This essay focuses on a particular subset of educational research, questions that are researchable and that, ultimately, will make a positive difference for the educational enterprise. It argues that to be researchable, tasks need to be addressable in operational terms -- that questions that hinge on values (e.g. "are large small classes…

The laboratory course is an excellent venue to apply content, practice inquiry, improve critical thinking, practice key clinical skills, and work with data. The use of inquiry-based course projects allows for students to propose open ended questions, form a hypothesis, design an experiment, collect data, analyze data, draw conclusion, and present…

When it comes to research design, the literature largely focuses on prescriptions for strengthening causal inference--identifying confounders, selecting appropriately comparable cases, generating testable hypotheses, etc. This approach to research design features the logic of inquiry heavily, but overlooks the logic of discovery. The logic of…

Most of the literature on the assignment traditionally called the "research paper" focusses on first-year students, and often centers on what they don't know or can't do. This article seeks to expand the conversation to one about the skills and knowledge displayed by senior students, and about their perceptions of the universe of…

Our self-study has two main purposes: (1) to understand the value of self-study for credential program graduates to confront in transformative ways the pedagogical challenges of urban schools, and (2) to add to an exploration of self-study for non-teacher educators and strengthen our preparation of candidates to enact such inquiry. To answer these…

Within the ever-developing, intersecting, and overlapping contexts of globalization, top-down policy, mandates, and standardization of public and higher education, many conceptualize and position practitioner research as a powerful stance and a tool of social, communal, and educational transformation, a set of methodological processes that…

A mixed methods research approach was used to investigate the impact of a geosciences research institute upon 62 science teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and teaching practices related to teaching the geosciences. Pre- and postinstitute quantitative and qualitative assessments revealed mixed results. Results of a quantitative measure found a…

The following article relates a reflexive ethnographic research project that focuses on youth voice in relation to the process of choosing a high school and a language of instruction in Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this methodological article is to relate a story of research and explore the tensions between theory and practice experienced by a…

The "bullied" gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and otherwise Queer (GLBTIQ) student is a fairly recent figure in the sexuality education research literature. GLBTIQ students have previously been problematised by sex education research in a range of different ways and have been the subjects of varying methodological…

The present study describes student learning and personal outcomes associated with learning research methods in introductory psychology, via one of two semester-long projects: one involving performing naturalistic observation of the behavior of community members, and the other involving performing a 60-minute interview of local veterans regarding…

School librarians know the importance of collaboration. They cannot run effective school library programs unless they work closely with classroom teachers. They have learned that deep collaboration is a fluid process that evolves over time. Only as connections are made and relationships are forged can real instructional progress occur. Yet it…

This paper presents the results of a project that aimed at restructuring the delivery of research methods training at the Information School at the University of Sheffield, UK, based on an Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) approach. The purpose of this research was to implement inquiry-based learning that would allow customization of research methods…

Teachers face the challenge of introducing ecological concepts in an authentic way that students can apply to their lives and surroundings. Fieldwork helps achieve this goal and can have a range of beneficial impacts on participants, but opportunities to conduct fieldwork can be limited, especially in urban environments. Urban environments are…

A case study is presented of embedding research in a final year undergraduate, field-based, physical geography module. The approach is holistic, whereby research-based learning activities simulate the full life cycle of research from inception through to peer review and publication. The learning, teaching and assessment strategy emphasizes the…

This paper introduces conversations and stories that were central to my PhD research. Journal writing, poetry, story and transcribed conversations became texts and data I reproduced in response to the research questions, dreams, memory work and collective biography workshops with my participants. The paper rechoreographs the process that enabled…