Inquiry-based teacher education promotes an exploration of concrete particulars as the route to wise practice. The case study presented illustrates one teacher candidate's struggle to let go of a conception of knowledge as generalizable formulae that can be readily applied in practice and to become more open to practice itself as a site of…

The purpose of this article is to describe findings from a study of teachers' social interaction during discussions about students' thinking. The goal of the discussions was for the teachers to interpret their students' thinking as revealed from work on non-routine, thought-revealing mathematical tasks, known as "model-eliciting…

There are several legitimate ways of conceptualizing and studying wisdom. One is largely informed by Western philosophy and treats wisdom as an analytic theory of expert knowledge, judgment, and advice about difficult and uncertain matters of life. Another is more consistent with Asian philosophical nonsecularized traditions and treats wisdom as…

In 1993 two of the authors of this article published a survey of introductory biology laboratory instruction in colleges and universities of the U.S. in order to document the status of laboratory instruction, and in particular, the use of inquiry based instruction. In this article, the authors present a survey that examined the changes that may…

In this article, the authors offer social studies educators two student-centered, inquiry-based techniques to help students learn about the contributions of historical figures. Both strategies were classroom tested and proved effective at helping students learn about historical figures in a challenging and enjoyable way. Although techniques in…

This article, the first of a two-part series, introduces the living history program. This yearly, weeklong program features living portrayals of famous people, which becomes a catalyst for teaching curricular standards, as well as providing the spark for inquiry. Here, the authors describe how the yearly living history program was implemented and…

Between 1999 and 2003, the Western Massachusetts Writing Project experienced a series of changes that made it question whether it could survive as a writing project site. The convergence of retirement, unexpected death, and withdrawal of long-term financial support forced the existing leadership to develop a process to look deeply into the work of…

At the University of the Free State (UFS) blended learning (a combination of face-to-face and online modes of delivery) is regarded as a relatively new practice with possibilities of addressing many of the context-specific teaching and learning problems at the institution. During the planning phase for the third cycle of an action inquiry project…

This report describes an inquiry-based Earth systems curriculum and strategies for teaching diverse students, which were embedded in the curriculum. The curriculum was implemented with 5th-grade students with varied linguistic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds in five schools in a large, southeastern U.S., urban school district. At the end…

Geographic information systems (GIS) are computer-based tools for geographic data analysis and spatial visualization. They have become one of the information and communications technologies for education at all levels. This article reviews the current status of GIS in schools, analyzes the requirements of a GIS-based learning environment from…

According to the NCTM reform suggestions, when teachers are orchestrators of student interactions, students adopt a more active role in explaining and learning mathematics. This research, which mapped the nature and role of meaningful mathematical discourse, provides insights into discursive practices that lead to rich mathematical interactions.…

The case-based computerized laboratory (CCL) is a chemistry learning environment that integrates computerized experiments with emphasis on scientific inquiry and comprehension of case studies. The research objective was to investigate chemical understanding and graphing skills of high school honors students via bidirectional visual and textual…

This article describes an engaging, data-gathering activity that allows students to explore relationships between latitude and average monthly temperatures of cities in the Western Hemisphere. This data-gathering activity covered interesting and important mathematical ground and engaged students from the start. While students searched for their…

This book explores the wide range of contexts in which research into creating connections in learning and teaching may take place. Creating connections can encompass making links, crossing divides, forming relationships, building frameworks, and generating new knowledge. The cognitive, cultural, social, emotional and/or physical aspects of…

Within the last two decades intercultural teacher education has become a priority in many European countries. The consensus among researchers, it seems, is that intercultural education should begin with the initial training of teachers. In this paper we present the implementation of a collaborative action research programme in which we built a…