In order to analyse whether or not the characteristic of scientific inquiry activities of textbooks in China satisfy the requirements of China's new curriculum reforms, content analysis method was adopted to analyze scientific inquiry activities in junior middle school physical textbooks (grade 8) of five editions authorized by the Chinese…

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…

Eighth-grade teacher Lesley Roessing designed an assignment that makes individual student research useful and accessible to the entire class. She outlines steps students take to create a guide to supplement their reading of "Waiting for the Rain: A Novel of South Africa." She then builds on the research experience in another unit by addressing…

Describes using information charts with eighth-grade language arts students. Discusses using this strategy to help students organize their research, develop critical-thinking skills, use their prior knowledge, and increase metacognitive awareness. (SR)

Describes how students in an 8th-grade rural English classroom were focused and engaged over a 9-week period as they investigated and researched a poem of their own choice by a Native American poet, and wrote a hypertext web of their research journey. Notes that students experienced text in a new way, as a network of links. (SR)

Discussion of the Big Six information skills model focuses on a case study that examines the effect of Big6 on a class of eighth-grade students doing research on the African-American Civil Rights movement. Topics include information problem solving; metacognition; scaffolding; and Big6 as a metacognitive scaffold. (Author/LRW)

Describes a successful approach to teaching a research unit in a "problem" class. Uses word processing, group work, physical movement and manipulative activities, plenty of individual choices, and respect for each individual. (SR)

Describes a skills development program based on research and writing subskills. Includes analyzing questions, devising a form to record information, researching and reporting findings, and supporting a point of view in persuasive essay. Explains that the program through three years of middle school, adding and refining skills each year. Suggests…

Grade four (20) and grade eight (20) Ontario parochial school children were interviewed to assess retrieval skills for school research projects, particularly selecting search areas/specific book sections for particular retrieval questions and evaluating gathered information. Older children were more skillful at generating/defining search areas and…