Michael Polanyi famously stated that "we can know more than we can tell," but is it possible to know more than we imagine? Or, on the contrary, does imagining play a role in elucidating what we feel we know but cannot fully express? In this article, the author argues that imagining can elucidate knowledge by helping us to name and color…

This study explores boundary-crossing interaction between two grade 5/6 science classrooms that operated as knowledge building communities. The two classrooms studied human body systems with the support of the Knowledge Forum over a ten-week period. The knowledge building practice integrated student-driven inquiry and discourse within each…

STEM integration has often been recommended as a way to support students to develop twenty-first century skills needed to function in the complex modern world. In order for students to experience integration, however, their teachers need support in designing, developing and implementing integrated curricular instruction, which is often at odds…

Improving mathematics education is an issue that arises periodically in the media and is the object of frequent, and sometimes contradictory, policy efforts and academic endeavours. Strategies used to tackle this issue range from raising requirements for tertiary entry to focussing on innovative pedagogies. One strategy with the potential to…

Introducing Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NST) topics into school science curricula is considered useful for an in-depth understanding of the content, processes and nature of science and technology, and also for negotiating the social aspects of science. This study examines (a) the development of an inquiry-based Teaching-Learning Sequence (TLS)…

Faculties of Education in North America are experiencing an increase in demand for professional graduate programs that provide flexible and accessible research pathways for working professionals. Our School of Education offers high quality professional graduate programs that increase access and respond directly to complex needs and problems of…

In order to improve problem-solving dispositions, a section of an inquiry-based math sequence for first-year business students was linked with a section of our general education English sequence. We describe how the linked classes worked and compare some preliminary results from linked and unlinked sections of the math sequence.

Through a collaborative effort between a sixth-grade teacher and two university faculty, we designed an integrated unit to learn about motion and we learned that an integrated teaching and learning experience about motion is MESSY (i.e., it includes movement, engagement, social interactions, spontaneity, yikes, and yippees!). We engaged in a…

This "Practices from the Field" article describes the rationale and operationalization of an interdisciplinary team-taught first-year inquiry seminar and learning community program at a large predominantly White research institution. The authors both serve as faculty members in the College of Education and Human Development and teach in…

How can classrooms become communities of inquiry that connect intellectually challenging science content with language-based activities (opportunities to talk, listen, read, and write) especially in settings with diverse populations? This question guided a 3-year mixed-methods research study using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach in…

We describe how our teaching and learning centre developed a model, founded on Boyer's notion of scholarship, to explore the nature of the teaching-research nexus. At the core of this model is the Inquiry Network, a faculty learning community whose members moved from exploring the links between their own teaching and research to creating…

Systematic studies on effectiveness of in-service teacher professional development (PD) are important for science education research and practice. Previous studies mostly focus on one certain aspect of the entire program, for example, effectiveness of PD on improvement of teachers' knowledge or students' learning outcomes. This study, however,…

This study presents the results of a self-study of interdisciplinary work that has generated profound changes in our teaching practices. The research grew out of an interest in exploring the nature of our work and the practices that contribute to its success. Our self-study revealed that our work process consists of five stages and is the product…

At a time when serious pronouncements and decisions about education are made by noneducators, it is important to take note of the practice and impact of teachers' collective reflective resistance. This means foregrounding learning that is organic, artful, and contemplative--that puts first the humanity of students and teachers. This is a story of…

In this article we describe current educational research underlying a comprehensive model for building a scientific classroom discourse community. We offer a professional development activity for a school-based professional learning community, providing specific science instructional strategies within this interactive teaching model. This design…