The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to measure the effect of a student-centered instructional method called guided inquiry on the achievement of students in a unit of study in high school biology. The study used a non-random sample of 109 students, the control group of 55 students enrolled in high school one, received…

After being appointed as Controller of BBC Learning, this author reflected on how the BBC had inspired his own love of learning. He realised that unlocking the learning potential of the full range of BBC outputs would be the key to inspiring a "life full of learning" for all its audiences. In this article, the author describes four new…

In this qualitative and interpretive study, we investigated factors that influenced elementary preservice teachers' self-efficacy in a constructivist, inquiry-based physics class. Bandura's (1977) theory of social learning was used as a basis to examine preservice teacher's self-efficacy. Participants included 70 female EC-4 preservice teachers…

In 1993 Carey and Smith conjectured that the most promising way to boost students' understanding of the nature of science is a "theory-building approach to teaching about inquiry." The research reported here tested this conjecture by comparing results from two Grade 4 classrooms that differed in their emphasis on and technological…

Most members of the National Association of Scholars worry about the politicization of the university. Academia gives undue preference to racial minorities in student admissions and faculty appointments. Teaching and research is often slanted toward minority grievances and Third World claims against the United States. However, critics have largely…

Enhancing undergraduate students' preparation and interest in science careers frequently involves engagement in authentic research experiences. Traditional undergraduate research (UR) one-to-one faculty-to-student ratio is challenged by demand and cost, motivating the development of alternative approaches to offering these experiences. Embracing…

This research investigated the effect of reflective discussions following inquiry-based laboratory activities on students' views of the tentative, empirical, subjective, and social aspects of nature of science (NOS). Thirty-eight grade six students from a Lebanese school participated in the study. The study used a pretest-posttest control-group…

In this article, the author investigates the teaching and writing of poetry within public school spaces, illuminating how the work of poetry in an Academic Interventions classroom stirs new visions of who the students and the teacher can be. The study involves five teachers from a range of rural, urban, and suburban districts. These teachers…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the advantages of an approach to instruction using current problems and issues as curriculum organizers and illustrating how teaching must change to accomplish real learning. The study sample consisted of 41 preservice science teachers (13 males and 28 females) in a model science teacher education…

This paper explores the experiences of pre- and in-service teachers through intentionally created narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 2006) spaces within three different service-learning engagements in Canada, Kenya, and Turkey. Because the contexts where our studies were situated were culturally different from participants' backgrounds,…

While teacher identity has been conceptualized in different ways, research in teacher education has shown that the development of self-understanding about being a teacher is critical to learning how to teach and can be shaped in multiple ways. Etienne Wenger argues that the formation of communities of practice is influenced strongly by the…

The article presents an analysis of practices in teaching with computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning environments. We describe the role of the teacher in computer-supported collaborative inquiry learning by five principles that span the whole instructional process, from the preparation of the lesson up to the assessment of learning…

The author centers on narrative inquiry as a "multilayered and many stranded" form of qualitative research (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. xvii), one that unfurls in the midst of a plethora of social phenomena and other research agendas (Conle, 1999). In the article, the narrative inquiry broadly relates to organized school reform in…

Online discussion questions, which reflect differing instructional strategies, can take many forms and it is important for designers and instructors to understand how the various strategies can impact students' critical thinking levels. For the purpose of the study three instructional strategies used in the development and implementation of online…

This study investigated how professional development featuring evidence-based customization of technology-enhanced curriculum projects can improve inquiry science teaching and student knowledge integration in earth science. Participants included three middle school sixth-grade teachers and their classes of students (N = 787) for three consecutive…