Educators are busier than ever before. What practitioner has time to add "researcher" to his or her job description? Yet the very complexity of education today mandates that educators become researchers. Educators cannot do their jobs properly unless they become researchers who have the goal of fostering a culture of inquiry throughout the entire…

This article reports on findings from a longitudinal study of leadership in the context of a region-wide school renewal effort entitled the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC). BASRC's theory of action is multifaceted, incorporating a focus on distributed leadership, continual inquiry into practice, and collective decision-making at the…

A district harnesses the energy of individuals committed to change to create a new approach to science teaching and learning--one that emphasizes inquiry alongside content. Staff developers helped teachers understand how scientists think and work, using an inquiry process that teachers, in turn, now use with students.

This research extends a continuing line of inquiry investigating how multimedia resources might be joined with other support structures to effectively implement problem-based inquiry (PBI) activities in secondary history classrooms. Two history teachers with experience in PBI implemented a technology-supported problem-based civil rights unit in…

During the 2007-08 school year, the New York City Department of Education launched the second phase of its ambitious and innovative initiative known as "Children First." Ultimately, this initiative aims to intensify the focus by all educators on student performance and in doing so to stimulate the development of evidence-based cultures…

Traditional professional development focuses on declarative and procedural knowledge. That is, participants usually learn what to do and how to do it rather than when to do it and why it is important. In McREL's leadership development program, they focus first on providing participants with an overview of research findings found in their…

Despite the growing popularity of robotics competitions such as FIRST LEGO League, robotics activities are typically not found in regular K-12 classrooms. We speculate that, among other reasons, limited adoption is due to the lack of empirical evidence demonstrating the effect of robotics activities on curricular goals. This paper presents a mixed…

This essay examines Leo Strauss's pedagogical method in his teaching on rights. The goal in this essay is not to present Strauss's argument for or against any particular conception of rights. In fact, it is to dissuade readers of Strauss from seeking such conclusions within Strauss's texts, and to argue that readers' attention turn toward the…

In this study I rely on sociocultural views of learning and teaching to describe how fifth- sixth-grade students in a Fostering a Community of Learners (FCL) classroom gradually adopted scientific ideas and language in a socially complex classroom. Students practiced talking science together, using everyday, scientific, and hybrid discourses as…

Contemporary science standards stress the importance of highlighting inquiry in the science classroom as one way of learning key concepts. One critical question that needs to be addressed for a range of instructional practices is how opportunities to learn are conceptualized so that students can engage and learn the critical ideas and practices…

To reflect on the mathematics achievement of children engaging "Algebra and Analogies for Kids," the teacher researcher will explore the following inquiry: What happens when kids display analogical thinking in an algebra project? Specifically, the proposed study will examine the reasoning of five children in portfolios of best works and selected…

This paper takes a descriptive look at Community Science Workshops (CSWs). This paper discusses what CSW is, how it arose and spread, how local CSWs are structured and led, and what programs and experiences they offer to youth. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

The purpose of this study is to prepare inquiry based experimental activities on the photosynthesis, thought to be a very difficult subject by pupils, and to determine the pupil's ideas towards this method. This study was made with 24 pupils from Grade 3 at Ataturk Anatolian High school in Turkey. As data gathering material; seven inquiry…

This study examined the value added to standard textbook-based instruction of plant biodiversity by the use of the exemplary interactive CD-ROM, "Conserving Earth's Biodiversity." This CD-ROM features renowned conservation figure E.O. Wilson. The setting of the research was an introductory biology course in a rural public community…

It is widely accepted that inquiry-based curriculum programs have positive effects on cognitive achievement, process skills, and attitudes toward science (NRC 2000). Science teachers seek engaging, effective, and inquiry-based activities that are standards-aligned and convenient to implement in their classrooms. For many years, the web has…