This phenomenological inquiry explored the experiences and reactions of five school counselors who worked in a school that banned a Gay-Straight Alliance club. Specifically, the authors examined how counselors' perceptions of the ban influenced their advocacy for LGBTQQ students. The results of semi-structured interviews revealed one overarching…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the discourse patterns characterizing individual special education teachers as they participated in a collaborative professional development (PD) group, and how these individual discourse patterns influenced other group members' opportunities to learn about reading instruction for upper elementary…

The most pressing social problems facing humanity in the 21st century are what systems theorist Russell Ackoff referred to as "messes"--complex dynamic systems of problems that interact and reinforce each other over time. In this article, the authors argue that the lack of progress in managing messes is in part due to the predominance of…

Recent calls for reform have advocated for extensive changes to undergraduate science lab experiences, namely providing more authentic research experiences for students. Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) have attempted to eschew the limitations of traditional "cookbook" laboratory exercises and have received…

In this work, we explore journal writing as a way to come to know culture, particularly cultural phenomenon, vastly different from one's own firmly held and enacted beliefs. In this research, we accept the premise that writing is a way of knowing and adopt journal writing as a tool through which students can explore the knowledge they have…

Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for integrating knowledge and practice in learning experiences in K-12 science education. "PlantingScience" (PS), an ideal curriculum for use as an NGSS model, is a computer-mediated collaborative learning environment intertwining scientific inquiry, classroom instruction, and online…

This article endeavours to increase educators' understanding of the experiences of students who have been expelled from school in order to represent this critical stakeholder group in future policy development and programme implementation. Students' perspectives are presented through thick description in this narrative case study. Findings…

The purpose of this three-year study was to examine secondary school students' attitudes about science in classrooms with "resident scientists" who had been trained in inquiry science teaching. The study was based upon a National Science Foundation (NSF) program called Project Flowing Waters, a five-year NSF Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12…

In 2002, Chomsky, Hauser, and Fitch asserted that recursion may be the one aspect of the human language faculty that makes human language unique in the narrow sense--unique to language and unique to human beings. They also argue somewhat more quietly (as do Pinker and Jackendoff 2005) that recursion may be possible outside of language: navigation,…

This paper tells the story of a researcher's analysis process that became a journey to an unfamiliar place and, ultimately, to a new way of conceiving analysis and a new way of seeing--at least, new to the author as researcher. The study was an analysis of interview data gleaned from a series of conversations about what it is to be a musician. She…

Using a hermeneutic approach to inquiry, the author interviewed 8 counsellors in training to gain an understanding of the question, "How do counsellors in training develop, and how do they make sense of what they are doing/what is happening to them?" Their accounts were integrated into a single emerging story that captures their…

This article describes an organizational development tool called appreciative inquiry (AI) and its use in mental health to aid agencies implementing recovery model services. AI is a discursive tool with the power to shift dominant organizational cultures. Its philosophical underpinnings emphasize values consistent with recovery: community,…

The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of an apprenticeship program on high school students' understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry. Data related to seventeen students' understanding of science and scientific inquiry were collected through open-ended questionnaires. Findings suggest that although engagement in authentic…

In this guided-inquiry activity, students investigate the ionization of strong and weak acids. Bead models are used to study acid ionization on a particulate level. Students analyze seven strong and weak acid models and make generalizations about the relationship between acid strength and dissociation. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The universe of topics to choose from when teaching an astronomy course is astronomically immense. This wide array of opportunity presents some inherently difficult choices for teachers at all levels on how to limit the scope of the course to make the syllabus manageable. As but one example, consider that even the most experienced astronomy…