We seek to demonstrate how digital video technology can contribute towards our understanding of the process of development of conceptual understanding in physics. We use digital video to analyze 4 brief Physics by Inquiry sessions with 2 groups of preservice teachers. The instances include independent group work and instructor-student…

Based on a yearlong critical inquiry project in a central Los Angeles high school, the author discusses the implications of engaging students in dialogue and critique about their experiences with race. The students' voices, through participant observation field notes and their own writing, tell stories of struggle and newfound understandings about…

This study explores a fourth grade classroom, hypothesizing about the possibilities for using drama to teach elementary school science. The case study provides one with the author's first glimpse into a fourth grade science classroom, as well as a preliminary examination of whether or not room exists for drama in the elementary science classroom.…

Because various definitions of inquiry exist in the science education literature and in classroom practice, elementary science methods students and instructors face dilemmas during the study of inquiry. Using field notes, instructor anecdotal notes, student products, and course artifacts, science methods course instructors created fictional…

This article examines the challenges of discussing deeply rooted notions of ability, intelligence, and tracking in teacher inquiry groups and offers suggestions to educators who want to begin dialogue about detracking at their schools. Specifically, this article underscores the importance of unpacking the terms tracking and detracking, exploring…

This case study describes an instructional approach that may be useful in inquiry-based science classes. It involves adopting a particular discourse orientation that aims at helping pupils value their science learning. The contextual descriptions and interpretation presented can help teachers form images of classroom practices that will be…

In this article, the authors propose to characterize sequence learning in terms of automatic versus nonautomatic processing and to apply this contrast independently to knowledge acquisition and retrieval. In several experiments of sequence learning, automaticity of both the acquisition and retrieval of the acquired knowledge was independently…

Each of the Major Contribution's articles has traced counseling psychology's rich positive heritage. This reaction assesses this heritage in relation to positive psychology and considers the fundamental question of "To whose agenda are we working?" as psychological practitioners, locating the answer within the impact it has on our practice. The…

Much of psychology focuses on universal principles of thought and action. Although an extremely productive pursuit, this approach, by describing only the "average person," risks describing no one in particular. This article discusses an alternate approach that complements interests in universal principles with analyses of the unique psychological…

An activity involving parallel electrical circuits was modified to incorporate an open inquiry approach. Both the original and revised versions of the activity were tested in the middle school classroom. We present a comparison of the two versions of the activity in terms of facilitating learning and engaging students' interests.

This article discusses five papers focused on "Research on Reasoning about Variation and Variability", by Hammerman and Rubin, Ben-Zvi, Bakker, Reading, and Gould, which appeared in a special issue of the "Statistics Education Research Journal" (No. 3(2) November 2004). Three issues emerged from these papers. First, there is a link between the…

There are two very different accounts of the history of educational philosophy and ideas presently available. One account is the work of historical scholars and classicists, and is based on thorough historical research. The other account is the work of educationists and philosophers, and is generally based on little or no historical research in…

This article discusses the importance of authentic picture-storybook adaptations of multicultural folktales and describes an action research project through which a children's picture-book adaptation of a traditional tale can be authenticated using an inquiry-based process. In addition to modeling an actual authentication project using "The Golden…

This study examined the development of a mathematics teacher's proficiency in managing whole-class discussion in the context of an inquiry-based classroom. We analysed three lessons taught with the same class by a teacher-researcher. The first and second lessons were 10 months apart, the second and third lessons were 6 months apart. For each of…

In this article, the author explores the aesthetic harmony of how life should be lived through the unity of exchange between feeling and thinking, and in so doing attempts to show the importance of art or "aesthetics" as a category of philosophical instruction. His interest in this approach flows directly from his works in nineteenth- and…