Active learning is frequently used to describe teaching practices, but the term is not well-defined in the context of undergraduate biology education. To clarify this term, we explored how active learning is defined in the biology education literature (n = 148 articles) and community by surveying a national sample of biology education researchers…

This study explored five Life Sciences teachers' practices of formative assessment when enacting an inquiry-based pedagogy. The ESRU cycle (teacher "Elicits" a response; the Student responds; the teacher "Recognises" the student's response; and then "Uses" the information collected to support student learning) was…

Secondary school teachers in Tanzania have been attempting to implement the inquiry-based science curriculum since 2005. This study is descriptive and was designed within the realms of a Type IV case-study design (Yin, R. K. 2014. "Case study research: Design and methods" 5th ed. SAGE) to investigate their concerns in dealing with this…

This paper focuses on the patterns of teaching styles and active teaching across subjects and between low and high performing schools in an attempt to examine what accounts for differences in performance between schools which are within the same locality. It uses data collected in 72 primary schools spread across six districts in Kenya. Video…

Nowadays, there are lots of digital resources available to teachers. Tools such as Teachers' Domain, an online digital library (see "On the web"); interactive whiteboards; computer projection devices; laptop carts; and robust wireless internet services make it easy for teachers to use technology in the classroom. In fact, in one…

To improve student science achievement in the United States we need inquiry-based instruction that promotes coherent understanding and assessments that are aligned with the instruction. Instead, current textbooks often offer fragmented ideas and most assessments only tap recall of details. In this study we implemented 10 inquiry-based science…

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of active learning on preservice teachers' dignity, energy, self-management, community, and awareness (DESCA) abilities, attitudes toward teaching, and attitudes toward science. Third year preservice teachers (n = 77) from two different classes were involved in the study. One intact…