Investigates the predictive ability of two sociological theories of group decision making, the social decision scheme and the valence distribution model. Reports that student beliefs at the end of the simulation deviated from group consensus and that the two models could not account for the deviation. (Author/YP)

Four devalued, largely missing areas of teacher education should be reconsidered in reconstructing curriculum for teacher education: autobiography, inquiry, reflection, and critique. Preliminary results are discussed from a study of a year-long experimental teacher education program which incorporated these four components. (IAH)

Reviews the research regarding the use of laboratories in the teaching of science. Discusses the traditional process skills and adaptations of the learning cycle. Describes the four distinct characteristics of a Guided Inquiry Laboratory. Thirty-seven references are listed. (CW)

In literature instruction, a log notebook can help cultivate a critical consciousness through dialogical exercises involving the student's personal ongoing questioning, responding, rereading, reformulating, or revising earlier assignments. Sequences writing assignments can be used to stimulate dialectical thinking and writing. (MSE)

Investigates the use of mathematical representations in 3 grade-8 general science classes (n=65) that engaged in a 10-week open inquiry about the correlations between biological and physical variables in the environment. Demonstrates the use of representations as conscription devices, and illustrates how the use and understanding of inscriptions…

Describes a course teaching planetary science to elementary school students in collaboration with a university. Chronicles how a partnership between an elementary school teacher and a university-based research scientist effectively shaped the teacher's understanding of values and attitudes inherent in science education. Presents a model for…

Describes the use of an exploratory computerized approach to introduce first-year physics students to the ramifications of Newton's third law of motion. (JRH)

Reports a study analyzing the inquiry level of science activities within junior high science textbooks and their accompanying supplemental activity guides. (PR)

Discusses the idea that hands-on science education should give credit to the scientists who originally conducted the experiments now repeated in classrooms. Plant experiments originally done by Stephen Hales are described and given as examples. (KR)

Students' conceptions of models and how models function in science were assessed by administering a clinical interview about models to a group of mixed-ability seventh and honors eleventh grade students. Students' preconceptions about models, themes that appeared regularly during interviews, differences of themes between the two groups, and the…

Reviews theories and practices emerging from recent literature on reflective teacher education, arguing that underlying the apparent consensus suggested by widespread use of the phrase "reflective practice" lie diverse meanings and intentions. Current usages are placed in social and historical contexts to clarify the underlying…

This male-specific study examined the development of integrated process skill in the context of open-inquiry laboratory sessions. Findings from this qualitative study indicate that male students develop higher-order process skills through nontraditional laboratory experiences that provided the students with freedom to perform experiments of…

An Australian survey of senior university administrators investigated their perceptions of research and scholarship. Interviews indicate "research" covers a wide and varied range of activities across disciplines but has three major attributes: new knowledge, inquiry, and publication of results. "Scholarship" was seen as part of…

This article discusses qualitative (or interpretivist) research as both a set of methods and a worldview about the nature of knowledge and inquiry. It emphasizes that special education researchers need to discover "who they are as researchers" early in their careers, and comments on what it means to become initially competent and increasingly…

Argues educational researchers must recognize the need for a dialectic between theory and method. Proposes a quasi-historical methodology based on a theory of social action. Suggests a means for understanding the meanings of actions. Outlines a schema for the interpretation of text and offers researchers a form of disciplined inquiry. (Author/NL)