In discussions about how to best foster principle-based cognitive skills, there are typically two points of dissent among researchers in the field of learning and instruction: First, should information be provided, as typical of direct instruction, or should this information be generated by the students, as typical of guided discovery or inquiry…

Introductory organic laboratory courses frequently begin with a set of activities built around developing basic experimental skills and techniques, often with guided-inquiry components. A sequence of skill-based activities is described to promote reflection, analysis of, and interpersonal communication around science. A multistage process was used…

In this study the effect of Discovery Learning and course evaluation based on Bloom's Taxonomy on the academic success of undergraduate students in Northern Cyprus was investigated. One demographic questionnaire was distributed to 829 students and two questionnaires were distributed to these students' instructors in order to collect information on…

Education, skills, and the development of an African workforce are at a critical moment. While it is recognized that Chinese firms hire local people, the focus of the debate is more on the position and opportunities for training and advancement. As such, the paper tries to answer the following questions. Does China really contribute to skills…

As service-learning and community-based learning proliferate in higher education, increased attention has been directed toward gathering evidence of their impacts. While the bulk of the literature has focused on student outcomes, little work has been done to examine how the perspectives of stakeholder groups overlap and intersect. This study uses…

Earth's easily seen surface features (mountains, volcanoes, and islands)--and the movement of the tectonic plates that lie below--offer hints about the processes that produced them. Inquiries in seismology, the study of earthquakes and other ground movements, can help students learn about Earth's geologic processes. This article describes an…

This article discusses what constitutes engagement in learning from the perspective of Grade 8 students. While a mixed methods approach was employed to gather quantitative and qualitative data, the focus of this article is the qualitative data collected from an interactive, participatory workshop. As part of this workshop, Grade 8 students were…

Building on classical and recent studies of the learning paradigm of higher education, the author distinguishes between receiving ideas and using them and how universities might educate students to be more open to the world, open to discovery and creativity.

Keeping a log of scientific investigations, discoveries, and notes is a process that scientists have used throughout history. Elementary-age children engage in similar types of documentation when they perform investigations and sketch, label, or provide details about their work and findings. This column includes activities inspired by children's…

This article considers the "creative education" of influential Aotearoa/New Zealand art educator Elwyn Richardson, which is based on what he calls the "discovery method": the "concentrated study of material from [students'] own surroundings." Through a game that his students play with tyres, we explore the role that…

Although stereochemistry is an important topic in second-year undergraduate organic chemistry, there are limited options for laboratory activities that allow direct visualization of macroscopic chiral phenomena. A novel, guided-inquiry experiment was developed that allows students to explore chirality in the context of cholesteric liquid crystals.…

A novel smartphone microscope can be used to observe the dissolution and crystallization of sodium chloride at a microscopic level. Observation of these seemingly simple phenomena through the microscope at 100× magnification can actually reveal some surprising behavior. These experiments offer the opportunity to discuss some basic concepts such as…

Science vocabulary can be abstract (e.g., "photosynthesis," "ecosystem") and have different meanings than in daily life (e.g., "class," "work," "power"). For this reason, understanding individual vocabulary words isn't enough for learners to be successful. The meaning is embedded in basic syntax,…

Students struggle with learning correct documentation style as found in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association and teachers are often at a loss for how to best instruct students in correct usage of APA style. As such, the first part of this paper discusses the current research on teaching documentation styles as well as…

This study examined the incorporation of generative strategies for the guided discovery of physics principles in a simulation. Participants who either paraphrased or predicted and self-explained guided discovery assignments exhibited improved performance on an achievement test as compared to a control group. Calibration accuracy (the…