The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of participation in a research mentorship team (RMT) on early childhood teachers' professional identities. The participants were seven early childhood teachers engaged in preservice teacher supervision at a university-affiliated child care center who volunteered to be members of the RMT…

The study's purpose was to investigate the views and opinions of librarians about the implementation of Web 2.0 technologies into library operations and services. The Delphi technique was chosen as the method of inquiry in this study, in which a group of panelists graded the desirability and probability of a list of statements. Thirty-nine…

In this paper, the authors examine an algebra-based physics course designed for preservice teachers and explore how the course integrated two pedagogical strategies to bridge the gap between inquiry-learning experiences and the teachers' nature of science (NOS) understandings. The results of this research show that the explicit, reflective process…

In this paper, several recent theoretical conceptions of technology-mediated education are examined and a study of 2159 online learners is presented. The study validates an instrument designed to measure teaching, social, and cognitive presence indicative of a community of learners within the community of inquiry (CoI) framework [Garrison, D. R.,…

Learning about states of matter is fun and exciting when students, acting as water molecules, role-play moving from a solid to a liquid to a gas. The 5-E lesson plan model provides the framework for this activity, ensuring that students actively engage in inquiry science while creatively constructing knowledge. (Contains 2 figures.)

Maria Edgeworth was a nineteenth century novelist, primarily remembered for her adult and children's novels. Yet her book, "Letters for literary ladies" discussed the importance of science education for girls and in conjunction with her father, Richard Edgeworth, she wrote several treatises on education. Their book "Practical education" advocates…

Interactive simulations are entering mainstream science education. Their effects on cognition and learning are often framed by the legacy of information processing, which emphasized amodal problem solving and conceptual organization. In contrast, this paper reviews simulations from the vantage of research on perception and spatial learning,…

In this article, the author explores how a group of ten fourth-grade students who were avid readers became a community of inquiry. The primary goal of this study was to document the children's reading engagement: how they created, entered, and sustained the world of the story. This article also reflects the impact of three elements--data…

This article describes and explores the key elements of an approach to personalised learning which is rooted in student experience and choice. It is shaped by the learner's interest, driven by her curiosity and purpose, yet is capable of supporting the delivery of the valued outcomes of a publicly accountable curriculum. It is an approach which…

As teacher educators, we discuss the ways place-based inquiry can be incorporated into content area literacy instruction with preservice secondary teachers to strengthen an understanding of discipline-specific applications for content area literacy. We begin with a discussion of content area literacy as a situated experience and examine the ways…

This article describes a vision of student use of dynamically connected representations as they investigate mathematical ideas. Although this article is intended to generate discussion about the potential of dynamically connected representations, we situate the discussion within actual descriptions of its use with students in a newly designed…

How could a rock formed by volcanic activity get to this shoreline, surrounded by sedimentary rocks? That was the question a group of third-grade students asked--and answered--during an inquiry-based summer camp. Over a two week timeframe, the students practiced basic inquiry skills such as observing; measuring; describing and drawing; sharing…

Dynamic visualizations of scientific phenomena have the potential to transform how students learn and understand science. Dynamic visualizations enable interaction and experimentation with unobservable atomic-level phenomena. A series of studies clarify the conditions under which embedding dynamic visualizations in technology-enhanced inquiry…

Mathematics curricula reform has been a continuous process in school systems throughout the United States for the past several decades. As school districts continue to face the challenges set forth in the No Child Left Behind Act, it is now more critical than ever before to measure the impact of curricula being utilized in today's schools. This…

This mixed method study examined the impact of a LEGO-based, engineering-oriented curriculum compared to an inquiry-based curriculum on fifth graders' content learning of simple machines. This study takes a social constructivist theoretical stance that science learning involves learning scientific concepts and their relations to each other. From…