This study investigates the effects of an intensive 1-week Inquiry-Based Science and Technology Enrichment Program (InSTEP) designed for middle school-aged female students. InSTEP uses a guided/open inquiry approach that is deepened and redefined as eight sciences and engineering practices in the Next Generation Science Standards, which aimed at…

Using primary sources to help students learn about history is one of the most effective ways to make social studies purposeful, relevant, and supportive of inquiry, while integrating it with literacy. Constructing an understanding of an historical event, person, or time period by examining evidence from that era helps students understand that…

Teaching as Inquiry is a framework in the New Zealand Curriculum for guiding teachers' professional decision-making and actions (Ministry of Education, 2007). It has been included in initial teacher preparation courses to assist student teachers to practice in a way that focuses on their pupils' learning, and their own professional learning from…

This article examines how art fits into education, looking first at art as inquiry in a 3rd-grade classroom and then at a model of arts-based research rooted in contemporary art. From there, it discusses art integration and suggests that a focus on research in contemporary art provides a basis for integrating art across the curriculum. Ultimately,…

Web allows learners to investigate any question with a great variety of Web resources, in which they could construct a wider, and deeper knowledge. In such investigative learning process, it is important for them to deepen and widen the question, which involves decomposing the question into the sub-questions to be further investigated. This…

Supporting the latest technology for inquiry is among one of the topics that is currently being discussed in the context of science education. The aim of this research is to examine the laboratory practices that use mobile learning to enhance the science process skills of the participants. The research is of qualitative design and has been planned…

This paper explores the components and efficacy of an engineering-based Research Experience for Teachers (RET) program with a focus on ideation. Leveraging the imaginative and iterative elements of the ideation process, participants engaged in inquiry exploring energy harvesting and novel sensor technology. In modeling the ideation methodology,…

It is generally recognized that any inquiry must be sensitive to context and that facilitation is never simply a matter of following a set of rules. In this paper I list and discuss the particular challenges of facilitating an inquiry with a small group of adolescent boys, all of whom had difficulty in learning despite being of at least average…

Many preservice and practicing elementary teachers are familiar with the 5E learning cycle. This cycle provides a relatively simple, alliteratively memorable framework for teaching science in which lessons (or even entire units of instruction) consist of five distinct phases: Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration/Extension (hereafter,…

In this paper, we outline the theory behind the educational design used to implement a large-scale high school astronomy education project. This design was created in response to the realization of ineffective educational design in the initial early stages of the project. The new design follows an iterative improvement model where the materials…

This paper provides a critique of the performative assumptions of the teacher professional learning policy direction being adopted in Australia. Through international policy borrowing, the policy direction in Australia is similar to many other countries in that it encourages increasingly standardised teaching practice to afford a more quantitative…

This article describes how "learning to be", with a specific focus on social-emotional competencies, has become part of the educational mindset--and educational policy--in British Columbia, Canada. The development of a set of learning progressions for social responsibility, an emphasis on social emotional learning in the new curriculum…

An important feature of inquiry learning is to take part in science practices including exploring variables and testing hypotheses. Computer-based dynamic visualizations have the potential to open up various exploration possibilities depending on the level of learner control. It is assumed that variable control, e.g., by changing parameters of a…

Teachers working together in learning communities is a popular aspect of school reform projects in countries around the world. However, teacher communities vary greatly from one another. This article describes two communities whose purpose is to help teachers work for equity by focusing on questions that emerge from practice and from genuine…

The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of support on knowledge acquisition of gifted learners and their flow and mood during inquiry learning. Sixty-four gifted primary school children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions differing in support given in an inquiry task. Results showed that learners who were allowed to…