The science teacher education community plays a prominent role in teacher preparation programs. Particularly, science methods courses emphasize modeling instructional strategies to promote inquiry-based practices. Integrating appropriate educational technology to enhance and support classroom practices should be embedded in these courses. The…

This study explored five Life Sciences teachers' practices of formative assessment when enacting an inquiry-based pedagogy. The ESRU cycle (teacher "Elicits" a response; the Student responds; the teacher "Recognises" the student's response; and then "Uses" the information collected to support student learning) was…

This exploratory paper highlights how problem-based learning (PBL) provided the pedagogical framework used to design and interpret learning analytics from "Crystal Island: EcoJourneys," a collaborative game-based learning environment centred on supporting science inquiry. In "Crystal Island: EcoJourneys," students work in teams…

The author reflects on using the language of mathematics to explore the many different cultures represented in their kindergarten class population. A student demonstrating counting in Mandarin became the catalyst for a month-long inquiry into researching how numbers look and sound in dozens of different languages. Throughout this experience,…

Science curriculum and pedagogy offer ideal avenues for teaching young people the critical thinking skills they need to live in a post-truth world. Drawing on the theory of epistemic cognition, we present a selection of research-based pedagogies that have been shown to be effective in developing school students' understanding of knowledge and how…

Recent studies show that many of the current and future careers involve some form of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) integration. The new development of school STEM education provides opportunities for students to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to face the challenges ahead. Involving students with…

Large introductory STEM courses have a reputation as "weed out" classes. These classes and their laboratory components are more often viewed by students as hurdles to overcome than valuable learning experiences relevant to their future careers. This perception especially impacts students who have a lower science identity and…

A multioutcome, guided inquiry-based liquid--liquid extraction (LLE) experiment has been designed for introductory organic chemistry. Multiple outcomes were established by identifying a series of red and blue dyes that are (1) soluble in organic solvent, (2) soluble in aqueous solution, or (3) soluble in either the organic or aqueous layers by…

This dissertation describes a practitioner's design-based development of a prototype chatbot to guide students in learning biological concepts of genetic mutations and protein synthesis. This chatbot's architecture provides learning activities, feedback, and support throughout a series of short, connected lessons. The chatbot is designed to…

Rooted in traditional anthropology, agile ethnography is an interactive form of participant-observation implemented and bounded within the workplace. The essence of agile ethnography is the triumvirate of research agility representing an agile process, environment, and researcher. This qualitative approach to inquiry emanated from the descriptive…

Magnifying objects can foster wonder in young children because they can make new observations of familiar things. This activity helps children explore common substances and familiar materials using a magnifying glass. Magnification can help people observe living things more closely providing a link to the work of scientists and the magnifying…

Purpose: This paper aims to trace the relational and material ways in which workplace teams come together (or fail to) in the provision of patient care. Design/methodology/approach: Six interprofessional scholars brought their unique theoretical and disciplinary lenses to understand the contextualized experiences of the patient and the team.…

This paper draws on sociological and philosophical work on educational knowledge and expertise to consider what is distinctive about different traditions of educational inquiry. It is argued that an examination of the character of educational knowledge benefits from scrutiny of the relations between specialised and non-specialised forms of…

Grounded in the new sociology of childhood and thus valuing the perspectives of young children, this study examined how outdoor, inquiry-based schoolyard pedagogy is experienced by kindergarten students. The study explored two primary research questions: (1) what do students report about their experiences in an outdoor, inquiry-based classroom…

Science inquiry is an important part of educational reform focusing on improvements to pedagogy. Developing students' capacities and understandings about the design and conceptualization of scientific research informs contemporary curriculum and teaching practices. Although "objectivity" is regarded as a fundamental aspect of scientific…