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The authors of the three papers in this issue discuss and analyze the practice underlying “critical exploration,” a research pedagogy applied in common within their separate art, science, and teacher education classrooms. Eleanor Duckworth developed critical exploration as a method of teaching by involving students so actively and reflectively with a subject that they have “wonderful ideas” that arise from their own questioning. Teachers who encourage critical exploration support their students in encountering complex materials, experiencing confusion, considering multiple possibilities, and constructing new understandings. Teachers refrain from providing answers, or even implying that there is an acceptable answer or technique, and instead facilitate the personal process of development that Jean Piaget, Barbel Inhelder, and others documented and analyzed. Applying Piaget's findings requires teachers to sustain what David Hawkins described as “triangular relationships” of trust and respect among teacher, ...

By following their wonderful ideas or critical exploration, three eighth graders learned how to do traditional Chinese painting, which is taught by copying old masters' work from the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The standard manual, which most learners have been using for these three hundred years, is the Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Chinese Painting, published in 1679. However, according to my literature review, I found out that ancient masters before the Ming Dynasty talked about a self-directed method of painting manifested in six different ways: (1) production from observation and experience, (2) production from the heart-mind, (3) production from mental-vision, (4) production with authenticity, (5) production with spontaneity, and (6) production with a multidisciplinary approach. As a student of Eleanor Duckworth, I wondered what might happen if beginning students are able to learn this age-old tradition of Chinese painting by just following their wonderful ideas like pre-Ming artists. In the c...