What is a social inquiry? Crafting questions that lead to deeper knowledge about society and citizenship

Abstract

K E y P oinT s • Social New Zealand Curriculum . However, it still . • Social " new " idea developments . Its knowledge (informational) and (transformational) outcomes . • The in . crafting - inquiry carefully " activate " thinking citizenship . 20 set 3, 2013 t e a c h i n g a n d l e a r n i n g The 2007 New Zealand curriculum introduced the idea of a " social inquiry " in the social studies curriculum . However , it appears that the nature and purpose of a social inquiry is still unclear to many teachers . The purpose of this article is to clarify what a social inquiry is , to examine its origins within the social sciences , and to consider the contribution it can make to inquiry learning . The article draws on empirical data from a secondary - school - wide local - community social inquiry . An analysis of the questions students and teachers asked in this social inquiry revealed that three broad types of learning outcomes were generated through this process : information - based , values - based , and citizenship - based outcomes . The article concludes by suggesting a number of ways social inquiry questions could be crafted to support informational and transformational / citizenship outcomes for social studies students . 21 set 3 , 2013