The teaching of research methodology to graduate science students places an emphasis on scientific reasoning and on the generation and evaluation of evidence in support of research conclusions. Very little attention is paid to the teaching of scientific creativity, the processes for generation of new ideas, hypotheses, and theories. By contrast,…

With various internet resources available to students, the main aim of a good university education today should not merely be to provide students with content knowledge, but rather to equip them with essential skills necessary to develop into lifelong learners. Among science educators, repeated calls have been made to promote a more holistic…

The purpose of this study is to explore how Lakatos' scientific research programmes might serve as a theoretical framework for representing and evaluating informal argumentation about socio-scientific issues. Seventy undergraduate science and non-science majors were asked to make written arguments about four socio-scientific issues. Our analysis…

With the growing emphasis on the development of scientific inquiry skills, there is a strong need for more research on students' ability to collect and interpret evidence. This paper calls attention to the notion of evidentiary competence that refers to the concepts and reasoning skills involved in the collection, organization, and interpretation…

Although feminist perspectives about research have not been presented in a unified paradigm, feminist theory has helped to expose and demystify the empirical assumption of objectivity as the only way to truth in research. The feminist perspective in research represents alternate, non-oppressive formulations of what constitutes meaningful and valid…

The National Student Research Center (NSRC) is dedicated to promoting student research and the use of the scientific method in all subject areas across the curriculum, especially science and mathematics. The NSRC facilitates the implementation of a nationally recognized, innovative, and highly effective approach to instruction called the Student…

Research on reading has tried, and failed, to account for wide disparities in reading skill even among children taught by the same method. Why do some children learn to read easily and quickly while others, in the same classroom and taught by the same teacher, don't learn to read at all? In "Language Development and Learning to Read", Diane…