Most people are frustrated with the current scientific method presented in textbooks. The scientific method--a simplistic model of the scientific inquiry process--fails in most cases to provide a successful guide to how science is done. This is not shocking, really. Many simple models used in science are quite useful within their limitations. When…

This hypothesis-driven laboratory exercise teaches how DNA evidence can be used to investigate an organism's evolutionary history while providing practical modeling of the fundamental processes of gene transcription and translation. We used an inquiry-based approach to construct a laboratory around a nontrivial, open-ended evolutionary question…

This report describes an experiment to introduce freshmen science students to inquiry-based learning. The overarching theme was the communication of scientific information to the public by the mass media. Students, working in groups, deconstructed news items (many dealing with basic biomedical issues) and assessed the veracity of statements with…

Classroom management presents a serious challenge in most schools, but especially in schools on a Navajo Reservation that have been traditionally academically low-performing schools. There appears to be a mismatch between the attitudes, skills, and behaviors Navajo children bring with them to school and the expectations schools have for their…

When teachers participate in professional development and learning opportunities it enables them to reconceptualise their assessment and teaching practices with the support of facilitators and researchers. National programmes of professional development and research, such as the three year Enhancing Effective Practice in Special Education (EEPiSE)…

In the process of designing and field-testing bioinformatics curriculum materials, we have adopted a three-stage, progressive model that emphasizes collaborative scientific inquiry. The elements of the model include: (1) context setting, (2) introduction to concepts, processes, and tools, and (3) development of competent use of technologically…

This paper considers the value of reflexive pedagogical approaches in the teaching of academic communication and writing. We focus on a course developed for pre-degree foundation students at a London higher education institution. Drawing on the students' learning journals, we examine their reflections of the approaches practised on the course.…

Much has been written about the value of teacher research for inservice teachers. Despite the existence of several studies affirming these words, studies that richly describe how student teachers learn to do teacher research and then investigate the impact of inquiry on student teachers and teacher educators, particularly in culturally and…

Purpose: From the competency point of view, this article aims to review and discuss existing global leadership and other related literature, and to combine findings and suggestions provided in previous literature in a more integrative framework of global leadership competencies. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews and discusses the…

Extensive assessment of innovative core courses pointed to five features of the courses that led to students being actively engaged in learning. Faculty teaching the courses created an environment to foster collaborative learning, facilitated student ownership of learning, structured their courses to connect academic ideas with other disciplines…

North Carolina State University (NCSU) is a Research Intensive (Research I) university located in Raleigh, the state capital. Increasingly over the past ten years, NCSU faculty interested in issues of teaching and learning have used the term "inquiry-guided learning" (IGL) to describe the kind of learning they are trying to promote. The…

Our graduate degree program includes a component of six one-credit courses, in which teachers find ways to bring into their own classroom practices theory learned in related three-credit courses. Prior research indicates that taking course work alone may not bring about changes in teachers' decision-making. Prior research also encourages higher…

The article reports work over one year by three teachers from the Milton Keynes Primary Schools Learning Network. Their collaborative classroom-focused action research investigated the limits and possibilities of pupils' and teachers' learning through self-evaluation. In phase one the teacher researchers used questionnaires, interviews and…

This narrative inquiry presents the experiences of a group of 10 new primary teachers grappling with relationships in the social context of their school environment during their first year of teaching. Their lived experiences are plotted together in the story of Gemma to provide one insight into the emotional dimension of attaining the identity of…

We present an alternative to a traditional first-year chemistry laboratory experiment. This experiment has four key features: students utilize stoichiometry, learn and apply principles of green chemistry, engage in authentic scientific inquiry, and discover why each part of a scientific lab report is necessary. The importance and essential…