Research and Learning Theory:

Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning
National Academy Press
2001
The National Science Standards released by the National Research Council in 1995 provide valuable insights into the way that teachers might sustain the curiosity of students and help them develop the sets of abilities associated with scientific inquiry. This article builds on the discussion of inquiry in the National Science Education Standards to demonstrate how those responsible for science education can provide young people with the opportunities they need to develop their scientific understanding and ability to inquire.
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309064767/html/

Implications of Brain Research for Teaching Young Adolescents  
Lucinda M. Wilson & Hadley Wilson Horch
September 2002, Middle School Journal  
Curriculum implications for cognitive development of adolescents.
Click here for the article.

The Importance of Understanding Child Development in Curriculum Development  
Dr. Lawrence F. Lowery
1993  
How FOSS was created to provide a competitive, viable alternative to textbook-driven science programs at the elementary level. Research shows the power of inquiry-based learning by understanding student development as it relates to curriculum.
Click here for the article.

When Kids Do Science  
Harvard Education Letter (K. Worth)  
June 1990 
This article takes a look at hands-on science and the arguments for and against using it. http://www.edletter.org/past/issues/1990-mj/kids.shtml  

Changing the Metaphor
Dr. Lawrence F. Lowery
This paper discusses the paradigm shift from viewing the classroom as a workplace to a learning place and explains how FOSS was designed to include social and cognitive constructivist perspectives.
Click here for the article.

Communities of Practice
Dr. Lawrence F. Lowery
This article explains how FOSS facilitates a dynamic classroom environment that resembles a scientific community. Teachers are guides rather than fact-tellers, and students are active and engaged rather than passive learners.
Click here for the article.

Bibliography of research relating to the theoretical foundations of the FOSS program

More About Research and Learning Theory

Research on Hands-on Science Programs

Coming Soon...

The Biological Basis of Thinking and Learning
Dr. Lawrence F. Lowery
1998  
Summary of research on how the brain functions, and how we think and learn.

The Scientific Thinking Processes  
Dr. Lawrence F. Lowery  
1992 
This paper outlines the benefits of inquiry-based teaching (includes reference to ELL).  

Related Publications:

How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice
M. Suzanne Donovan, John D. Bransford, and James W. Pellegrino
1999
In December 1998, the National Research Council released How People Learn, a report that synthesizes research on human learning. The research put forward in the report has important implications for how our society educates: for the design of curricula, instruction, assessments, and learning environments. The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), which funded How People Learn, has posed the next question: What research and development could help incorporate the insights from the report into classroom practice? Responding to that question is the focus of this report.
To address OERI's question, the Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice first considered how research and practice are generally linked. A small number of teachers are engaged in design experiments with researchers or explore research on their own. They constitute a direct link between research and practice. But for the most part, the influence of research on practice is filtered through educational materials, through pre-service and in-service teacher education, through public policy, and through public opinion—often gleaned from mass media reporting and from people's own experiences in schools.
http://books.nap.edu/books/0309065364/html/index.html 

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition
John D. Bansford, Ann L. Brown, Rodney R. Cocking
2000
The revolution in the study of the mind that has occurred in the last three or four decades has important implication for education. A new theory of learning is coming into focus that leads to very different approaches to the design of curriculum, teaching, and assessment than those often found in schools today.
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309070368/html

Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment
James W. Pellegrino, Naomi Chudowsky, Robert Glaser
2001
This report addresses assessments used in both the classroom and large-scale contexts for three broad purposes: to assist learning, to measure individual achievement, and to evaluate programs. The central problem addressed by this report is that most widely used assessments of academic achievement are based on highly restrictive beliefs about learning and competence not fully in keeping with current knowledge about human cognition and learning.
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309072727/html/