scientific investigations. (Author/WRM)

Reports on the methods and outcomes of a teacher development project that exposed teachers to inquiry as it is practiced in the discipline of ecology. Explores factors that are potentially effective on teachers' professional development experiences in ecological inquiry. Examines the variations of teachers, starting points, grade levels, and…

Good science education depends on solid content and active learning. Effective teaching in all the physical sciences should have a similar focus on important concepts and effective learning experiences. Students of all ages benefit from experiential learning. Inquiry, which combines hands-on and minds-on learning, engages students in a process…

Reports on a study of the views of teachers and staff on the introduction of individual investigative work into the precollege, advanced-level chemistry courses in Great Britain. Contains 21 references. (DDR)

Offers insight into the sorts of questions that might be asked in scientific inquiry and suggests a new sort of question--What If?--complementary to those questions which have traditionally dominated scientific practices. (PVD)