Every year, K-12 students throughout the U.S. learn about their local community's historical roots and development, economy, weather, climate, and geology. With the increasing prevalence of inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning in history and science, new possibilities arise for authentic, situated learning activities. One such…

NASA Explorer Schools provides unique opportunities for students and teachers by offering access to technology and resources that are seemingly beyond reach. Combining new technologies with NASA content, lesson plans, and real-world experiments enables teachers to enhance inquiry-based learning and augment student engagement. This publication…

Intended for use in undergraduate or postbaccalaureate teacher preparation programs, during staff development activities, and in introductory graduate teacher education courses, this book introduces K-12 teachers to the topic of helping students use reading and writing as tools for learning. This third edition retains features of earlier…

This book offers new practices for raising student achievement as it advocates for responsible changes in the policies, structures, and operations of schools, providing a perspective to help educators face the challenges of professional learning on a personal level. Its 11 sections focus on: (1) "Introduction: Essential Questions about…

This issue of ENC Focus is organized around the theme of educational change. It intends to provide teachers with practical resources and suggestions for implementing reform ideas in the classrooms. Featured articles include: (1) "There Can Be No Improvement Without the Teacher" (Michael Fullan and Andy Hargreaves); (2) "Changing…

This paper presents a model of supervision that examines and informs the understanding of professional development within a Professional Development School (PDS) context. It offers a theoretically-based model for supervision, drawing on three bodies of literature (supervision, teacher inquiry, and PDSs). The study constructed and explored a model…

This document presents the revised Arkansas Science Curriculum Framework (1999), which replaces the Science Curriculum Framework of 1994. Three strands--physical science systems, life science systems, and Earth science/space science systems--were identified using an integrated approach to provide guidance in the science curriculum. A glossary and…

This document explains the Arkansas science benchmarks for grades 5-8 which were developed to provide guidance to science teachers. The content standards for three strands--physical science systems, life science systems, and Earth science/space science systems--were identified based on grade levels. (YDS)

The need for the exploration of phenomena in students' daily lives requires effective approaches in inquiry-based science education for minority and urban students. There are few descriptions of students' initial attempts at inquiry, especially among urban school students. This study focuses on seventh and eighth grade students, and investigates…

Inquiry is an essential component of science. Furthermore, what students learn and how they engage in inquiry supported by technology is important to understand in order to promote science education reform. This paper presents an overview of work in curriculum and technology development and professional development. Collaboration with the Detroit…

This book was written from the Deweyan premise that children will become lifelong, self-directed learners by engaging in inquiry processes with interdisciplinary content and that, from these explorations, upper elementary and middle school students can inductively formulate concepts and generalizations that help to explain the world and what it…

This book examines the commonplace rituals and ceremonies that play a central role in college and university culture; it examines how people build, learn, and transform culture in ways that create meaning and give definition to existence. Qualitative research on four campuses over 10 years investigated: why colleges persist with rituals and…

To gain insights into preservice teachers' growing capacity to be exploring, reflective practitioners, portfolio assessment is being adopted in some teacher education programs. The teacher as reflective practitioner and portfolio assessment became the foundations of one Carnegie-I research university's four-phase secondary education program.…

In most of the States there are privately controlled institutions providing higher education. An obligation rests upon the State in the interest of public welfare to insure the high quality of that higher education. The purpose of this inquiry is to analyze the extent of supervision exercised over privately controlled institutions of higher…