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The use of inquiry tasks is one of the features of the latest elementary social studies textbooks, and according to Taiwan's Curriculum Guidelines for Social Studies, at least one inquiry activity for each unit and one thematic inquiry and practice unit for each volume should be designed. This study, based on the perspective of inquiry-based design, explored how inquiry tasks are articulated in elementary social studies textbooks. Qualitative content analysis was adopted to analyze three versions of textbooks developed on the basis of the new Curriculum Guidelines for Social Studies. The findings were as follows: First, the content of the "thematic inquiry and practice unit" emphasized integrative materials and lacked the integration of social issues. Second, the inquiry tasks employed a question-oriented approach, but the inquiry paths and answers were too limited to encourage students' active exploration. Third, the inquiry tasks in the textbooks favored individual inquiry over collaborative inquiry, and peer collaboration was only included in part of the inquiry process. Finally, the inquiry tasks failed to prompt the active participation of students with a preference for structured inquiry forms. This paper also provided several suggestions for the design of inquiry tasks in elementary social studies textbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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