Curriculum standards provide classroom teachers with frameworks to guide instruction during the academic year and throughout a student's schooling. Unfortunately, standards are misconstrued as all-encompassing--as a compendium of all mathematics content that can and should be taught to students. Such a view is unfortunate. Mathematics teachers…

We transformed our first-year curriculum in biology with a new course, Biological Inquiry, in which greater than 50% of all incoming, first-year students enroll. The course replaced a traditional, content-driven course that relied on outdated approaches to teaching and learning. We diversified pedagogical practices by adopting guided inquiry in…

Business education, as a discipline and profession, is evolving in response to changes in our domestic and global environment, technology, subject matter content, and needs of the end-user. In response to these changes, business educators continue to evaluate and refine their instructional methodologies and other components of delivery systems…

Our 5-year experiment with teaching and evaluating an inquiry course has led us to conclude that inquiry is a potent pedagogical tool in higher education, encouraging students to become self-directed and engaged learners. This article offers key ingredients and procedures for designing an inquiry-based course. It provides a pragmatic model of…

The purpose of this study was to understand one case of undergraduate inquiry-based instruction through the words and actions of students and instructors. The data sources included fieldnotes from 16 of 29 classes, two sets of student and instructor interviews (beginning and end of the semester), and a collection of artifacts, such as the…

Teachers who state lesson plan topics in the form of a problem, who state objectives in terms of specific skill performances expected, and who construct test questions to assess the skills involved are taking important steps towards maximizing their success as inquiry teachers. (Author)

A primary objective of the utilization of historical research in teaching American History is to develop the students' ability to locate needed information when he wants it and in relation to the issue that has motivated the search. (Author)

Present methods of high school and college instruction in history, namely, the instructor centered approaches, have made the study of history irrelevant for many students, and hence objectives for teaching history are seldom realized. Even good lectures, and most discussion classes, result in the student acting as a passive observer, never…

This paper examines the articulation of goals and means of sociological instruction in course syllabi. Three questions guide this inquiry. First, do sociology instructors articulate common learning goals? Second, what pedagogical means do instructors commonly employ to meet these goals? Third, to what extent have sociology instructors incorporated…

The guide outlines a course of study for elementary students on the history, geography, language, and general culture of China. Course objectives are to identify the major mountains, the major cities, and the types of climate affecting each region of China; locate and record on a time line the important events in the development of Chinese…

The handbook outlines a course of study in social studies on the kindergarten level. The overall course objective is to teach children that people everywhere have certain basic needs and wants, and that how people meet these needs depends upon their environment and cultural level. Questioning techniques are used throughout the course. Questions…

The handbook outlines a course of study in social studies for grade 1. The overall course objective is to teach children about the family's needs, the ways in which it satisfies them, and the interdependence of people in families and communities. Questioning techniques are used throughout the course. Questions which develop student thinking…

The resource unit, developed by the University of Minnesota's Project Social Studies, introduces tenth graders to a course on United States history. A brief survey of colonial history is provided, serving as a baseline against which to note change in the centuries that have followed. The major ideas about culture, its continuity and change, and…

The social studies curriculum guide for levels K-6 focuses on urban studies emphasizing the effect of urban living on a multi-ethnic population. The ultimate program goal is to develop children who will become action-oriented and responsible decision makers. An inquiry method of teaching is used throughout the course. The foci for grades K-6 are…