Asserts that inquiry-based activities increase student interest and motivation. Describes classroom management problems teachers may encounter in inquiry teaching. Outlines numerous ways to avoid or reduce the severity of problems by rearranging desks, dividing groups according to reading level and language skills, and by addressing student…

Reports an account of an experienced science teacher's self-initiated change in praxis within an inquiry community. Uses classroom observations and interviews to evaluate the discursive practices of the teacher and his colleagues. Attributes the teacher's change in praxis to his dissatisfaction with previous practice and the realization that…

Introduces an assessment instrument developed to evaluate students' views on the nature of science. Examines the ways in which learners mark out science as a particular domain, particularly the types of questions that they think are open to scientific investigation. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/YDS)

Introduces a study investigating graduate teaching assistants' (GTA) perceptions on their role in conducting laboratories and explores the benefits of inquiry-based laboratories for GTAs considering their experiences and knowledge. (Contains 22 references.) (YDS)

Explains the effects of current educational practices on both student learning orientations and institutions. Discusses barriers to change in the process of developing new policies and frameworks. (YDS)

Presents an inquiry-based science activity in which students collect data to determine whether flipping pennies and burning candles follow zero- or first-order rate laws. (KHR)

An inquiry-oriented teacher education program entitled PROBE (Problem-Based Teacher Education) is described. The fundamental concept of PROBE is based on John Dewey's philosophy that learning is rooted in experience and knowledge derives from a process of inquiry. (JD)

A discussion of creativity and curiosity, particularly in the context of college instruction, examines two psychological models of creativity, the cognitive approach of Howard Gardner and one aligned with depth psychology (James Hillman). Commonalities are noted: preference for mess over management and for boundaries transgressed rather than…

Describes activities a public school class of 40 children in grades 1 through 4 at Westminster, Vermont, participated in during an integrated curriculum encouraging hands-on, inquiry-based learning in a cooperative setting. The activities revolved around a snack garden whose original purpose was to improve nutrition and nutritional awareness. (LZ)

Examines claims that the bodies of knowledge, standards, and methods of inquiry promulgated by the university are undemocratic, representing a hegemony of Western, middle class, male culture. Argues that this view is based on a social construction view of knowledge and points out problems with this view. (SM)

Criticizes outcome-based education for reducing education, teaching, and learning to forms of human engineering and quasi-scientific planning procedures geared toward instrumental means and specified ends. Stating outcomes as a comprehensive form of intellectual scaffolding limits inquiry and speculation and gives schools and curriculum framers…

More than other institutions, the university is expected to be responsive to an increasingly diverse and specialized society. The modern, liberal university can respond to these challenges by adopting a combination of weak professionalism and strong pluralism, as embodied in the University of Iowa's Program on the Rhetoric of Inquiry. (MSE)

Describes how teachers can use hypotheticals to help their students use a wide variety of skills in a cooperative manner to investigate the many scientific facts, technology, and competing arguments that relate to a topical societal issue. (DDR)

Over the past 15 years, the educational leadership and administration field has shifted from traditional, social-science based approaches to more cognitively based views. A heightened interest in connections between school leaders' thinking and actions have spurred an expanded emphasis on practice-based knowledge and inservice preparation…

Presents an activity in which students propose that apples change their color as they ripen. Students gain content knowledge about decomposition, the growth of living mold, and the life cycle of fruit flies through purposeful inquiry connected to previous knowledge. (ASK)