The Right Stuff: Inquiry Training, Teaching & Transfer for Content Mastery in the Sciences

Authors

Alice Coe
Ruthanne Thompson

DOI

10.58809/TUEV8181

Abstract

The standardized testing movement has inadvertently placed pressure on elementary and secondary instructors to teach to the test. Primarily this is manifested through memorization and testing skills training and less on developing content mastery and problem solving. Hands-on activities (also referred to as inquiry learning) are lauded by the literature as an effective methodology in the development of content mastery (Akerson, V., Hanson, D., & Cullen, T.; NSF, 2010; Smith, T., Desimone, L., Zeidner, T., Dunn, A., Bhatt, M. & Rumyantseva, N., 2007). Nevertheless, administrators often see the inquiry method as an ineffective use of classroom and training time diverting attention away from test preparation. The research abounds, however, regarding the positive influence hands-on/ inquiry-based learning can have on testing results (Cuevas, P., Lee, O., Hart, J. & Deaktor, R., 2005; Marx, R., Blumenfeld, P. C., Krajcik, J., Fishman, B., Solomay, E., Geier, R. & Tal, R. T., 2004; Stohr- Hunt, P. M., 1996; Ruby, A., 2006; and Ashman, S., 2007).

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

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© The Author(s)

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Recommended Citation

Coe, Alice and Thompson, Ruthanne (2010) "The Right Stuff: Inquiry Training, Teaching & Transfer for Content Mastery in the Sciences," Academic Leadership: The Online Journal: Vol. 8: Iss. 4, Article 74.
DOI: 10.58809/TUEV8181
Available at: https://scholars.fhsu.edu/alj/vol8/iss4/74