An inquiry-type laboratory was implemented into the chemistry curriculum in high schools in Israel. The study included development of inquiry-type experiments, assessment tools for a continuous assessment of students' achievements and progress, and a long-term professional development program for teachers who decided to implement the program in…

The notion of scaffolding learners to help them succeed in solving problems otherwise too difficult for them is an important idea that has extended into the design of scaffolded software tools for learners. However, although there is a growing body of work on scaffolded tools, scaffold design, and the impact of scaffolding, the field has not yet…

This paper presents an example of using evaluation as a tool for encouraging democratic participation in the development of professional learning and course delivery. The new professional role of Connexions Personal Adviser (CPA) is being clarified and developed through participation of CPAs on a new national training programme, the Diploma for…

Many teacher educators have recently implemented inquiry based instructional practices into their programs (Crawford & Deer, 1993 ; Foss & Kleinsasser, 1996 ; Klein, 1996 , 1997 , 1998 , 2001 ; Schuck, 1996 ; Tillema & Knol, 1997). In mathematics education the promise has been that pre-service teachers' socialization into new interactive…

In this article, the author focuses on developing scientific reasoning in year 6 children. Having embarked on a series of lessons in which the author hoped to uncover children's ideas about how and why they reason in a particular way, the results were to prove instrumental in developing not only his teaching of scientific enquiry, but also the…

An important aim of primary science programmes should be to continue to encourage and nurture children in creating their own explanations. As Osborne and Freyberg (1985) contended, the aims of primary science in the early years should start with the children developing explanations for their experiences. The first two of their six developing aims…

This article reviews how and why the authors have used the cross-cultural simulation BAFA BAFA in a 1st-year social sciences inquiry course on social identity. The article discusses modifications made to Shirts's original script for BAFA BAFA, how the authors conduct the postsimulation debriefing, key aspects of the student-written reflection of…

Experimental physics is seen as an essential part of tertiary physics education. Students are supposed to develop practical skills and advance from closed "cookbook" experiments to open experiment and design experiment procedures independently. As a consequence tertiary practical physics courses increase in the level of challenge…

This chapter is concerned with how assessments of students' work in classrooms, although primarily intended to promote learning, can also become an important source of information for evaluating a school's effectiveness within an accountability system. The authors begin their discussion by considering issues of fairness, to schools and to their…

Teaching how to implement an authentic inquiry is one of the most enduring claims for better teaching method in science classrooms, and for teachers it remains as a practical matter of classroom lessons. The practical matter is that teachers might want students to get involved in their own inquiry on the one hand, and one the other hand teachers…

The trend toward inquiry-based learning is providing today's students with a more enriching education. When implementing inquiry it is important to recognize the great number of safety concerns that accompany this paradigm shift. Fortunately, with some consideration, teachers can shape students' laboratory experiments into safe and valuable…

Evaluative inquiry--systematically gathering and analyzing data for the purposes of judging program or innovation merit, worth or significance and/or supporting ongoing school-based decision making and problem solving--is an option available to educators that is not often used; this despite recent interest in action research and school-based…

These series of lessons uses the process of student inquiry to teach the concepts of force and motion identified in the National Science Education Standards for grades 5-8. The lesson plan also uses technology as a teaching tool through the use of interactive Web sites. The lessons are built on the 5-E format and feature imbedded assessments.

Human nature is a very complex phenomenon. In physical therapy this complexity is enhanced by the need to understand the intersection between the art and science of human behavior and patient care. A paradigm is a set of basic beliefs that represent a worldview, defines the nature of the world and the individual's place in it, and helps to…

This inquiry is an analysis of the trend toward infusing practitioners into the preparation of school administrators. Motives for increasing the number of part-time employees in higher education are identified and specific problems associated with the deployment of these instructors are discussed. The argument is made that the merits of this trend…