This article describes teachers' collaborative inquiry into the pretend "bad guy" play of 12 children in a university laboratory preschool classroom in the northeastern United States. The article describes the inquiry process and includes details and documentation of children's decisions, actions, and interactions related to the bad guy…

This article draws on case studies undertaken in postgraduate research at AUT University, Auckland. It seeks to address a number of issues related to heuristic inquiries employed by graphic design students who use autobiographical approaches when developing research-based theses. For this type of thesis, heuristics as a system of inquiry may…

Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) is a method that requires students to work in small groups, view models or diagrams, and answer carefully designed questions that guide them to an understanding of the subject matter on their own, with minimal direction from the instructor. Several studies show that the method has been highly…

The use of philosophy in educational programmes and practices under such names as philosophy for children, philosophy with children, or the community of philosophical enquiry, has become well established in many countries around the world. The main attraction of the educational use of philosophy seems to lie in the claim that it can help children…

Numeracy is central to success at work and to educational progress. As "Numeracy Counts," the report of the NIACE Committee of Inquiry on Adult Numeracy Learning, pointed out, being numerate and understanding when to use maths is a vital part of being able to function in the world, as an employee, employer or entrepreneur, or as a citizen or…

When the massacre of 32 students plus the suicide of the shooter occurred at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, this author watched the external events from the relative safety of her office located directly across the Drillfield from Norris Hall, where the shootings occurred. Subsequently, the author fell into a deep state of depression following…

This inquiry-based investigation focused on shadow measurement and the apparent movement of the Sun throughout the school year. Students would collect data about their shadows weekly. Toward the end of the year, students would then organize and interpret their data. The authors hoped they would discover that the angle of the Sun changes throughout…

This review explores Meyers and Crawford's "Teaching science as a cultural way of knowing: Merging authentic inquiry, nature of science, and multicultural strategies" by examining how they combine the use of inquiry-based science instruction with multicultural strategies. In this conversation, I point to the need of specific discourse strategies…

A guided-inquiry lab was developed to analyze the Balmer series of the hydrogen atomic spectrum. The emission spectrum of hydrogen was recorded with a homemade benchtop spectrophotometer. By drawing graphs and a trial-and-error approach, students discover the linear relationship presented in the Rydberg formula and connect it with the Bohr model…

The Moon can only be seen at night, electricity only comes from batteries, and dinosaurs and cavemen lived at the same time--these are just a few of the misconceptions students have about science (Phillips 1991). Though instructional labs, demonstrations, and textbooks can alter misunderstandings for a quiz or test, students often revert back to…

"The Wiley International Handbook of Educational Foundations" features international scholars uniquely qualified to examine issues specific to their regions of the world. The Handbook provides readers with an alternative to the traditional texts in the foundations of education by taking aim at the status quo, and by offering frameworks…

The aim of the study discussed in this paper was to link existing research about the argumentation skills of students to the teaching of life-cycle analysis (LCA) in order to promote an evidence-based approach to the teaching of and learning about materials used in consumer products. This case-study is part of a larger design research project that…

A significant body of the literature in science education examines students' conceptions of the dissolution of ionic solids in water, often showing that students lack proper understanding of the particulate nature of dissolving materials as well as holding numerous misconceptions about the dissolution process. Consequently, chemical educators have…

This study compared classroom interactive behaviors of science pre-service teachers and pre-service teachers of other subjects. Participants included pre-service teachers enrolled in a general methods course for secondary educators and its school-based fieldwork counterpart. Statistical tests found that science pre-service teachers had fewer…

A wide variety of out-of-school time (OST) programs across the U.S. offer science education opportunities that cover many scientific disciplines and use diverse pedagogical practices (National Research Council [NRC], 2009). However, to improve youth's scientific literacy, OST educators need to "have the disposition and repertoire of practices…