Inquiry provides both the impetus and experience that helps students acquire problem solving and lifelong learning skills. Teachers on the Strategies for Assessment of Inquiry Learning in Science Project (SAILS) strengthened their inquiry pedagogy, through focusing on seeking assessment evidence for formative action. This paper reports on both the…

Inquiry-based science education (IBSE) seems to be the appropriate method to encourage interest in science and technology education. The core principles of IBSE are involvement of students in discovering natural laws, linking information into a meaningful context, developing critical thinking and promoting positive attitudes towards science. IBSE…

Creativity plays a very important role in education. Most of educational systems support creativity as relevant competence for the 21st century. According to the findings of experts, teachers' creativity is important for the development of students' creativity. We introduce a theoretical base of creativity and styles of creativity. Based…

This contribution looks at the Intelligent Tutoring Interface for Technology Enhanced Learning, which integrates multistage-learning and inquiry-based learning in an adaptive e-learning system. Based on a common pedagogical ontology, adaptive e-learning systems can be enabled to recommend learning objects and activities, which follow inquiry-based…

In the transformative world of today, the role of environmental education has become a much-debated issue. The experience from various EU countries shows lack of a concrete policy for the advancement of those strategic skills that correspond to the identified need for the connection of environmental education to green career choices. This paper…

This paper identifies an "education through science" philosophy for school science teaching at the secondary level and determines its interrelationship with approaches to student acquisition of key educational competences and the identification of teacher needs to promote meaningful learning during science lessons. Based on the…

The core idea of the PROFILES project is to support science teachers' continuous professional development. The instructional innovation of the PROFILES is the so called Three Stage Model (TSM) which aims to arouse students' intrinsic motivation, to offer a meaningful inquiry-based learning environment and to use the science learning in…

Teacher ownership is crucial for the sustainability of science education reform efforts. This paper discusses participatory design as a bottom-up approach for promoting teachers' sense of ownership of inquiry-based learning and teaching approach as put forward by the PROFILES project. According to the prevalent argument in favor of…

School subjects can provide a good context for learning a second language. This is especially true for science as it can involve a range of student centred activities, which involve students in collaborative communication related to a range of different competences. This paper reflects on one approach to learning in a second language, using the…

This paper explores the effectiveness of networking in promoting inquiry-based science education (IBSE) through raising the self-efficacy of science teachers to take ownership of more effective ways of teaching students, supported by stakeholders (Holbrook & Rannikmae, 2010). As PROFILES project (Professional Reflection Oriented Focus on…

This paper describes recent developments in Ireland to promote a greater interest in science among students in the 12-15 age group by means of practical work involving Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE). The tasks, know as Investigations, are a component of the assessment of the subject Science which is studied as part of the Junior…

This study assessed the quality of preservice primary teachers' written arguments in an open inquiry laboratory task. An analysis of the features of the laboratory task was also undertaken to ascertain the characteristics of the task that facilitated or constrained the development of participants' written arguments. Australian preservice…

The purpose of this design research is to improve the quality of environmental literacy and sustainability education in chemistry teaching through combining a socio-scientific issue, life-cycle analysis (LCA), with inquiry-based learning (IBL). This first phase of the cyclic design research involved 20 inservice trained chemistry teachers from…

Middle school is a crucial stage in student development as students prepare for a fast changing future. The science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills that students acquire in middle school lay the foundation for a successful career in STEM. Moreover, most STEM occupations require competencies in science, math and logical…

A common challenge for many primary pre-service teacher educators is to rekindle interest in science content with future teachers who often express a lifetime of negative associations with school science. This pilot study investigated if the notion of wonder could be utilized with preservice teachers as a vehicle to develop more positive…