ABSTRACT
In the early 1960s science educators emphasized the importance of teaching science not as a body of facts but as a process whereby knowledge is generated. In this chapter, an analysis is performed of depictions of scientific inquiry within the introductory, genetics, and leaf-structure chapters of the 1956, 1965, 1977, and 1985 editions of the Holt series, Modern Biology. Random samples of sentences from these 12 chapters were encoded using linguistic content analysis. Terms such as “scientific inquiry,” “the nature of inquiry,” and “inquiry skills” have appeared frequently in science education literature, particularly during the curriculum movement of the early 1960s. Despite the importance science educators have placed on science as inquiry, little evidence exists that this importance was incorporated into teaching practice, leaving a gap between educational research and practice. Part of the reluctance to address the issue of inquiry could be a confusion as to what is actually meant by “inquiry.”
