This study explores a fourth grade classroom, hypothesizing about the possibilities for using drama to teach elementary school science. The case study provides one with the author's first glimpse into a fourth grade science classroom, as well as a preliminary examination of whether or not room exists for drama in the elementary science classroom.…

Because various definitions of inquiry exist in the science education literature and in classroom practice, elementary science methods students and instructors face dilemmas during the study of inquiry. Using field notes, instructor anecdotal notes, student products, and course artifacts, science methods course instructors created fictional…

This case study describes an instructional approach that may be useful in inquiry-based science classes. It involves adopting a particular discourse orientation that aims at helping pupils value their science learning. The contextual descriptions and interpretation presented can help teachers form images of classroom practices that will be…

An activity involving parallel electrical circuits was modified to incorporate an open inquiry approach. Both the original and revised versions of the activity were tested in the middle school classroom. We present a comparison of the two versions of the activity in terms of facilitating learning and engaging students' interests.

This article discusses five papers focused on "Research on Reasoning about Variation and Variability", by Hammerman and Rubin, Ben-Zvi, Bakker, Reading, and Gould, which appeared in a special issue of the "Statistics Education Research Journal" (No. 3(2) November 2004). Three issues emerged from these papers. First, there is a link between the…

There are two very different accounts of the history of educational philosophy and ideas presently available. One account is the work of historical scholars and classicists, and is based on thorough historical research. The other account is the work of educationists and philosophers, and is generally based on little or no historical research in…

In this article, the author explores the aesthetic harmony of how life should be lived through the unity of exchange between feeling and thinking, and in so doing attempts to show the importance of art or "aesthetics" as a category of philosophical instruction. His interest in this approach flows directly from his works in nineteenth- and…

Teaching is so multifaceted that learning to teach requires several years of experience after a person begins to practice. To maintain professional growth, teachers must develop an orientation to their work that includes reflection and renewal. In the absence of these factors, teaching can become too automatic, which can undermine its…

This study examines how student teachers in a 2-year graduate program used inquiry to examine the day-to-day issues that arose in their student teaching placements. Through systematic questioning, collection of data and controlled experimenting with solutions, student teachers learned to apply the technical and theoretical knowledge they were…

There is growing strength in the argument that the primarily separate communities of educational researchers, academic researchers and teacher researchers, working together, have much to contribute to knowledge on teaching and learning. This article reviews literature on the intersection of these communities. Reflecting on this literature, the…

A 20th-century discipline in American universities, communication has struggled with questions of academic identity: generically, as to whether it is a "humanities" or a "social science", a "practice" or a "technology", and theoretically, as to what sorts of axioms, theorems, research methods or logics, and problems should form its core. This…

Calls for reform in university education have prompted a movement from teacher- to student-centered course design, and included developments such as peer-teaching, problem- and inquiry-based learning. In the sciences, inquiry-based learning has been widely promoted to increase literacy and skill development, but there has been little comparison to…

The defining task for undergraduate departments is the design of a major, including the number and content of courses as well as other requirements. Department members must weigh the desire to produce graduates superbly prepared for further study against the charge that the major requires too large a share of an undergraduate's course options.…

Computers and calculators are in general widely used in Norwegian schools, but with limited use in specific school subjects, as particularly in mathematics teaching. Various reports from surveys and research projects indicate that teachers' competence with ICT is a crucial point, and that teachers' lack of knowledge of how to utilise software for…

For the thirty-seventh year, the Research and Theory Division and the Division of Instructional Design of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) sponsored the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. This year's Proceedings…