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The study delves into how children and parents collaborate on guided inquiry tasks in chemistry, with parents often taking the lead in planning experiments. Both parents and children face challenges in selecting probes and control approaches. The importance of developing planning skills in experimentation and the explicit teaching of methodological knowledge are emphasized. The document references academic works on qualitative content analysis, learning support, experimental competence assessment, positive psychology, and science education, making it a valuable resource for those interested in research and education in these fields. [Extracted from the article]

Several observation protocols in different theoretical frameworks and components have been designed and validated by teacher trainers and professional development providers to capture and categorize observational data on the characteristics and level of inquiry in science practices. However, certain constraints limit their wide use, such as the neglect of certain indicators of scientific inquiry, the scoring of just summative goals, or the necessity for extensive observer training. The present study, therefore, aims to propose a tool that assists professional development providers and mentors in diagnosing the closeness of practices to scientific inquiry in the context of various settings, from traditional didactic lectures to scientific inquiry, making it easily operational for self and peer evaluations as well as 360‐degree video feedback. The method concentrated on multiple observations provides supportive evidence about the tool's internal consistency coefficient, the relationship between its components, and the inter‐rater reliability coefficient between multiple scorers. The results highlight that the tool, which includes the components of course structure, course overview, and teacher–student communication, has the potential to contribute to the growing library of observation protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we aimed to characterize students' inquiry skill profiles and investigate whether students' gender, major, school location and type, and household registration are related to their inquiry skill profiles. By providing an animation‐based activity, we engaged students in a scientific inquiry on the atmospheric chemistry of climate change. Students performed data analytics, control of variables, and scientific reasoning tasks, which represented essential skills in the inquiry process. After removing the invalid data and conducting the two‐stage stratified sampling, we analyzed 724 11th‐grade Chinese students' multiple‐choice and open‐ended responses. A latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify if there were subgroups of students' inquiry skills. χ2 tests were conducted to examine whether the profiles' distribution differed in gender, major, school location, school type, and household registration. We identified four types of inquiry skill profiles among students: sophisticated, experimental, moderate, and basic, based on their skills in data analytics, scientific reasoning, and control of variables. The findings showed that school location significantly affected students' inquiry profiles, while school type, student major, and hukou had a mildly favorable impact. To sum up, the marriage of the LPA approach and the animation‐based activity has illuminated not just students' different inquiry skill profiles but also the relationships these profiles have with certain demographic factors. We discussed that it is imperative to recognize these varied inquiry skill profiles and work to bridge the disparities stemming from demographic differences for a more equitable science education environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Definitions of modeling competence in science education do not yet include noncognitive factors. However, noncognitive factors are central to competence and might thus substantially improve our understanding of modeling competence. In this article, we analyze volition during preservice science teachers' engagement with a black‐box modeling task and its relation to established aspects of modeling competence: metamodeling knowledge, modeling process, and modeling product. A cluster analysis of the occurrence of volition categories resulted in three clusters of volitional behavior. The clusters describe three different volition types: one action‐oriented type applying a self‐regulative strategy and two state‐oriented types applying self‐controlling strategies. Correlation analyses between clusters, volition categories and modeling process variables indicate benefits of the self‐regulative strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Science education researchers and curriculum documents have advocated scientific inquiry for more than six decades; however, inconsistent findings concerning its effects on students' learning outcomes have been revealed in recent analyses of large‐scale international assessment data (e.g., the Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA]). This has evoked considerable concern given the significant role that inquiry plays in science education. To unpack the complex influence of inquiry on science achievement, this study used the PISA 2015 data from eight Western or East Asian regions to explore the effects of inquiry on students' science achievement and the mediation of attitudes toward science. The results indicated that despite the negative effects that the investigation aspect of inquiry had on science achievement, the explanation aspect of inquiry had positive effects on science achievement for the Western, East Asian, and whole samples. When all of the effects of both the investigation and explanation aspects were integrated, the overall influence of inquiry on students' science achievement was found to be positive for the whole and East Asian samples and slightly negative for the Western sample. This study highlights the necessity of considering different facets of inquiry and different