In this article, the authors' kindergarteners and a fellow first-grade class turned their hallway into a forest! Not just any mural, this culmination of a month-long project was based on observing, questioning, taking field trips, conducting library research (including the internet) and asking experts. The students developed skills in forming…

This study investigated the impact of the use of computer technology on the enactment of "inquiry" in a sixth grade science classroom. Participants were 42 students (38% female) enrolled in two sections of the classroom and taught by a technology-enthusiast instructor. Data were collected over the course of 4 months during which several "inquiry"…

In this article, we describe a simplified approach to teach students to assess information obtained from diverse sources. Three broad categories (credibility, content, and currency; 3C) were used to evaluate information from textbooks, monographs, popular magazines, scholarly journals, and the World Wide Web. This 3C approach used in an inquiry…

Teaching science by means of inquiry-based projects has the potential to transform the science lab into a place of debate and discovery, but teachers run the risk of either leaving students to work too independently or forcing them to be too dependent on our guidance. To counter these challenges, the author implemented changes in the way topics…

Learning how to conduct qualitative research may seem daunting for those new to the task, especially given the paradigm's emphasis on complexity and emergent design. Although there are guidelines in the literature, each project is unique and ultimately the individual researcher must determine how best to proceed. Reflexivity is thus considered…

This commentary considers some of the challenges of applying mixed methods research in undergraduate research degrees, especially in professions with a clinical health focus. Our experience in physiotherapy academia is used as an example. Mixed methods research is increasingly appreciated in its own right as a "third paradigm," however the success…

Maxine Greene states that the aesthetic experience is "brought into being by encounters with works of art" and "a conscious participation in a work, a going-out energy, an ability to notice what is there to be noticed". One of the goals of the aesthetic educational process is to engage teachers in a work of art, linking it and other human…

The Personal Leadership Conundrum leadership development project is a semester-long, personal leadership inquiry that provides students with a self-directed learning opportunity. The guiding framework for this leadership inquiry is a personal leadership conundrum developed by students based on their experience. Students engage in problem-based…

Many students view biology and chemistry as two unrelated, separate sciences; how these courses are generally taught in high schools may do little to change that impression. The study of enzymes provide a great opportunity for both biology and chemistry teachers to share with students the interdisciplinary nature of science. This article describes…

What invertebrates make the best classroom pets? How should we care for each invertebrate? What type of inquiry activities could invertebrates support? How do elementary students respond to invertebrates? These were the questions investigated in The Critter Project, a three-week project that aimed to help students conquer their "critter jitters"…

The trait-based perspective of leadership has a long but checkered history. Trait approaches dominated the initial decades of scientific leadership research. Later, they were disdained for their inability to offer clear distinctions between leaders and nonleaders and for their failure to account for situational variance in leadership behavior.…

This study explored how inquiry-based teaching and learning processes occurred in two teachers' diverse 8th grade Physical Science classrooms in a Program Improvement junior high school within the context of high-stakes standardized testing. Instructors for the courses examined included not only the two 8th grade science teachers, but also…

This fourth volume of "The Soul of Educational Leadership" series offers key strategies for identifying the moral and ethical dimensions of school leadership practice. With thought-provoking contributions from top leadership figures like Terrence E. Deal, Dawna Markova, and Scott Thompson, this enlightening resource combines research with…

This phenomenological study demonstrates the influence that affective factors have on beginning teachers' ability to enact instructional practices. Through narratives shared in interviews and web log postings, two beginning science teachers' emotional engagement with their instructional practices, especially that of implementing inquiry-based…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of inquiry-based computer simulation with heterogeneous-ability cooperative learning (HACL) and inquiry-based computer simulation with friendship cooperative learning (FCL) on (a) scientific reasoning (SR) and (b) conceptual understanding (CU) among Form Four students in Malaysian Smart…