A generic teaching format in which students actively participate in a whole-class collaborative-learning experience is described. The entire class, divided into groups, made a joint effort to overcome a hypothetical outbreak of a new plant disease. High scores on an examination question concerning the project indicated successful assimilation of…

This paper provides a brief history of the work of Maria Montessori and traces the development of the Montessori method in English education. The first woman medical student in Italy, she developed an interest in the needs of mentally handicapped children. Contrary to the accepted view, she came to the conclusion that mentally 'deficient' children…

This guidebook is intended to help high school students discover the connection between themselves and the people from the past by being engaged in hands-on activities. The guidebook allows students to create artifacts or recreate a process known well to people from times past. The guide is arranged to provide historical background, materials…

A study was conducted to develop a test that is able to capture knowledge of an intuitive nature, such as that acquired through discovery learning. The proposed test format is called the "what-if test." Test items in this format consist of the presentation of a situation. A change in the situation is introduced, and learners have to…

This paper is the written account of a panel presentation about inquiry-oriented teaching practices. The purpose of this group of papers is to provide an opportunity to explore the state of knowledge of inquiry-oriented teaching based on direct observation of teachers, and analysis of those observations from an inquiry perspective. The paper…

Many educators believe that middle grades schools have a responsibility to capitalize on the natural curiosity of young adolescents through the use of an exploratory curriculum to help students understand the world in which they live. This study examined the status of middle grades exploratory programs in Alabama. A 22-item questionnaire was sent…

This activity book was designed especially for the classroom teacher who is constantly on the lookout for unique and interesting ways to challenge the students' learning capacity in the area of elementary mathematics. The material presented here places a strong emphasis on defining the particular skills to be covered in each activity. All the…

Based on observation, interviews, and questionnaires, the first section of this paper discusses lessons learned while watching teachers use the first set of "The Voyage of the Mini" materials (a video, computer, and print package). The focus is on the need to create an environment that will support an inquiry-based curriculum. The second section…

This report describes a specific approach to two current trends in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) research: (1) an emphasis on metacognitive skills which are not domain specific; and (2) a move away from viewing ITS research as being exclusively concerned with "knowledge communication." A human-computer dialogue model designed to…

The nature of the learner-machine interaction is of central importance in the design of guided discovery learning environments. The interface to a learning environment is the only way in which a learner has access to the functionality of the system, and conversely, the interface in the only way in which the tutoring component of the system has…

Project SEED (Special Elementary Education for the Disadvantaged) is a supplementary mathematics program which applies Socratic discovery methods to mathematics instruction. It was implemented in 10 fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms in Portland to improve mathematics achievement and increase students' esteem for mathematics learning. Student…

Under normal instructional circumstances, some youngsters learn programming in BASIC or LOGO better than others. Clinical investigations of novice programmers suggest that this happens in part because different students bring different patterns of learning to the programming context. Many students disengage from the task whenever trouble occurs,…

Illustrated are the discovery and verification of new patterns in Pascal's Triangle. Discovery activities appropriate for students when they are learning to expand binomials are provided. (JP)

Introductory science has become a discovery course for the students at Phillips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire), who are above average in ability and motivation. The philosophy of the course is that it should serve a more humanizing function than the preparation of young technicians, and that this function is as important for the future scientist…