types of effects when investigating the effects of inquiry on science achievement and achieving a better balance between the investigation and explanation processes when implementing inquiry in school classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chemischen Laborpraktika in der universitären Lehre mangelt es i. d. R. an Lerngelegenheiten zur naturwissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisgewinnung. An der Technischen Universität Braunschweig wurden deshalb in einem organisch‐chemischen Grundpraktikum für Lehramtsstudierende acht von 25 Versuchen zu geöffneten Experimenten umgestaltet und unter Einsatz von Scaffolding‐Maßnahmen implementiert. Im Artikel werden Leitlinien für die Öffnung präsentiert, die bei der erkenntnisgewinnungsorientierten Umgestaltung von Versuchen für naturwissenschaftliche Praktika genutzt werden können. Exemplarisch werden die Leitlinien anhand der Gegenüberstellung einer kochrezeptartigen Vorschrift und ihrer geöffneten Alternative aufgezeigt. Erste Ergebnisse der Pilotierung des Praktikums zeigen, dass mit den geöffneten Vorschriften Erkenntnisgewinnungskompetenzen der Studierenden gefördert werden können. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing heterogeneity of learning groups as well as the ongoing digitalization of education raise the question of how teacher education in chemistry can respond to these changes and optimally prepare future chemistry teachers. It is not only necessary to adapt the curricula, but also, and most importantly, to redesign courses. Against this background, a cooperative teaching project is currently being conducted repeatedly over three semesters at the three locations of the University Alliance Ruhr. The aim of the project is to realign the content of existing modules and to implement these modules across universities so that all participating students can benefit from site‐specific expertise and teaching priorities. To this end, each university has prepared a part of the course curriculum in the form of a thematic introduction. The students afterwards planned and presented learning opportunities for these contents in the context of a project phase. After two semesters the experiences were that positive that this article reports on the conception of the teaching project as well as student products and first results from the course evaluation. First results show that the majority of students is highly satisfied with the course design. They especially emphasize the structure and design of the learning environment as being very positive. However, they would like to see even more interaction with the students from the other universities. For other locations, this teaching project can thus be a stimulus for possible changes in chemistry teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific inquiry is a central area of competence in Chemistry education. The structure of scientific inquiry is at the core of it. If students are to reflect about their scientific inquiries, they need to have methodological knowledge about the different steps of scientific inquiry. Studies indicate that such knowledge should be taught explicitly in the classroom. The concept at hand explains the role of each step of scientific inquiry, it describes the characteristics of each step (methodological knowledge) and it applies these characteristics to a specific experiment from the curriculum using a check list. This underlines the strong connection between scientific ways of thinking and scientific methods. As such, it is the first concept to coherently present instructional material for students age 11–15, that focusses on methodological knowledge about scientific inquiry as learning objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Guidance during inquiry learning plays an important role in developing conceptual understanding and inquiry skills. This study analysed learner‐tutor interactions in a simulation‐assisted learning environment to investigate how tutor guidance enabled knowledge construction and fostered epistemic practice. Objectives: This research aimed to illuminate challenges learners encounter in the inquiry process and forms of guidance that support learning in both conceptual and epistemic aspects. Methods: This study uses a mixed methods approach. We analysed video recordings in which nine participants asked 72 questions and the microsequences of interactions immediately surrounding and including each question. We coded properties of each question and whether the tutors' utterances were intended to increase (upregulate) or decrease (downregulate) the complexity of the inquiry processes, and used a two‐step cluster analysis to explore groupings emerged from tutors' regulation guidance and learners' questions. Results and Conclusions: The regulatory intent of tutors' utterances depended on various characteristics of student questions. The microsequences clustered in five categories: 1) upregulated investigation and inference, 2) upregulated evidence‐based justification, 3) downregulated cognitive load, 4) downregulated procedural uncertainties, and 5) downregulated perceptual dissonance. Our findings suggest tutors offering guiding prompts should consider dual processes in the inquiry and, by strategically prompting them, strike a balance between the goals of guiding learners to discover scientific knowledge and grounding their conceptual understanding in concepts, data, and procedures. Implications: We emphasize conceptual and epistemic learning should be concurrently guided in scientific inquiry. We propose a bidirectional guidance model as a pedagogical approach to guide instructional practice. Lay Description: What is currently known about the subject matter: Rapid technological change urges schools to equip students with research and inquiry skills.Computer simulations provide an information‐rich environment for inquiry‐based learning.Guidance in inquiry learning is important for knowledge acquisition and the development of inquiry skills. What this paper adds: We illuminated challenges learners encounter in the inquiry