This investigation uncovered the conditions of learning, both positive and negative, that students in an alternative school experienced both in and out of the classroom setting. Eleven students at an alternative high school in a large suburban school district in the Pacific Northwest were interviewed using methods of narrative inquiry and…

We present a method for assessing science inquiry performance, specifically for the inquiry skill of designing and conducting experiments, using educational data mining on students' log data from online microworlds in the Inq-ITS system (Inquiry Intelligent Tutoring System; www.inq-its.org). In our approach, we use a 2-step process: First we use…

This study aims at identifying the effects of the mind-mapping technique upon students' perceptions of inquiry-learning skills, academic achievement, and retention of knowledge. The study was carried out in the Science and Technology course. A quasi-experimental research design with a pre-test and post-test control group, which was selected from…

Augmented reality (AR) technologies are identified as one of key emerging technologies for education in the next 5 years. AR takes advantage of virtual objects or information overlaying physical objects or environments, resulting in a mixed reality in which virtual objects and real environments coexist in a meaningful way to augment learning…

Early career science teachers are often assigned to classrooms with high numbers of English language learners (ELLs). For the underprepared early career science teacher, these circumstances are challenging. This study examines the changes in beliefs and practices of an early career science teacher who taught high numbers of ELLs in an urban…

The study aimed to determine the comparative effectiveness of context-based and traditional teaching approaches in enhancing student achievement in genetics, problem-solving, science inquiry and decision-making skills, and attitude towards the study of life sciences. A mixed method but essentially quantitative research approach involving a…

Over the past few decades, higher education has attempted to address the issue of underrepresentation of women in STEM undergraduate degree programs. Living-learning communities represent one strategy to help address low persistence for women in undergraduate STEM majors. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of undergraduate…

The purpose of this study was to 1) identify the pathways and strategies by which Latina administrators reach their positions within student affairs, 2) examine how the intersection of gender and ethnicity influence their leadership and 3) describe their leadership styles utilizing traditional models, or something unique to Latinas. As the number…

My exploratory case study examined the use of a learning platform to facilitate constructivist teaching strategies by pre-service teachers during their student teaching and field experiences in elementary science classes. Constructivist teaching strategies include inquiry lessons and active learning techniques. Dialogue, interviews and online…

The dissertation explores as ethnography the transformative process of ten student in a program for students with Asperger Syndrome transitioning from high school to college located in an urban high school to include the extracurricular extension referred to as Ethos. The dissertation considers the experience in the context of specialized…

The purpose of this study is to probe into the effect of metacognitive thinking strategies with different teaching strategies in an online inquiry-based junior high course. Two types of teaching strategies were applied in classes with totally 69 students of 9th graders in New Taipei City. Among participants, 34 students were in the experimental…

Obstacles, and instructional responses to them, that emerged in two middle school science classes during a formative experiment investigating Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT), an instructional intervention aimed at increasing digital literacy on the Internet, are reported in this manuscript. Analysis of qualitative data revealed that IRT enabled…

The paper traces a research process in the design and development of a science learning environment called WiMVT (web-based inquirer with modeling and visualization technology). The WiMVT system is designed to help secondary school students build a sophisticated understanding of scientific conceptions, and the science inquiry process, as well as…

Since many preservice teachers (PTs) display anxiety over teaching math and science, four PT educators collaborated to better understand the PTs' background experiences and attitudes toward those subjects. The research project provided two avenues for professional learning: the data collected from the PTs and the opportunity for collaborative…

In this qualitative study, we describe and characterize the pedagogical decisions that three college instructors made to mitigate challenges they faced as they taught by inquiry, as well as the rationale for their decisions and their perceptions of the efficacy of their decisions. We found that instructors made a range of decisions, including…