Practitioner research is a topic of growing interest and scholarly writing in the field of education in general and adult education in particular. This article describes a particular form of practitioner research that rests on a participatory worldview and draws heavily from theory and practice in adult learning and action research.…

This article reports on findings from a research project that investigated the experiences and perceptions of final-year social science undergraduates enrolled on a dissertation module in a post-1992 UK university. The dissertation was designed to provide students with the opportunity to function autonomously and determine the content and focus of…

The present study compared the relative effects of 2 educational programs on kindergarten children. The experimental group took part in a numeracy-specific program, which focused on conceptual knowledge. Children were taught basic numerical skills such as understanding and handling numbers and their relations as well as counting principles. The…

Working from the 1970s to the early 1990s, Walter Alvarez and his research team sought the cause of the mass extinction that claimed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The present paper discusses that research in terms of eight puzzling observations, eight episodes of hypothetico-predictive reasoning, enumerative induction, and Jung's…

In this article, we describe a collaborative design initiative with three secondary school teachers to promote the use of Web-based inquiry in the context of a watershed investigation. Design interviews that focus on instructional goals and pedagogical beliefs of classroom teachers were conducted. The interview protocol used a curricular framework…

I propose that for ethics to become a normal activity, practiced by citizens on a daily basis, we begin by identifying barriers to this activity. Once things that get in the way have been identified, I examine ways that environmental educators can create conditions for ethics to become part of mainstream practices and processes of inquiry--to…

Using Kazemi's and Stipek's (2001) framework of classroom practice, the discourse between students enrolled in a mathematics-for-teachers course and their instructor is examined. The teacher's practice is in transition from a focus on having students share multiple strategies toward a practice that additionally includes the mathematical…

Past studies reveal that science safety in the nation's schools needs significant attention (Gerlovich and Parsa 2002; Gerlovich et al. 2002; Gerlovich, Wilson, and Parsa 1998; and Young 1972). These studies have focused on individual states and the issues and hazards specific to those states. A comprehensive study is needed to identify and…

Science teachers continually search for effective ways to help students make sense of science concepts and principles. For students to learn to think more like scientists, science teachers must decrease the number of lectures and "follow-the-recipe" laboratory experiments and increase the use of activities that incorporate student inquiry.…

The study describes teachers' collective work in which they developed deeper understanding of their own students' mathematical thinking. Teachers at one school met in monthly workgroups throughout the year. Prior to each workgroup, they posed a similar mathematical problem to their students. The workgroup discussions centered on the student work…

In the context of U.S. and world wide educational reforms that require teachers to understand and respond to student thinking about mathematics in new ways, ongoing learning from practice is a necessity. In this paper we report on this process for one teacher in one especially productive year of learning. This case study documents how Ms. Statz's…

Utilizing an integration of social-cognitivist and socio-cultural approaches, this study--comparing the interactive processes among peers and their mentor in two contrasting groups--was designed to explore the reasons why two learning groups, engaged in an inquiry-based learning project with comparatively sustained discussion, produced vastly…

Practitioner research is defined as systematic inquiry-based efforts directed towards creating and extending professional knowledge and associated understandings of professional practice. A review of "primary research" articles published in the "Australian Journal of Early Childhood" revealed that only a small number involved…

Recent work examining and expanding traditional accounts of a virtue has been used as the foundation for a virtue-based approach to epistemology. A similar approach to aesthetics yields some striking features, which coincide with contemporary philosophical concerns about the nature and definition of art. Those writing on virtue-based epistemology…

Inquiry learning is student-based exploration of an authentic problem using the processes and tools of the discipline. Often inquiry learning is presented in a fashion that mirrors the scientific method, proceeding from identification of a problem to reporting of findings. In post-secondary settings, these scientific-method inquiry exercises…