learning process.We analysed forms of guidance that support learning in both conceptual and epistemic aspects.We identified dual processes involved in the inquiry process that have important implications.We proposed a bidirectional model for adaptive guidance in scientific inquiry. Implications of study findings for practitioners: Adaptive guidance facilitates conceptual and epistemic understanding by stimulating curiosity and reducing uncertainty in the inquiry process.Conceptual and epistemic learning need to be concurrently guided in scientific inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars and researchers generally believe that scientific inquiry is an important activity for cultivating students' applied knowledge and high‐level thinking ability. The process of scientific inquiry can promote students' learning motivation and trigger their higher‐order thinking ability. However, students may not have enough prior knowledge or they may lack inquiry experience, which may influence the effectiveness of their inquiry learning. Besides, in a scientific inquiry environment assisted by technology, students must face abundant and diverse learning resources, and may not effectively organize and carry out advanced cogitation to solve problems. Therefore, this research proposed an integrated concept mapping and image recognition (IR) approach to help students effectively acquire and organize knowledge in the process of scientific inquiry. This study applied a quasi‐experimental design to verify the effect of this proposed approach. The experimental group conducted the concept mapping‐based IR (CM‐IR) learning approach, whilst the control group conducted the conventional IR‐based learning approach to evaluate the students' performance in terms of their learning motivation and learning achievements. The participants were two classes of 10th‐grade students in northern Taiwan. One was the experimental group with 22 students, whilst the other was the control group with 22 students. The experimental results show that the students learning with the CM‐IR learning approach had better learning achievement, attitudes and intrinsic motivation, as well as higher mental load than those learning with the conventional IR‐based learning approach. Accordingly, several suggestions are provided for future research in this field. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topicWith the development of information technology, AI has attracted the attention of researchers.Image recognition (IR) is one of the AI applications, and has been used to support learning in various educational fields.Researchers have indicated that concept mapping is an effective instructional strategy and promotes students' knowledge construction.What this paper addsA concept mapping‐based IR (CM‐IR) learning approach is proposed to improve students' scientific inquiry performance.A quasi‐experimental design was conducted with 10th‐grade students on the 'Plant identification' unit of the scientific inquiry course.The experimental results show that the proposed approach can significantly improve students' learning achievement, learning motivation and learning attitude.Implications for practice and/or policyThe CM‐IR learning approach could be an effective method to facilitate students' learning performances and motivation in scientific inquiry.It is worth promoting the CM‐IR learning approach in school settings since it is low‐cost and enables learning anywhere using mobile devices.Scholars and educators are encouraged to work on how AI technologies applications can be applied to support learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While research shows that responsive teaching fosters students' disciplinary learning and equitable opportunities for participation, there is yet much to know about how teachers come to be responsive to their students' experiences in the science classroom. In this work, we set out to examine whether and how engaging teachers as learners in doing science may support responsive instructional practices. We draw on data from a year‐long blended‐online science professional development (PD) program that began with an emphasis on teachers' doing science and progressed to supporting their attention to their students' doing science. By analyzing videos from teachers' classrooms collected throughout the PD, we found that teachers became more stable in attending and responding to their students' thinking. In this article, we present evidence from teachers' reflections that this stability was supported by the teachers' intellectual and emotional experiences as learners. Specifically, we argue that engaging in extended scientific inquiry provided a basis for the teachers having epistemic empathy for their students—their tuning into and appreciating their students' intellectual and emotional experiences in science, which in turn supported teachers' responsiveness in the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study of bird remains from the Koziarnia Cave (Poland) revealed the presence of nearly a dozen bony shreds (snags) projecting from the natural canals in bones; the snags were made of a material that accumulated during the Late Pleistocene. This paper describes this phenomenon and determines the most probable agent responsible for its occurrence by utilizing observations of snag microstructure, taphonomic analysis of bird assemblages from Koziarnia Cave, and surveys of collected bird remains (modern and fossilized). The presence of snag may be a good qualitative indicator of an agent responsible for the accumulation of bird bones at archeological sites and could be useful in future taphonomic studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has demonstrated the potential of examining log‐file data from computer‐based assessments to understand student interactions with complex inquiry tasks. Rather than solely providing information about what has been achieved or the accuracy of student responses (product data), students' log files offer additional insights into how the responses were produced (process data). In