We describe and analyze three episodes from mathematics classrooms. In each case, the teacher was confronted by a "contingent" situation that they had not anticipated or planned for yet that offered interesting and fruitful learning possibilities if pursued. In two cases, we analyze the teacher's response; in the third, we speculate how they might…

Anecdotal accounts from science educators suggest that few teachers are teaching science as inquiry. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. This study aimed to provide evidence-based documentation of the state-of-use of inquiry-based instruction and explicit instruction about nature of science (NOS). We examined the…

This article addresses key issues embedded within what some commentators are describing as a "virtual" or "digital" ethnography. Namely, that through the adoption of new (virtual) spaces for ethnographic inquiry it is possible to trouble previous notions of site, place, space and meaning when collaborating in online fields.…

The central goal of this exploratory study was to characterize the effects of experiments involving different levels of inquiry on the nature of college students' written reflections about laboratory work. Data were collected in the form of individual lab reports written using a science writing heuristic template by a subset of the students…

The article argues that science assessment should change from an item-driven to a construct-driven practice and pay more attention to disciplinary scientific reasoning. It investigates assessment scales developed from a novel theoretical rationale, describing scientific reasoning as three fundamental practices (hypothesizing, experimenting, and…

Teacher educators' capacity to prepare competent P-12 educators who are ready to meet the challenges of 21st century schooling has been called into question (Darling-Hammond, 2006). Low student achievement and high teacher attrition rates have resulted in a national call to prepare prospective and practicing teachers with the knowledge, skills,…

Gaming, an integral part of many students' lives outside school, can provide an engaging platform for focusing students on important disciplinary core concepts as an entry into developing students' understanding of these concepts through science practices. This article highlights how S'cape can be used to support student learning aligned with the…

The purpose of this study was to address the career paths, challenges, and barriers of African American women college or university presidents. In addition, the expectation was to identify the "perceptions" of barriers to acquire the position of president. Using a phenomenological paradigm of inquiry, in-depth semi-structured personal…

This study explores the experiences of undergraduate students enrolled in an education I-Series (University of Maryland undergraduate courses designed to inspire innovation, imagination, and intellect) course, Good Stories: Teaching Stories for Peace and Justice. In this course students are asked to produce digital stories that project themes of…

We present work toward automatically assessing and estimating science inquiry skills as middle school students engage in inquiry within a physical science microworld. Towards accomplishing this goal, we generated machine-learned models that can detect when students test their articulated hypotheses, design controlled experiments, and engage in…

Over the past several decades a growing amount of research has considered the role, challenges, and complexities of teaching reflective inquiry to preservice teachers. Generally accepted as a valuable component of a teacher education program, there are persistent levels of ambiguity regarding how reflective inquiry can be intentionally fostered…

For some time scholars have been advocating the application of adult learning techniques such as andragogy to police recruit training. This study attempted to further that discussion by determining how police recruits make meaning while attending the police academy. Through observations, interviews, and reflective journaling, data were collected.…

This article outlines the development of an assessment tool for charting student learning through inquiry and provides some insights into its use as an evidence-based practice tool for school library instructional teams. The tool, known as the Student Learning through Inquiry Measure (SLIM), has been developed and tested over a number of years by…

In addition to recommending inquiry as the primary approach to teaching science, developers of recent reform efforts in science education have also strongly suggested that teachers develop a sound understanding of the nature of science. Most studies on teachers' NOS conceptions and inquiry beliefs investigated these concepts of teachers' NOS…

Metacognition is an important aspect of human intelligence and higher learning. There is the recognition that metacognition is not just a private internal activity but also socially situated. In this context, the purpose of this research is to develop and validate a metacognitive construct that provides the opportunity to assess metacognition in…