This study was an exploration of the conceptions of inquiry science held by exemplary elementary teachers. The origins of these conceptions were explored in order to establish how best to improve elementary teachers' understanding and implementation of inquiry science teaching. Four focus group sessions were held as well as classroom observations.…

Elementary teachers face increasing demands to engage children in authentic science process and argument while simultaneously preparing them with knowledge of science facts, vocabulary, and concepts. This reform is particularly challenging due to concerns that elementary teachers lack adequate science background to teach science accurately. This…

This article offers a rigorous and researched look at how consumer rhetorics form first-year college students' understandings about life at the university. Examined in the context of consumer culture, students' narratives about university life illustrate how they marshal, appropriate, and deploy consumerist metaphors and to what ends. Using…

The present research investigated whether real-world application exercises promoted students' abilities to spontaneously transfer statistical knowledge and to recognize the use of statistics in real-world contexts. Over the course of a semester of psychological statistics, two classes completed multiple application exercises designed to mimic…

Undergraduate statistics courses are perceived as challenging by both students and instructors. Students' attitudes, motivation, math anxiety, and preparedness can negatively impact the student and instructor experience and have the potential to negatively impact student learning. This article describes an attempt to address some of these…

This article presents activities appropriate for the first half of a general introductory statistics course. All activities revolve around the same data set collected early in the course. The activities require students to make decisions about how they should proceed. (Contains 2 tables and 5 figures.)

It has become clear in current scientific pedagogy that the emersion of students in the scientific process in terms of designing, implementing, and analyzing experiments is imperative for their education; as such, it has been our goal to model this active learning process in the classroom and laboratory in the context of a genuine scientific…

Project-based learning has long been used in the educational realm as it emphasis a student-centered strategy which promotes meaning, enriched learning that enhances inquiry and problem-solving skills in a rich, authentic environment. The relevance and authentic design of projects may further be enhanced by the use of technology in the classroom.…

Changes in student perceptions to a novel technology-based, active-learning pedagogy using a custom, sophisticated, personal response system called WISE were studied over the first five years it was used. Students tended to view active learning more favorably over time, particularly in regards to statements that required them to be interpretive of…

Research findings, as well as newly adopted curriculum standards, continues to send a message to educators that the work of learning must be shifted from teachers to the ones doing the learning. That's because research and anecdotal evidence suggest that when students manage their own learning, they become more invested in their own academic…

The Institute of Mathematical pedagogy meets annually--the theme for 2010 was: "Mathematical Friends & Relations: Recognising Structural Relationships". Here one participant documents her reflections on the experience of working with a group of mathematics educators at the Institute. The challenges, the responses--both the predictable and the…

While Woocher's vision for the future of Jewish education is ambitious, the ability to deliver any plan successfully depends upon the strengths of professionals and the guidance and support provided for them. This author contends that unless people create opportunities for teachers/educators to explore common issues, seek possible solutions, and…

We describe an approach to teaching probability that minimizes the amount of class time spent on the topic while also providing a meaningful (dice-rolling) activity to get students engaged. The activity, which has a surprising outcome, illustrates the basic ideas of informal probability and how probability is used in statistical inference.…

Inquiry-based learning methods, coupled with advanced technology, hold promise for closing the science literacy gap for English learners (ELs) and students with learning difficulties (SWLDs). Project ESCOLAR (Etext Supports for Collaborative Online Learning and Academic Reading) created collaborative online learning units for middle school science…

Development of benchtop, portable Fourier transform nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and infrared (IR) spectrometers has opened up opportunities for creating university-high school partnerships that provide high school students with hands-on experience with NMR and IR instruments. With recent changes to the international baccalaureate chemistry…