this study, we examined students' log files to detect patterns of students' interactions with computer‐based assessment and to determine whether unique characteristics of these interactions emerge as distinct profiles of inquiry performance. Knowledge about the characteristics of these profiles can shed light on why some students are more successful at solving simulated inquiry tasks than others and how to support student understanding of scientific inquiry through computer‐based environments. We analyzed the Norwegian PISA 2015 log‐file data, science performance as well as background questionnaire (N = 1,222 students) by focusing on two inquiry tasks, which required scientific reasoning skills: coordinating the effects of multiple variables and coordinating theory and evidence. Using a mixture modeling approach, we identified three distinct profiles of students' inquiry performance: strategic, emergent, and disengaged. These profiles revealed different characteristics of students' exploration behavior, inquiry strategy, time‐on‐task, and item accuracy. Further analyses showed that students' assignment to these profiles varied according to their demographic characteristics (gender, socio‐economic status, and language at home), attitudes (enjoyment in science, self‐efficacy, and test anxiety), and science achievement. Although students' profiles on the two inquiry tasks were significantly related, we also found some variations in the proportion of students' transitions between profiles. Our study contributes to understanding how students interact with complex simulated inquiry tasks and showcases how log‐file data from PISA 2015 can aid this understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined student performance in a computer‐supported learning environment after students undertook, among others, a graphing task within an inquiry context. Students were assigned in two conditions: (a) Students were given one variable, and they had to select the second one to construct their graph; (b) students were given four variables, and they had to select two to construct their graph. Both conditions problematized student work by triggering retrospective action, where students returned to previous stages of the learning activity sequence. Retrospective action correlated positively to knowledge gains in Condition 2, where students were more likely to revisit earlier stages of their inquiry. Time‐on‐task, when students passed through learning tasks for the first time, correlated negatively with retrospective action (second pass), which indicated that there was a minimum amount of time needed to effectively execute tasks. Trade‐offs between time‐on‐task (first pass) and retrospective action demarcate a novel field of research. Lay Description: What is currently known about this topic A challenge for designing and assessing software scaffolds has always been to both structure and problematize student work.Structuring is needed to assist students in managing complex, open‐ended tasks by simplifying them and reducing complexity.Problematizing inquiry for students would come along with prompting students to consider alternative options and direct their attention to aspects that would otherwise remain unaccounted for.Researchers suggest that virtual labs in computer‐supported inquiry learning environments must be accompanied by scaffolds. What the paper adds to this Different linkages of software scaffolds induce different inquiry (re)enactments.Problematizing student work leads to retrospective action, where students returned to previous stages of the learning activity sequence to revisit several applications and rework their learning products.There is a minimum amount of time needed to effectively execute tasks during scientific inquiry.Trade‐offs between time‐on‐task (first pass through the learning activity sequence) and extra time spent during retrospective action (second pass) demarcate a novel field of research. Implications of the study findings Retrospective action may contribute substantially to enhancing students' learning, especially when adequate time had not been devoted to working on certain tasks during the initial processing of learning activities.Retrospective action could also provide valuable insight for configuring feedback in computer‐supported and inquiry‐based learning environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within this article we present a project on the work with Adapted Primary Literature (APL). APL can be understood as a link between textbooks and scientific primary literature, allowing to disseminate current scientific research, i.a. in the context of science outreach, in a timely manner. As part of a science outreach project on biomembrane research, an APL on the ion transport through a voltage‐dependend ion channel was developed and its potential, to provide insights into processes of generating scientific knowledge, was examined. We were able to identify five aspects which had an impact on students' understanding of scientific knowledge generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large‐scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article titled "Förderung von Erkenntnisgewinnung im organisch-chemischen Laborpraktikum durch geöffnete Versuchsvorschriften" in Chemkon - Chemie Konkret discusses how existing experiments in university laboratory practices can be utilized to promote scientific inquiry and knowledge acquisition. The authors, Bicak, Borchert, and Höner, present guidelines on how to adapt these experiments for this purpose. The article emphasizes the integration of opportunities for scientific reasoning and discovery within laboratory settings. The accompanying image showcases the materials used in an open experiment in the "Organische Chemie 0" practical course, highlighting the simplified path to knowledge acquisition. [Extracted from the article]

