This qualitative study examined the experiences of race scholars whose agenda include investigating and writing about racial issues which run counter to the entrenched ideas, values and philosophies of the dominant academic culture. It questioned the possible risks associated with race work, and it examined the available support and validation for…

This paper addresses the practice of professional development within the Vocational Education and Training (VET) arena. The study object was to gain the perceptions held by a selected group of VET educators in the tourism and hospitality sector of the professional teaching/training competencies required for effective practice. The study was…

Literature indicates that the "National Science Education Standards" ("NSES") teaching standards and inquiry-based teaching strategies for science are not uniformly incorporated into the elementary science methods (eSEM) courses across the U.S. and that field experiences might not provide appropriate models of the inquiry-based science pedagogy…

This report aimed to measure the impact of a unique professional development program entitled Project ASTER III (Active Science Teaching Encourages Reform) on teachers' self-efficacy and perceptions about inquiry-based science teaching. Project ASTER III enabled teachers to explore inquiry-based science teaching through exhibit-based…

The present study deals with a school-based professional development trajectory for secondary science teachers, aiming at scaffolding teachers in open-inquiry teaching for the topic of water quality. Its design was based on the leading principle of "guiding by scaffolding". Seven experienced teachers participated in institutional…

Background/Context: In an age of test-driven accountability, many schools are returning to banking pedagogies in which students passively take in content. Inquiry-based instruction offers one approach for actively involving students in meaningful learning activity, however, research on inquiry pedagogies often focuses on academic accomplishments.…

The paper describes the integration of web resources and technology as instructional and learning tools in oral history projects. The computer-mediated oral history project centred around interviews with community elders combined with new technologies to engage students in authentic historical inquiry. The study examined learners' affective…

This article reports a design experiment conducted over three successive school years, with the teacher's goal of having his Grade 4 students assume increasing levels of collective responsibility for advancing their knowledge of optics. Classroom practices conducive to sustained knowledge building were co-constructed by the teacher and students,…

Attend a conference of music educational researchers and you will have entered a field of enquiry concerned to understand and explain the issues and problems identified by those who move within the field of enquiry. The inhabitants of this realm sometimes speak of young people, sometimes reveal the ways in which they have consulted them, probed…

Every schoolyard presents a wealth of opportunities for science exploration. To capitalize on this resource, the authors developed an activity in which students assessed whether their schoolyard could provide a viable habitat for treefrogs. This inquiry-based module was composed of three lessons: A Hoppin' Treefrog Adventure, Field Research Means…

In this inquiry-based activity, Roborovsky hamsters are used to provide students with an opportunity to develop their skills of analysis, inquiry, and design. These hamsters are easy to maintain, yet offer students a means to use conventional techniques and those of their own design to make further observations through measuring, assessing, and…

We summarize a conference on scientific inquiry bringing together science educators, cognitive scientists and philosophers of science with three goals: (1) to establish how much consensus exists about scientific inquiry; (2) to discuss implications of that consensus for teaching science; and (3) to identify areas where consensus is lacking to…

In this article it is argued that communities of enquiry can and should be developed in courses delivered online. These communities make the most of the available technological resources and overcome some otherwise daunting challenges faced in online course delivery. Indeed, asynchronous tools like discussion boards offer a range of benefits for…

This two-year study focused on the lived terms of inquiry in middle-school science classrooms. The conditions that enable teachers to see and act on science learning as ongoing inquiry were deliberately sought in Year 2. Nine science teachers participated in search of capacities connecting curriculum, teaching, and assessment for greater student…

Project work (PW) provides one of the pathways for students' self-inquiry learning and collaboration in Singapore schools. In this context, PW teachers function as facilitators. This study investigated quantitatively how a group of 270 secondary-school students (aged 14 years) perceived their seven PW teacher-facilitators' face-to-face…