The opportunities that philosophical hermeneutics provide as a research tool are explored and it is shown that this qualitative research method can be employed as a valuable tool for the educational researcher. Used as an alternative to the standard quantitative approach to educational research, currently being the dominant paradigm of data…

This article explores how an experienced teacher navigates the demands of curriculum to implement her inquiry-centered teaching and learning philosophy, and how administrators along the way supported her during this change. Interviews with this classroom teacher surface suggestions for twenty-first-century professional development and support,…

Use of inquiry-based research modules in the classroom has soared over recent years, largely in response to national calls for teaching that provides experience with scientific processes and methodologies. To increase the visibility of in-class studies among interested researchers and to strengthen their impact on student learning, we have…

Pre-service teachers collaborated with 6th grade students to audit a College of Education building looking for possibilities to "go green." The student/teacher teams developed an e-book collection of project descriptions, completed budgets, estimated timelines, and sustainability requirements for the university to consider. The e-books…

We teach a course for elementary education undergraduates that gives students an opportunity to conduct open-ended scientific inquiry and pursue their own scientific questions in much the same way that practicing research scientists do. In this study, we compared what our students say declaratively about the nature of science (NOS) in surveys and…

In this study, we produced a documentary which portrays scientists at work and critically evaluated the use of this film as a teaching tool to help students develop an understanding of the nature of science. The documentary, "Life as a Scientist: People in Love with 'Caenorhabditis elegans,' a Soil Nematode" encompasses the…

This article maps how narrative inquiry--the use of story to study human experience--has been employed as both method and form to capture cross-cultural learning associated with Western doctoral students' travel study to eastern destinations. While others were the first to employ this method in the travel study domain, we are the first to…

This article presents a methodology for modelling the development of self-regulated learning skills in the context of computer-based learning environments using a combination of tracing techniques. The user-modelling techniques combine statistical and computational approaches to assess skill acquisition, practice, and refinement with the…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) will define science education for the foreseeable future, yet many educators struggle to see the bridge between current practice and future practices. The inquiry-based methods used by Extension professionals (Kress, 2006) can serve as a guide for classroom educators. Described herein is a method of…

A connection between creativity and curiosity may seem self evident, and, indeed, psychologists and philosophers have long held that creativity and curiosity are related. It seems logical enough. One can imagine that the typical individual is satisfied by the usual solution to a problem or the usual way to conceptualize a situation, but the…

This research examined the outcome of a year two intervention which aligned two instructional contexts, to impact preservice teachers' Environmental Education (EE) self-efficacy beliefs and their use of inquiry-based instruction. The intervention immersed candidates in inquiry-based pedagogies and EE content across a science content course and a…

Young children are keenly motivated to inquire into and make meaning about their worlds. This article discusses "working theories", one of two indicative learning outcomes of the New Zealand early childhood curriculum, "Te Whariki". Working theories occur as children attempt to find connections between their experiences and…

My doctoral research project sought to explore the ways in which school music teachers' values and beliefs impact on their students' experience of music education. Music in schools is often positioned as a subject for the few rather than for the many. The literature describes music teachers themselves as elitist, more interested in their subject…

This study offers recommendations and a model for other teacher educators who are interested in training teachers in the use of three-dimensional (3D) immersive virtual worlds (IVWs) for their own teaching. Twelve special education teachers collaboratively explored the usability of Second Life (SL) for special education by completing a full…

This paper looks at the historical consciousness of prospective history teachers in Canada. Using a bilingual online survey instrument inspired by the pan-Canadian research "Canadians and their Pasts" with volunteer participants (N = 233), the study investigates their background knowledge, their perceptions of the trustworthiness of…