Science education frameworks in the United States have moved strongly in recent years to incorporate more dimensions of learning, including measuring student use of scientific practices employed during scientific inquiry. For instance, the Next Generation Science Standards and related multidimensional frameworks adopted or adapted recently by more than 30 United States include numerous complex science performance skills required of students. This article considers whether valid and reliable evidence can be obtained in online performance tasks to yield an estimate of both student inquiry practices and of the ability of students to explain their understanding of scientific concepts. A data set from a Virtual Performance Assessment (VPA) task, There's a New Frog in Town, is examined. Delivered through an online system, the VPA task engages students in guided inquiry through problem solving, modeling, and exploration. The VPAs are designed to produce evidence on more than one latent trait in the respondent performance. Results of the case study reported here indicated that maps of student proficiency in scientific inquiry were possible to generate from the VPA data set, using measurement models. Addition of process data through a new hybrid measurement model, mIRT‐Bayes, improved reliability of results. Results indicated overall that virtual performance tasks may be helpful for science assessment, especially if assessment time is short and a goal is to increase the validity and quality of performance measures with authentic and engaging virtual activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Framework for K–12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012) outlines eight practices to represent the diverse ways scientists construct and evaluate knowledge. Engaging students in these practices is a key instructional target in the science classroom. This target, however, creates particular challenges for online instruction, which has predominantly focused on delivering content. This study shows the possibility of addressing disciplinary practices online, here in the context of a professional development course for in‐service science teachers, which we designed based on previous work in responsive teaching. We examine an episode of the participants’ engagement in an online text‐based message board and identify evidence of disciplinary practices in their work. We discuss design elements and instructional choices that supported disciplinary engagement: building instruction around learners’ ideas, developing online spaces in interaction with learners, and privileging learners’ engagement in disciplinary practices as an objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study proposed a computerized inquiry‐stage‐dependent argumentation assistance and investigated whether this can help improve elementary students' performance in science processes and the construction of quality arguments. Various argumentation assistances were developed and incorporated into each stage of scientific inquiry in a computer‐supported scientific inquiry system. A nonequivalent quasi‐experimental design was adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach. Two intact sixth grade classes (N = 55) participated in this study, and each student used a tablet computer to accomplish the designated inquiry activities. One class of students was arranged to use the stage‐dependent argumentation assistance, and the other used a generic text‐based interface. The findings indicate that students who used the stage‐dependent argumentation assistance could acquire significantly better science process and argument construction skills than those using the generic text‐based interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry (SI) has indicated that a teacher's knowledge of each, however well developed, is not sufficient to ensure that these conceptions necessarily manifest themselves in classroom practice (Lederman & Druger, 1985; Lederman, 2007). In light of considerable research that has examined teachers' subject matter knowledge structures and their classroom practices (e.g., Gess-Newsome & Lederman, 1993, 1995), what was conspicuously absent was an assessment of teachers' knowledge structures for NOS and SI. The current investigation inferred the classroom practice knowledge structures for NOS and SI for four physics teachers. These results were then compared to responses communicated through the Knowledge Structures for NOS and SI (KS4NS) questionnaire and subsequent interview. The degree of congruence between the two knowledge structures was gauged at the level of included concepts, connections between concepts, and for other organizational or thematic elements. The results indicated limited congruence between teachers' knowledge structures for NOS and SI and those espoused in their classroom practice. Most notable was the dearth of connections evidenced between constituent aspects in the latter. The necessity of having teacher candidates explicitly reflect on the structure of the subject matter they are learning for teaching is reiterated through the findings of the current study. The utility of the KS4NS as tool to foster such reflections specifically regarding conceptualization of NOS and SI independent of, or in conjunction with, traditional subject matter also warrants further investigation, particularly in light of the recently released Next Generation Science Standards and their highly integrative conception of science. