This research intended to analyze the inquiry activities of the area of earth and space in
Science textbooks from the third grade to the sixth grade, developed by the revised 2007
curriculum, examine scientific inquiry activities of textbooks are suitably organized for
achieving the purposes of curriculum. To achieve them, it was analyzed how hands-on activity
contents, minds-on activity contents and logical structure are by means of a framework
suggested by analyzing scientific activities through previous literature reviews.
Based on the findings, the hands-on activity contents were evenly distributed throughout the
grades and topics. On the other hand, minds-on activity contents involving students in
initiating their own inquiry and manipulating their own thinking were rarely found, which
means that the proportion of ‘suggestion of the explanation which is possible for materials’ was
low in the given textbooks. The logical structure of inquiry activities was only found in 6th
grade among 3rd to 6th textbooks. That is, ‘logical structure gathering materials after questions
and expectation’ showed 91.6% in the 6th grade. It implies that logical structure of inquiry
activities should be considered in future elementary science textbooks. It was also discussed
based on the findings how the textbook needed to be changed in order to purchase scientific
reasoning and thinking which is the goal of science inquiry.