According to John Dewey, Seymour Papert, Donald Schon, and
Allan Collins, school activities, to be authentic, need to share key
features with those worlds about which they teach. This book documents
learning and teaching in open-inquiry learning environments, designed
with the precepts of these educational thinkers in mind. The book is
thus a first-hand report of knowing and learning by individuals and
groups in complex open-inquiry learning environments in science. As
such, it contributes to the emerging literature in this field.

Secondly, it exemplifies research methods for studying such complex
learning environments. The reader is thus encouraged not only to take
the research findings as such, but to reflect on the process of
arriving at these findings.

Finally, the book is also an example of knowledge constructed by a
teacher-researcher, and thus a model for teacher-researcher activity.