This research explored science teachers' pedagogical discontentment and described its role in teachers' consideration of new teaching practices. Pedagogical discontentment is an expression of the degree to which one is discontented because one's teaching practices do not achieve one's teaching goals. Through a series of structured interviews…

Research about how teachers construct practitioner researcher identities is central to teacher education and professional development because it provides insight into how teachers continue to learn about and implement practices that meet the needs of their students. The paper explores how one fourth-grade teacher (Holly) constructed her…

This article describes how Web 2.0 technologies may facilitate journaling and related inquiry methods among older adults. Benefits and limitations of journaling are summarized as well as computer skills of older adults. We then describe how Web 2.0 technologies can enhance journaling among older adults by diminishing feelings of isolation,…

In introductory laboratory courses, many universities are turning from traditional laboratories with predictable outcomes to inquiry-inspired, project-based laboratory curricula. In these labs, students are allowed to design at least some portion of their own experiment and interpret new, undiscovered data. We have redesigned the introductory…

Seafloor exploration being done by scientists is an ideal way to introduce students to technology as a tool for inquiry. The same technology that allows scientists to share data in near real time can also provide students the tools to become researchers. NOAA's Ocean Explorer Explorations website is a rich research data bank that can be used by…

The first thing that comes to mind for many teachers when they think of assessment is testing, quizzes, performance tasks, and other summative forms used for grading purposes. Such assessment practices represent only a fraction of the kinds of assessment that occur on an ongoing basis in an effective science classroom. Formative assessment is a…

Where the author teaches is far from the ocean, bordered on one side by forests of ponderosa and by the High Desert on the other. So when his first graders walked into class on the Monday morning after the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami along the coast of Japan--and their usual light conversations about the weekend included some sobering…

London is the paramount example of a city that is not bounded by its geography and cannot be grasped in isolation. The U.K.'s national capital and the prime focus for business, finance and creative industries, London also transcends the U.K.'s borders as a hub of the world economy. This paper argues that London, a city riddled by the socioeconomic…

Too often the discourse of the mathematics classroom is defined as the teacher asking the questions and the students answering them--or trying to. Certainly teachers should not be prohibited from asking questions, but if students are always placed in the position of responding rather than initiating, then one can hardly be surprised if at times…

In recent years No Child Left Behind has provided new labels to supposedly high- and low-performing schools and has identified large numbers of schools as low performing. Are school-to-school differences in the quality of instruction offered as great as the public is led to believe? Using the disciplined inquiry typology of Newman, Marks, and…

Adults vary their haptic exploratory behavior reliably with variation both in the sensory input and in the task goals. Little is known about the development of these connections between perceptual goals and exploratory behaviors. A total of 36 children ages 3, 4, and 5 years and 20 adults completed a haptic intramodal match-to-sample task.…

This article describes an activity that can be used as an inquiry-based laboratory or demonstration for either high school or undergraduate chemistry students to provide a basis for understanding both vapor pressure and the concept of dynamic phase equilibrium. The activity includes a simple setup to create a closed system of only water liquid and…

In this study, we argue that a teacher has a crucial role in leading students into collaborative inquiry-learning practices. While many studies have given the impression that students are able to engage in inquiry processes on their own, the role of social practices and teacher guidance often remains unexplained. However, even when the pedagogical…

This study involved a meta-analysis of 10 cases of inquiry-based learning (IBL) in undergraduate education to determine the factors which both enable and constrain its use. The enabling factors were found to include: teacher attributes--being student-centred, reflective but rebellious; course design attributes--questions stimulating learning,…

This research suggests utilizing collaborative learning among high school students for better performance on ecology inquiry-based projects. A case study of nine 12th grade students who participated in collaborative learning sessions in the open field and in class is examined. The results show that the students concentrated on discussing the…