This Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study represents a collaboration with six students from alternative education to inquire about the experiences of vulnerable youth--students in alternative education and youth who have dropped out of school. Utilizing the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique, youth researchers asked their peers what…

This paper proposed a method for developing capacity for lifelong learning in open spaces, defined here as places without predefined learning structures or objectives, through the cultivation of aesthetic literacy. This discussion will be situated within fieldwork performed by the authors in Helsinki, Finland, and Tallinn, Estonia, in 2013. Based…

As schools become living sites of evidence-based practice, teachers increasingly accumulate large quantities of observations and records. In these times of an overabundance of documentation, there is a need to find the "unit of analysis" that determines the essence of what matters for assessment. In drawing upon cultural-historical…

A central challenge for science educators is to enable young people to act as scientists by gathering and assessing evidence, conducting experiments, and engaging in informed debate. We report the design of the nQuire toolkit, a system to support scripted personal inquiry learning, and a study of its use with school students ages 11-14. This…

Purpose: An appreciative inquiry (AI) collaborative study with 11 school administrators in a highly diverse suburban school district sought to understand if observing and sharing successful school practices/events in a whole group setting led to change in their perceptions, attitudes, and administrative practice. The paper aims to discuss these…

Although meaningful work experience and the support of caring adults are recognized as factors that promote positive youth development, research has given minimal attention to the role of the work-based learning (WBL) supervisor. Interviews with 12 supervisors, from work sites that were identified as successful by leaders from a Catholic high…

This qualitative study explored the experiences of an online learner at a community college. The purpose of the study was to investigate community college students' perception of online courses through an examination of their experiences with online learning. The community of inquiry theory was used as a guide to better understand the importance…

The Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) Model is a systemic approach to science learning and teaching based on five infrastructure pillars: research-based curriculum, differentiated professional development, administrative and community support, materials support, and assessment. This model uses the Science and…

This is the start of a road map for the effective introduction of inquiry-based learning in chemistry. Advantages of inquiry-based approaches to the development of scientific literacy are widely discussed in the literature. However, unless chemistry educators take account of teachers' reservations and identified disadvantages such approaches will…

This article presents the findings of an evaluation of the eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) professional development program. eMINTS is an intensive teacher professional development program designed to promote inquiry-based learning, support high-quality lesson design, build community among students and…

This study explored the effects of a modified argument-driven inquiry approach on Grade 4 students' engagement in learning science and argumentation in Taiwan. The students were recruited as an experimental group (EG, n?=?36) to join a 12-week study, while another 36 Grade 4 students from the same schools were randomly selected to be the…

Introductory statistics needs innovative, evidence-based teaching practices that support and engage diverse students. To evaluate the success of a multidisciplinary, project-based course, we compared experiences of under-represented (URM) and non-underrepresented students in 4 years of the course. While URM students considered the material more…

Background/Context: Learning to meet students' needs challenges new teachers often focused on procedures, management, materials, and curriculum. To avoid this development pattern, student teachers (STs) need opportunities to concentrate especially on needs of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Teacher inquiry (TI) holds promise…

This sequence of three guided-inquiry labs is designed for a second-semester general chemistry course and challenges students to discover basic theoretical principles associated with [superscript 13]C NMR, [superscript 1]H NMR, and IR spectroscopy. Students learn to identify and explain basic concepts of magnetic resonance and vibrational…

The mental models of both novice and advanced chemistry students were observed while the students performed a periodic table activity. The mental model framework seems to be an effective way of analyzing student behavior during learning activities. The analysis suggests that students do not recognize periodic trends through the examination of…