This study focuses on how the quality of students' arguments and their conceptions of data and evidence change as a result of experiencing two types of laboratory courses, one employing a scripted inquiry approach and the other employing argument-driven inquiry. The analysis explores the connections between students' conceptions of data and…

At the Center for Integrated Access Networks (CIAN), an Engineering Research Center funded from 2008-2018 by the National Science Foundation, the education department worked to develop new and innovative digital resources to engage students in learning science content. One resource created, the CIAN Comic Book, focuses on educating students about…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) have described discipline-specific literacy skills needed to successfully engage with science concepts, and science assessments ask students to use language in many and varied forms to mediate their science thought and actions and prove mastery of content. Yet…

The instrumental approach is a useful theoretical lens for understanding students' learning processes with a main focus on the transformation of an artefact (a human design for a goal-directed activity) into a meaningful instrument (i.e. an artefact and schemes developed by the student). In this paper, we articulate the instrumental approach for…

The tragic story of Flint has made it increasingly clear that the public needs to know how to evaluate sources of information. All of this is occurring in the age of "fake news," which heightens our awareness of the challenge of determining veracity. Furthermore, a flood of information can be found at our fingertips 24 hours a day. A…

With the emphasis on building twenty-first-century skills in learners, English language teachers are challenged to find activities that will build English language proficiency while promoting higher-order thinking in the target language. One reason is that an individual learner's zone of proximal development (ZPD) for language proficiency and for…

The advantages of active learning approaches have prompted national recommendations for the development of inquiry-based laboratories to replace traditional laboratory classes. However, there is little consensus for the most-effective implementation strategies. Frequently, a single inquiry-based exercise is incorporated at the end of a traditional…

A group study program in the UK provides the setting for understanding deep learning in social work education through inquiry-based learning (IBL). Thirteen undergraduate and graduate students from a large university in Western Canada participated in a 15-day learning journey complete with a research methods conference and multiple exchanges with…

Using mobile devices to support the process and products of learning activities is a trend in inquiry-based learning, which is culminating in the formation of the subfield of mobile inquiry-based learning (m-IBL). However, even though mobile devices have been widely used in IBL activities in recent years, evaluative evidence for their substantial…

In mid-March 2020, due to the novel coronavirus, my 300-level Environmental Sampling Methods lecture/laboratory course transitioned to distance learning. After this move, the primary focus of the course became the laboratory. To do this, I revised my three remaining laboratory exercises (i.e., water quality, soil quality, environmental microbes)…

Hypothesis generation is an important but difficult process for students. This study investigated the effects of providing students with support for hypothesis generation, with regard to the testability and complexity of the generated hypotheses, the quality of the subsequent inquiry learning processes and knowledge acquisition. Fifty-two…

As classrooms grow increasingly diverse internationally, teachers need support to teach diverse students. Bilingual teachers hold particular potential to provide culturally and linguistically responsive instruction. We need to know more about teacher education learning opportunities and ways bilingual teachers leverage these as resources. Drawing…

Whereas extensive studies have examined the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning in chemistry education, few have tracked undergraduate performance throughout the college chemistry curricula. In this study, we describe an instructional model of conceptual learning and inquiry-based practices (CLIP) and assess students' transformation of…

The prospective teachers can effectively master Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) through the application of technology-based guided inquiry as an effort to enhance technology literacy, learning quality and also as a medium for problem-solving. This study aimed at analyzing the impact on the implementation of technology-based…

In many schools, librarians play a key role in teaching information literacy and inquiry learning. From a survey of Colorado librarians, Keith Curry Lance and Leslie Maniotes learned that librarians who regularly facilitated student-led inquiry activities were also more likely to teach regularly a number of information literacy skills. Librarians…