Curriculum Inquiry
Inquiry is the domain that investigates the whole field so the knowledge keeps growing. It is the last of the three domains that close the loop, the broad investigation that turns teaching into something the field can learn from.
What curriculum inquiry is
Curriculum inquiry and curriculum research are often used to mean the same thing, but inquiry is given the broader meaning. Research tends to be the narrower term, observing carefully but perhaps not as closely or as fully as inquiry does.
Inquiry has a logical positivist and objectivist orientation. It leans on actual experimentation: a teacher teaches the content as organized, evaluates learners by a set method, and observes whether the objectives were achieved. Studying that process to learn from it is inquiry. The broader scope is what separates it from plain research.
| Domain | Core question |
|---|---|
| Evaluation | Is the curriculum working, and is it worth it? |
| Change | What should change, and how do we make it stick? |
| Inquiry | What can experimentation teach us about all of this? |
A logical positivist and objectivist one, using experimentation
Inquiry overlaps with research but is broader. It studies the teaching-and-evaluating process through actual experimentation to learn whether objectives were achieved.
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