The Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS) at the University of California at San Diego sponsors a workshop that teaches tutors to use five types of probing skills. The use of the skills is fundamental to the student learner's acquisition of complex relationships and problem solving skills. The five types of probes are:…

Process, not facts; objective analysis and evaluation, not emotional and uncritical patriotism: these are the emphases of the new social studies and history materials. Curriculum designers of the 1950's reflected that decade's belief that there is a nature to things and that the discipline learned while using inquiry methods helps students become…

This study investigates the success of preservice elementary social studies teachers in acquiring effective questioning skills using a self-instructional Competency-Based Teacher Education (CBTE) module and tests the possible relationship between a teacher personality variable and a measure of their questioning ability. The subjects were divided…

Three domains of problems are the subject of this report: problems related to the nature of the Inquiry Role Approach (IRA) project implementation in field test classrooms, problems related to student performance associated with different kinds of extent of project implementation, and problems related to project student performance within the…

This report is a continuation of the studies of Explorations in Biology (EIB) Topics 1-8, a series of tests of the inquiry skills of secondary school biology students developed by the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL). In the period covered, two topics were completed and administered (for the first time) to samples of the…

This document is the final report of the Model Educational Research Training (MERT) program, a graduate program of the New York University School of Education. MERT trains urban school staff in skills necessary to identify problems, design valid research projects, and apply research results. The long-term objective is the training of small groups…

Teachers have been learning to improve their questioning strategies to facilitate students' thinking. The students too should learn the skill of questioning to be a good reader for the rest of their lives. The teacher's first job is to identify for students the skill of questioning as a way of understanding the writer, pinpointing his purpose,…

This paper identifies the main findings, goals, and limitations of research related to teacher questioning behavior. It is based on a review of the literature and research conducted by the author who developed and utilized a multiple-category question classification system in 54 elementary school classrooms. A number of limitations that have…

The roles assumed jointly by a university and a school district in preparing student teachers to elicit critical thinking on the part of pupils are investigated. Twelve elementary student teachers were assigned to a suburban school district. Each student teacher worked with one cooperating teacher. Records were kept by the student teachers and…

Any given inquiry can be divided into four methodological stages. These are: problem solving, problem evaluating, solution forming and solution evaluating. In teaching students to think, teachers should encourage them in all of these steps. (GC)

An educator considers the science of education with an emphasis on the nature of scientific thought. Aspects of educational history, certainty and probability, and research implications are addressed. (CB)

When a student asks a question, he invites learning and teaching. This article analyzes student questions and then uses that analysis to propose a pedagogical plan for responding to questions. (MT)