Inquiry-based instruction teaching helps students to think independently and scientifically, which in turn enables problem solving ability in them. Different approaches to encourage inquiry-based instructions like verification approach, and discovery approach are discussed by matching the background knowledge and reasoning skills among the…

Phenomena associated with the "pendulum" present numerous opportunities for assessing higher order human capabilities related to "scientific inquiry" and the "discovery" of natural law. This paper illustrates how systematic "assessment of scientific inquiry capabilities", using "pendulum" phenomena, can provide a useful tool for classroom teachers…

This article suggests that while educational psychology espouses an ecological view of human development, the implementation of practices that reflect this perspective has often been obstructed. In many circumstances, practices that attribute problems to individuals, or groups of individuals, continue. These contrast with ecological practices that…

Peirce was a thinker who claimed that his mind had been thoroughly formed by his rigorous training in the natural sciences. But he was also the author who proclaimed that nothing is truer than true poetry. In making the case for Peirce's relevance to issues of education, then, it is necessary to do justice to the multifaceted character of his…

This article aims to contribute to the literature on conceptual change by engaging in direct theoretical and empirical comparison of contrasting views. We take up the question of whether naive physical ideas are coherent or fragmented, building specifically on recent work supporting claims of coherence with respect to the concept of force by…

The concept of giftedness is frequently challenged on the grounds that 1) it is a ragged or slippery concept, 2) it is inegalitarian, 3) it is culturally arbitrary, and 4) it fails to distinguish children with natural ability from children who are parentally pressured. I argue that all these charges are unfounded. We "can" distinguish between…

In this essay, Jim Garrison explores the emerging scholarship establishing a Hegelian continuity in John Dewey's thought from his earliest publications to the work published in the last decade of his life. The primary goals of this study are, first, to introduce this new scholarship to philosophers of education and, second, to extend this analysis…

This article examines the practices of tracking and detracking in the social studies classroom. I argue that the content goals and the pedagogical orientations of social studies classes lend themselves to detracking. First I describe some of the issues regarding tracking and detracking in general. Following that is a discussion of the match…

To prepare teachers for implementing an integrated curriculum, the University of Louisiana at Monroe conducted a program of professional development for teachers called Integrating Instruction through Inquiry, or I[3] for short. The program provided teacher teams with insight into what scientific inquiry is really all about, while helping them…

David Horner, a recent president of North Park College and Theological Seminary has suggested that, in light of the tension between the demands of free inquiry and the need for religious inculcation, Christian colleges have two options: either redefine academic freedom or limit it and be up front and principled about it. In this article, the…

Until recent times, it seemed evident that to study another culture successfully, one was obliged to understand it clearly and accurately, exactly as it understood itself, with all its inherent contradictions. Lately that paradigm has changed to an almost exclusive and unquestioning focus on the grievances of the other culture and the oppression…

The Center for Education at the National Academies was established on the premise that educators urgently need to harness science to improve the education that they provide to all Americans. This includes not only emphasizing an inquiry approach to science education from kindergarten through college, but also promoting an energetic attempt to use…

The issue of being "practical" presents a continuous challenge, because student teachers' meanings for that word tend to be in sharp contrast to meanings that allow inquiry and are connected to personal and cultural histories. Instructor and student perspectives elucidate the struggle to find a compromise within this tension in the form of a…

In this article, the author objects to what curricularists and teachers often believe that meaningful activities in school have to be scripted, planned to the nth degree and assigned learning objectives and goals ahead of time, or they have no educational worth. Instead, he used Elliot Eisner's classic curriculum text, "The Educational…

Theory-testing can only inform scientific inquiry when the prediction of test outcome is based upon the current theory (theory-prediction consistency). This investigation explores children's theory-prediction consistency in a computer-mediated task in which multiple opportunities were provided to predict outcomes and review theories. An initial…