Encyclopedia of Science Education

2015 Edition
| Editors: Richard Gunstone

Inquiry, As a Curriculum Strand

  • Fouad Abd-El-Khalick
  • Norman G. Lederman
  • Renee Schwartz
Reference work entry
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2150-0_190

There and Back Again: From Inquiry into Social Problems to Disciplinary Scientific Inquiry

Curriculum has many meanings. Here, it is broadly conceptualized as comprising the domains of, and rationales for, subject matter and intended learning outcomes, nature and organization of instruction and learner experiences, and interactions among students and teachers within the immediate settings of classroom and school, as well as broader societal contexts. The meanings of inquiry, particularly in the context of science education, also are numerous. These include scientific inquiry (how scientists conduct their practice), inquiry teaching (as means, pedagogy, or an instructional approach to facilitate science content learning), inquiry learning (as an active process of learning, which assumes that students construct understandings in ways similar to how scientists develop claims to scientific knowledge), and inquiry as content (as ends, or subject matter to be learned) (Abd-El-Khalick et al. 2004...

Keywords

Inquiry Inquiry as content Learning about inquiry Science curriculum 
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References

  1. Abd-El-Khalick F, BouJaoude S, Duschl RA, Hofstein A, Lederman NG, Mamlok R, Niaz M, Treagust D, Tuan H (2004) Inquiry in science education: international perspectives. Sci Educ 88(3):397–419CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Anderson RD (2007) Inquiry as an organizing theme for science curricula. In: Abell SK, Lederman NG (eds) Handbook of research on science education. Erlbaum, Mahwah, pp 807–830Google Scholar
  3. Deboer GE (2004) Historical perspectives on inquiry teaching in schools. In: Flick LB, Lederman NG (eds) Scientific inquiry and nature of science: implications for teaching, learning, and teacher education. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 17–35Google Scholar
  4. National Research Council (2012) A framework for K-12 science education: practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. National Academies Press, Washington, DCGoogle Scholar
  5. Rutherford FJ (1964) The role of inquiry in science teaching. J Res Sci Teach 2(2):8084CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Fouad Abd-El-Khalick
    • 1
  • Norman G. Lederman
    • 2
  • Renee Schwartz
    • 3
  1. 1.Department of Curriculum and InstructionUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignChampaignUSA
  2. 2.Department of Mathematics and Science EducationIllinois Institute of TechnologyChicagoUSA
  3. 3.Department of Biological Sciences/Science EducationWestern Michigan UniversityKalamazooUSA