This article introduces the concept of personal empowerment as a form of transformative learning. It focuses on commonly ignored but enhancing elements of mathematics learning and argues that crucial personal resources can be essentially promoted by high engagement in mathematical problem solving, inquiry, and collaboration. This personal…

In a time of increased standardization and top-down reform, teachers with democratic and social justice-oriented perspectives must work to create classroom spaces that value student voice and position them as knowledge holders. This article draws on a critical literacy framework to analyze the case study of one teacher working within a teacher…

Orchestrating inquiry-based science learning in the classroom is a complex undertaking. It requires fitting the culture of the classroom with the teacher's teaching and inquiry practices. To understand the interactions between these variables in relation to student learning, we conducted an investigation in two different classroom settings to…

It has been noted that undergraduate project-based laboratories lead to increased interest in scientific research and student understanding of biological concepts. We created a novel, inquiry-based, multiweek genetics research project studying Ptpmeg, for the Introductory Biology Laboratory course at Brandeis University. Ptpmeg is a protein…

More than twenty years ago reading researchers sought to capture the behaviors good readers demonstrated to make meaning from their reading. By shifting the focus away from what was wrong, researchers were able to study and discuss what worked. A comprehensive list of reading strategies emerged from this research. This was an important discovery.…

Students' ability to regulate their learning is considered important for the quality of collaborative inquiry learning. However, there is still limited understanding about how students engage in social forms of regulation processes and what roles these regulatory processes may play during collaborative learning. The purpose of this study was to…

The aim of this study is to determine the impact of inquiry-based learning (IBL) on students' academic performance and to assess their satisfaction with the process. Linear and logistic regression analyses show that examination grades are positively related to attendance at classes and tutorials; moreover, there is a positive significant…

In physical chemistry classrooms, mathematical and graphical representations are critical tools for reasoning about chemical phenomena. However, there is abundant evidence that to be successful in understanding complex thermodynamics topics, students must go beyond rote mathematical problem solving in order to connect their understanding of…

To equip graduates with the capability to meet complex demands of work and life, it is important that higher education teachers engage students in self-sustained learning--the persistent, self-initiated pursuit of expertise development in one's subject area. This requires building a positive synergy between learning and teaching, which implies…

This study focuses on the relationships established between the elements that compose the community of inquiry (CoI): cognitive, social, and teaching presence. Using three questionnaires, we analyse the students' perception of synchronous and asynchronous virtual in text-based communication (chats, forums and emails). Starting from the high…

A Chinese version of the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI) was used to study the students' perceptions of the actual and preferred laboratory learning environments in Hong Kong junior secondary science lessons. Valid responses of the SLEI from 1932 students of grade 7 to grade 9 indicated that an open-ended inquiry approach seldom…

Our self-study has two main purposes: (1) to understand the value of self-study for credential program graduates to confront in transformative ways the pedagogical challenges of urban schools, and (2) to add to an exploration of self-study for non-teacher educators and strengthen our preparation of candidates to enact such inquiry. To answer these…

The recent introduction of statistics into the Brazilian curriculum has presented a multi-problematic situation for teacher professional development. Drawing on research in the areas of teacher development and statistical inquiry, we propose a Teacher Professional Development Cycle (TPDC) model. This paper focuses on two teachers who planned a…

POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning) is a collaborative learning technique that employs guided inquiry within a cyclic system of exploration, concept invention, and application. This action research explores students' academic performance on a unit of organic chemistry work taught using POGIL, in addition to the effect of POGIL on…

How do the subjective experiences of faculty and students shape the classroom and the study of global politics? Can our subjective experiences support the pedagogical goal of developing critical thinking skills? In this article, I draw on my experiences teaching an undergraduate course called "The Arab World and the West" with respect to…