New research points to the future of education as online, student-centered, collaborative, and community-based--all largely absent from today's educational landscape. This timely guide shows middle, high school, and college students how to undertake research to address challenges in their curriculum and communities. The approach is deliberately…

Lack of validated research tools in Spanish-speaking countries has limited the extent to which educational research can expand. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the exploration of affective factors in reading. The need for research on reading and reading motivation in Latin American countries calls for valid, reliable tools to…

Technology and a variety of resources play an important role in students' educational lives. Vygotsky's (1987) theory of tool mediation suggests that cultural tools, such as computer software influence individuals' thinking and action. However, it is not completely understood how technology and other resources influence student action. Middle…

Social media is a central component in the lives of many young people, and provides innovative potential to conduct research among this population. Ethical issues around online research have been subject to much debate, yet young people have seldom been consulted to provide a youth perspective and voice. Eight (8) focus groups involving 48 Grade 9…

While literacy interventions can be implemented in any grade, focusing on interventions in grades 3-8 is critical because it is often the best chance for students identified with earlier reading deficiencies to become ready for the literacy demands of postsecondary education and careers. States in both the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)…

Today's adolescents are expected to read and write well at highly competent levels and the content area literacy skills they will acquire in adolescence are necessary for academic achievement as well as life-long learning. In the middle grades, content area literacy skills are perfected through work in various curricular areas, which are housed in…

This pilot study focuses on the potential of Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping as a participatory action research tool to investigate young teenagers' scientific argumentation. Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping is a technique for representing graphically an argumentative dialogue through Questions, Ideas, Pros, Cons and Data. Our research objective is…

A little imagination, a little drama, a little mystery. Using the guided inquiry model in this updated, second edition, students become detectives at Information Headquarters. They solve a mystery-and enhance their problem-solving and literacy skills. Middle school is a crucial time in the development of problem-solving, critical-thinking, and…

This paper identifies the ways in which the Productive Pedagogies framework has been refined as a research tool for evaluating classroom practice within a current study into issues of school reform in Queensland. Initially emerging from the landmark Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (1998-2001), the Productive Pedagogies has been taken…

Developmentally appropriate research techniques were uncovered by involving ten Year 7 pupils as researchers in a four-hour workshop that investigated the effectiveness of multiple methods in gathering sensitive information from early adolescents. The pupils learned about, tried and evaluated the methods of generating interview questions, peer and…

Student use of computers and the internet has increased rapidly in recent years. Teachers ask what types of learning experiences can be facilitated by using the internet in their classrooms (NSBF, 2007). Various surveys of U.S. teachers on internet usage report that having students use the internet for research and information gathering purposes…

This study investigates usage and knowledge of musical narrative functions in contemporary multimedia. A group of young adolescents were given the task of adapting musical expression, using the non-verbal research tool REMUPP, to fit different visual scenes shown on a computer screen. This was accomplished by manipulating seven musical parameters:…

Although drawing has been used as research tool for well over a century in the fields of psychology and anthropology, drawing remains overlooked and underutilized in educational research. This article examines the promise of visual methods, and of drawing in particular, in accessing middle schoolers' perceptions as a means of informing the middle…

Using this inquiry-based process allows the teacher and librarian to assign mystery topics to individual students so they can conduct independent research on high-interest subjects. The book provides the tools and strategies teachers and librarians need to help students think and rethink methods of gathering and organizing information to solve…