History teachers can enhance their subject-matter expertise by experiencing the process of historical inquiry, in which they analyze and interpret sources to construct their own understanding of the past, much like professional historians. In history education, source-based inquiry learning has been emphasized because it enables students to engage with the essence of the historical inquiry process beyond mere knowledge acquisition. However, in many classrooms, historical sources are still used primarily to confirm or illustrate textbook content. Therefore, authentic source-based inquiry learning requires students to formulate their own inquiry questions, examine various sources, and construct historical meaning independently. Based on this perspective, this study designed a source-based inquiry learning program focusing on King Gongmin’s reform policies during the late Goryeo period. The researcher first reviewed previous studies on the reforms. The conventional interpretation of his policies as “anti-Yuan (反元) reforms,” which originated during the Japanese colonial period, has recently been challenged, leading to ongoing historiographical debates. Based on this review, the researcher developed inquiry questions and analyzed primary sources through the historical inquiry process. In addition, an analysis of the national curriculum and history textbooks further revealed that textbook narratives still describe King Gongmin’s reforms as “anti-Yuan reforms” and that inquiry activities remain limited to factual verification. To address these issues, this study designed a two-session source-based inquiry lesson centered on the question, “Did King Gongmin really pursue anti-Yuan reforms?” The lessons were structured based on the teacher’s own inquiry process, employing multiple sources for corroboration and providing opportunities for students to independently construct historical meaning. Such a design not only deepens the teacher’s engagement with historical inquiry but also helps students understand history “as history,” thereby realizing the core purpose of history education. When history teachers continuously engage in historical inquiry and design lessons accordingly, their subject-matter expertise gradually deepens. This approach demonstrates the potential of source-based inquiry learning as a central framework for both teacher development and student-centered, meaningful history education. Furthermore, by accumulating classroom cases of source-based inquiry learning, teachers can design a semester-long teacher education curriculum centered on authentic historical inquiry.
Chunsan Lee (Wed,) studied this question.