This paper reports on an exploration into the professional practice of a lecturer using the appreciative inquiry (AI) approach. This facilitated inquiry intentionally sought to apply the AI approach to the practice of an individual, an application that is different to its predominant usage with groups. The context for this research was the…

This paper investigates how the use of Pupil Views Templates (PVTs), a tool designed to elicit, record and analyse the development of students' awareness of their own learning processes, supports teachers' professional learning. This paper reports on a three-year collaborative practitioner enquiry project involving more than 30 primary and…

Students learn best from well-designed instruction. To what extent can a school district design a curriculum that supports inquiry learning? How can a district implement consistent inquiry practices in forty schools? In this article, the author discusses Newport News Public School District's journey to inquiry which began in 2004 with a…

The article aims to introduce Environmental Education (EE) in Finland and to discuss how it has been taken into account in Finnish nature schools. Firstly, we present EE models used in Finland. Thereafter we describe a qualitative case study on EE in nature schools (NS). The aim of the study was to get information for the development of EE. The…

Over the past three years, the authors have worked with kindergarten teachers to develop study units with sequences of integrated science inquiry and literacy activities appropriate for kindergartners. Their work, which is part of the Scientific Literacy Project, has been very successful. The success of the Scientific Literacy Project (SLP) is in…

This article features Calgary Girls' School (CGS), a charter school including grades four through nine that opened with 188 students in 2003. The school was aligned with Alberta Education's charter-school mandate at that time to offer parents a broad range of school choices. Today the Alberta charter school mandate is to focus on innovation and…

Two commercial self-heating food products have been used to apply chemical concepts such as stoichiometry, enthalpies of reactions and solutions, and heat transfer in a classroom activity. These products are the self-heating beverages sold in Europe and the Meals, Ready to Eat or MREs used primarily by the military in the United States. The main…

Increasing attention is being paid to professional development as a way to improve outcomes for students but its promise has not always been realised. Broadly speaking, approaches to professional development have either focused on developing better prescriptions for teaching practice or on collaborative reflective inquiry into practice. Neither…

After decades of research endorsing inquiry-based learning, at best only moderate success has been noted in creating effective systemic implementation in K-12 classrooms. Thus, teachers need to be better equipped in how to bring this transformation to their own classrooms. Changing beliefs and overcoming external obstacles encourages the use of…

Valerie Kinloch describes how the literacy narratives around place-making by Phillip, an African American teenager who resides in this historic community, demonstrate complexities of confronting power, struggle, and identity within an out-of-school community that is rapidly becoming gentrified. (Contains 3 notes.)

As two teacher educators and researchers, we explored dimensions of instructional practice in teacher education through online forums. In the course of this research, we drew upon our online interactivity as the basis for reflexive inquiry. Analysis entailed coding key themes to create a four-part rendering involving a hyperlinked poem, a video, a…

Preservice elementary teachers face many challenges in learning how to teach science effectively, such as engaging students in science, organizing instruction, and developing a productive learning community. This paper reports on several iterative cycles of design-based research aimed at fostering preservice teachers' principled reasoning around…

In this article we present project work on physical measurements and an examination task with a Rijke tube. The aim of our project is to help students increase their knowledge of thermoacoustics while at the same time developing their applied information technology skills and improving their cooperation skills. Our school project promotes pedagogy…

Innovative strategies in inquiry-based learning are recognized as improving the quality of higher education learning, but there is a need to explore whether and how these strategies promote the development of professional identity among undergraduates. In this article we describe an inquiry-based course, situated in a European context, which is…

Purpose: This article reports on a study designed to uncover the factors aspiring secondary school principals consider important when deciding whether to apply for a specific post. The aspiring principals involved in the study had all confirmed their desire to be a principal; about half were already vice-principals. Methods: Evidence for the study…