State and national leaders have focused on the role of the teacher, and the teacher's impact on student achievement. This qualitative study examined narratively the stories of effective teachers of 5th grade students to determine the methods and strategies that they use to foster improved student achievement. Narrative techniques were utilized to…

This paper is based on a workshop of the same name presented at the 2007 American Sociological Association meetings. The purpose of the workshop and this article is to focus attention on teaching methods that require students to actively investigate sociological phenomena. During the workshop, participants practiced constructing inquiry-guided…

In this article, the author seeks a middle path through which to traverse the "tricky ground" of Indigenous research; a middle path that will hopefully find "in-between spaces" open to new epistemological pathways, through which new voices and ideas can be heard within the social sciences and, in particular, within geography.…

During our careers as teachers, professional development specialists, and teacher educators, we have made perpetual attempts to develop instructional strategies and tools for engaging students in historical inquiry. Emphasis in recent years in the field of social studies education has been on the development and use of digitized historical…

The aim of this article is to describe and analyze how computer supported inquiry learning effects two secondary school students' engagement in a literacy learning project. With comparative analysis of various sources of data we aim to understand what engagement is, how and why it changes over time and how changes in engagement are reflected in…

Making research count in the education sector is often difficult to achieve as people, quite properly, question its relevance, purpose and impact. One of the significant barriers to research supporting practice in the lifelong learning sector is that funded research carried out in higher education institutions is frequently privileged above…

Engaged scholarship represents one way for making our research relevant to organizational practitioners by bridging the gap between theory and practice. Engaged scholarship is viewed as a form of collaborative inquiry between academics and practitioners that leverages their different perspectives to generate useful organizational knowledge. We…

We describe the development and use of a molecular model building activity with a chocolate theme, suitable for a public presentation of chemistry through interaction with visitors to science festivals and museums, and as a special classroom activity during science weeks, and so forth. (Contains 3 figures.)

This article explores the connections between Vygotsky's psychology and Marxism, arguing that his was a "Marxist psychology" in its "historical foundation": a specific conception of history. This conception of history is evident in Vygotsky's analysis and diagnosis of the crisis in psychology. The creation of a Marxist, general psychology was the…

Entrepreneurship is often described as the ability to recognize and exploit opportunities. Identifying opportunities is intentional and idiosyncratic insofar as they are recognized as opportunities is a novel and conscious event (otherwise the entrepreneur would be doing nothing new). Yet opportunities also have to be recognized by others as ones…

The author follows a group of honors students as they learn a systematic approach to exploring and understanding works of art. The author has devised both a series of questions that structure a thoughtful investigation into what we see and a path that gradually leads students from the examination of familiar, everyday objects to the analysis and…

Children learn about properties of materials as they walk through a fabric store, help in the kitchen, or dig in the garden. Directed explorations in the classroom build on these early experiences. In the inquiry-based activity described here, students prepare to learn about wet and dry ingredients (liquids and solids) and how they mix together by…

In this science investigation based on the 5E learning model, students moved through four different centers designed to focus their attention on the concepts of mass, volume, and density. At these stations, students encountered discrepant events that heightened their curiosity and encouraged discussion with peers about what they expected and…

Field studies are an excellent way for students to learn ecological concepts and practice doing science. This article presents an approach for the secondary science classroom that permits students to ask and answer their own questions, a prerequisite for truly experiencing the process of science. Students explore a local natural area and, in…

This article is written from the perspective of a practising headteacher in the context of the "Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers" (LSPH), now renamed "Head for the Future," and builds on an earlier treatment of the ideological background of LPSH and its construction of self in relation to approaches to educational leadership through…