A key feature of the 2019 Curriculum Guidelines: Civics and Society is the unprecedented presentation of its learning content as questions. Question-format course guidelines are designed to echo the inquiry-based learning highlighted by the new curriculum guidelines. Textbooks are crucial to actualizing the spirit of inquiry emphasized in the curriculum guidelines. The current study proposed an analytical framework that integrates the social inquiry items of the new curriculum guidelines and the inquiry model of the United States’C3 framework. On the basis of this analytical framework, the current study investigated whether and how textbooks implement inquiry-based learning. Content and text analyses were performed to analyze various civics and society textbooks. The results indicate that the numbers of questions in these textbooks are higher than those in previous ones and that the increased use of questions demonstrates an intention to guide students in exploring through questions. However, the following three shortcomings of these textbooks were identified: (1) a lack of opportunities for argument creation during lesson reviews, (2) weak connections with course knowledge and concepts because of excessively broad referential ranges, and (3) insufficient focus on argumentation ability when viewpoint diversity is emphasized.

　　The latest national curriculum highlights the concept of incorporating inquiry into education. Notably, the introduction of inquiry-based guidelines has begun the process of incorporating inquiry, and more inquiry-related elements have been incorporated into citizenship textbooks. A new course named Inquiry and Practice has been developed that frees teachers from the constraints of textbooks and empowers them to imagine, design, and execute. We interviewed 10 citizenship teachers who reflected on how teachers changed how they used textbooks after the introduction of the new curriculum. In the Inquiry and Practice course, topics related to real-life scenarios and public issues were most commonly explored. In terms of inquiry methods, the combination of “understanding and inquiring about daily life” and “describing facts and quantitative inquiries” was preferred. However, the inquiry process involved various uncertainties, and its recursive trajectory differed from those described in various theories. Teachers learned to plan their lessons without using textbooks. The current study synthetized the interviewees feedback on the latest curriculum and identified a trend in which textbooks shifted from a primary role of dictating the progress of classroom practice to a supportive role as secondary learning resources.

　　Competence-based teaching focuses on connecting real-life situations and student experiences and encouraging active participation in learning to thereby facilitate the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, and promote practical application. Designing competence-based textbooks is a crucial aspect of the 12-year national education curriculum reform. This study focused on the core subjects taught in secondary schools and conducted a questionnaire survey to assess the attention level and performance of textbook editors and reviewers with respect to designing competence-based textbooks and identifying items for improvement. The main findings are as follows. 1. All surveyed editors and reviewers emphasized the following dimensions of textbook: knowledge system > learning support > initiative > inquiry > practice. 2. Several indicators within the dimensions of initiative and inquiry were strongly emphasized and competently executed by the reviewers but not by the editors. By contrast, the indicators that were strongly emphasized and competently executed by the editors but not by the reviewers mostly belonged to the dimensions of knowledge system and learning support. 3. The editors and reviewers both prioritized the dimension of inquiry for improvements. 4. In the fields of liberal arts, mathematics, and science, the editors and reviewers performed poorly in the dimensions of inquiry and practicality. Furthermore, inquiry was prioritized more in mathematics and science than in liberal arts subjects.

　　In 2018, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education enacted the Social Studies Curriculum Guidelines of 12-Year Basic Education, which is the first set of guidelines to require teaching of transitional justice as part of the national curriculum. However, the main learning concepts of transitional justice education and which learning content should be covered remain unclear. Focusing on human rights violations by the post-war authoritarian regime in Taiwan, this study employed expert interviews and the Delphi technique to construct core learning content and main questions pertaining to transitional justice education. On the basis of the research results, the following learning axes of the proposed curriculum framework were established: “understanding the historical truth,”“exploring practices for pursuing justice,”and “reflecting on reconciliation and preventing recurrences.”The three learning axes comprise 15 core learning concepts and 28 guidelines for teaching and learning. The results of this study can serve as a reference for textbook editing and textbook-based instruction.