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 51: 1150-1184, 2014 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helping students develop informed views about scientific inquiry (SI) has been and continues to be a goal of K-12 science education, as evidenced in various reform documents. Nevertheless, research focusing on understandings of SI has taken a perceptible backseat to that which focuses on the 'doing' of inquiry. We contend that this is partially a function of the typical conflation of scientific inquiry with nature of science (NOS), and is also attributable to the lack of a readily accessible instrument to provide a meaningful assessment of learners' views of SI. This article (a) outlines the framework of scientific inquiry that undergirds the Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI) questionnaire; (b) describes the development of the VASI, in part derived from the Views of Scientific Inquiry (VOSI) questionnaire; (c) presents evidence for the validity and reliability of the VASI; (d) discusses the use of the VASI and associated interviews to elucidate views of the specific aspects of SI that it attempts to assess; and (e) discusses the utility of the resulting rich-descriptive views of SI that the VASI provides for informing both further research efforts and classroom practice. The trend in recent reform documents, unfortunately, ignores much of the research on NOS and SI and implicitly presumes that the 'doing' of inquiry is sufficient for developing understandings of SI. The VASI serves as a tool in further discrediting this contention and provides both the classroom teacher and the researcher a more powerful means for assessing learners' conceptions about essential aspects of SI, consonant with the vision set forth in the recently released Next Generation Science Standards (Achieve, Inc., 2013). © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 51: 65-83, 2014 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent initiatives to improve human health emphasize the need to effectively and appropriately translate new knowledge gleaned from basic biomedical and behavioral research to clinical and community application. To maximize the beneficial impact of scientific advances in clinical practice and community health, and to guard against potential deleterious medical and societal consequences of such advances, incorporation of bioethics at each stage of clinical and translational science research is essential. At the earliest stage, bioethics input is critical to address issues such as whether to limit certain areas of scientific inquiry. Subsequently, bioethics input is important to assure not only that human subjects trials are conducted and reported responsibly, but also that results are incorporated into clinical and community practices in a way that promotes and protects bioethical principles. At the final stage of clinical and translational science research, bioethics helps to identify the need and approach for refining clinical practices when safety or other concerns arise. The framework we present depicts how bioethics interfaces with each stage of clinical and translational science research, and suggests an important research agenda for systematically and comprehensively assuring bioethics input into clinical and translational science initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The preeminence of science in the United States is endangered for multiple reasons, including mediocre achievement in science education by secondary school students. A group of scientists at Oregon Health and Science University has established a class to teach the process of scientific inquiry to local high school students. Prominent aspects of the class include pairing of the student with a mentor; use of a journal club format; preparation of a referenced, hypothesis driven research proposal; and a "hands-on" laboratory experience. A survey of our graduates found that 73% were planning careers in health or science. In comparison to conventional science classes, including chemistry, biology, and algebra, our students were 7 times more likely to rank the scientific inquiry class as influencing career or life choices. Medical schools should make research opportunities widely available to teenagers because this experience dramatically affects one's attitude toward science and the likelihood that a student will pursue a career in science or medicine. A federal initiative could facilitate student opportunities to pursue research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript develops a framework for software maintenance. The development is based on an approach called 'grounded theory', which is an iterative process of theory formation and empirical assessment. The framework's purpose is to unite past theoretical concepts and scientifically observed facts. The result is a four-component model consisting of programmers, source code, maintenance requirement, and organizational influences. The interaction of these four components provides 16 distinct areas of software maintenance inquiry. The manuscript concludes by providing sample uses and implications for the use of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

winters j. & ballou k.a. (2004) Journal of Advanced Nursing 45(5), 533–535 The idea of nursing science In response to the question of the idea of nursing as a legitimate science, Edwards (1999) claims that it does not qualify as a legitimate science. He bases his claim on the assumption that legitimate science must be empirical. Edwards defends his claim based on the lack of consensus and development in nursing philosophy during the past 40 years and, as he describes it, the lack of ends (or truth) of nursing science. The aim of this response is to refute Edwards’ conclusion. The basis for this refutation is twofold. First, legitimate science includes both empirical and non-empirical scientific methods. Second, evidence of development of a nursing school of philosophical thought is found in the nursing literature. Empirical science is only one mode of inquiry in nursing. Philosophical and non-empirical methodologies are gaining increasing importance as modes of scientific inquiry. I therefore contend that nursing would be better served to continue applying an offensive effort into integrating all applicable modes of scientific inquiry into the discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the problems and solutions related to peer review of scientific research papers, including issues pertaining to publication bias and internationalisation. He highlights that most papers in many international journals are predominantly from one or two countries or regions. He also discusses the importance of ensuring equal access to publication for researchers and also acknowledges the invaluable contribution of international reviewers to the European Journal of Cancer Care.