The lesson described herein is the result of a partnership between a teacher and an entomologist brought together by a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded grant that paired teachers and researchers to impact K-12 STEM education through partnership and innovation. This collaboration resulted in five lessons featuring live insects such as…

This article proposes that the "teaching/practice schools" formally affiliated to initial teacher education programmes at universities, can be utilised more optimally as research sites by student teachers. The argument is put forward with reference to the role that such schools have played historically in teacher education in the United…

Over the past three years, California State University, Bakersfield received NSF funding to support hands-on explorations in "network security" and "cryptography" through Research Experience Vitalizing Science-University Program (REVS-UP). In addition to the summer bridge component, the grant included development of…

The concerns of this article are the unacceptable status of Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM) Education in the Caribbean and how to improve the students' achievement in the subjects involved through the instrumentality of better preparation of teachers by the Colleges and University faculties training teachers in the region. The index for…

For marginalised secondary school students, mainstream education may no longer appear to be an inviting place. While proposed solutions to problems of disengagement and marginalisation appear to concentrate on finding ways to coerce students back to mainstream education through, for example, "learning or earning" legislation, this…

Postgraduate master's programs for in-service teachers may be a promising new avenue in developing research partnership networks that link schools and university and enable collaborative development, sharing and use of knowledge of teacher research. This study explores the way these knowledge processes originating from master's students' research…

Unlike the static, set-in-stone research project, the inquiry process is an interactive cycle used to teach research in any content area. The inquiry process engages students in a way that promotes critical thinking, higher-level processing, and the use of more varied and appropriate resources. This article introduces the inquiry process and…

In the current era of high-stakes testing and accountability, many social studies teachers struggle to find creative ways to add depth and authenticity to a broad, shallow curriculum. Teachers can use the time after tests are administered for students to reflect back on the social studies curriculum and select topics they want to study more deeply…

"Prior knowledge" (sometimes called schema or background knowledge) is information one already knows that helps him/her make sense of new information. New learning builds on existing prior knowledge. In traditional reporting-style research projects, students bypass this crucial step and plow right into answer-finding. It's no wonder that many…

A disconnect exists between teaching and research; and it has become easy, if not automatic, for K-12 teachers to be enthusiastic about teaching and less supportive of research. As a student teacher, the first author found herself adopting the stereotype that research is associated with the sciences and is less pertinent to K-12 education. She…

The National Research Council's recent publication "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas" (NRC 2011), which is the foundation for the Next Generation Science Standards now being developed, places unprecedented focus on the practices involved in doing scientific and engineering work. In an effort…

A total of 19 graduate students enrolled in a graduate course conducted 6 consecutive administrations of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, 4th edition (WISC-IV, Canadian version). Test protocols were examined to obtain data describing the frequency of examiner errors, including administration and scoring errors. Results identified 511…

Questions about the nature and extent of students' active involvement and influence within schools and the wider community prompted this author to investigate ways in which student voice, as one important manifestation of active participation, was translated into action through a "students as researchers" activity. A three-phase…

Although most teachers believe that "students should write at least one in-depth paper during high school," the independent research paper is disappearing from high school curricula in the face of two competing pressures: the need to prepare for high-stakes tests and student "senioritis." In many high schools, the senior year has become "a…

This publication follows the tradition of publishing selected papers from Pacific Islands Association of Libraries, Archives and Museums (PIALA) annual conferences. This 22th annual conference was held in Tumon, Territory of Guam USA, November 13-16, 2012. The volume begins with a listing of the members of the PIALA 2012 Planning Committee and…