The purpose of this paper is to refocus and expand the notion of the integration of reading, particularly literature, and social studies. The premise is that reading as a tool of inquiry can be used in the social studies classroom to develop students' abilities to inquire about social issues in the social studies. Inquiry is interpreted to include…

This document presents the rationale for laboratory work, which is alleged to be ritualistic in many schools and colleges. The rationale is that laboratories are a fertile source of memory structures called episodes, which would enhance the comprehension of abstract subject matter when associated with it. Specific and generalized episodes are…

The approaches and methods of teaching and learning social studies are examined. Fundamental study skills are emphasized: effective questioning techniques, data gathering, ability to recognize relationships in terms of time and space, and ability to recognize facts, opinions, and propaganda. To develop these skills it is recommended that priority…

This guide for the improvement of instruction in higher education is designed to aid the educator in planning and conducting laboratory instruction. The examples used refer primarily to science laboratories. Topics discussed include: deciding whether or not to use the laboratory method (with a discussion of discovery learning or the processes of…

The purpose of the study was to determine the influence of wait-time following a teacher's questions on the cognitive complexity of students' responses. The same sequence of three lessons--Exploration, Invention, and Discovery--was presented to 75 fifth-grade students randomly assigned to 18 groups. The Discovery phase of the instructional…

Three ways in which the term "inquiry" is used are discussed: inquiry as a teaching method, inquiry as a mode of learning and inquiry as a logical disciplinary process. The role of guiding principles of inquiry is analyzed, using a discussion of Harvey's work on the heart to illustrate an inquiry guided by the idea of structure-function. It is…

The procedures for the selection of a test population to use and evaluate the short units developed by the Sociological Resources for the Social Studies Project (SRSS), "Episodes in Social Inquiry Series," are considered. They wanted to assess the effectiveness of the materials under a variety of circumstances: classes from different…

Five perspectives are identified for viewing inquiry: "Guiding Principles: (for example the antecedent-consequent principle), Inquiry Factors or logical steps in inquiry, Behavioral Objectives, Affective or Attitudinal Qualities, and Inquiry into Inquiry. Many components of these perspectives are enumerated, together with related student…

This six-part resource guide is designed to help the teacher understand the skills of inquiry, to know how to mold the bits of information into a structural framework, and to be an expert in the technique of self-instruction. Part one, "Orientation to Secondary School Teaching," looks at perceptions about the teaching/learning situation and helps…

Reported is an investigation related to the lack of preparation of elementary school teachers in the use of the new elementary science curricula which employ inquiry. It was suggested that television instruction could bring inquiry-oriented science lessons to the selected 123 students and at the same time provide an example of teaching with…

Reported is an examination of the effects of a newly devised science course upon the logical thought processes of college freshmen. Five tasks designed to determine whether the student did thinking logically when presented with problems of conservation of volume, reversible operations, reconciliation of irrelevant variables, and elimination of…

Reported is a study of the effect of participation in an inquiry activity compared to a reading activity on learning and retention. The subjects were (1) a group of 23 inservice teachers in a six-week summer class, and (2) a group of 31 inservice teachers in an eleven-week college term. The classes were each randomly assigned to two groups of…

Problems in assessing the validity and reliability of the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL) tests of the inquiry skills of biology students are discussed by reference to the first trial version of the first Explorations in Biology (EIB) booklets. Since students learn during the two parts of the test, coefficients of stability…