The Modernization Paradox: Digital Scenarios that Contradict an Inquiry-Based Science Curriculum in Greece
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This study investigates a significant discrepancy between Greece’s newly established inquiry-based scientific curriculum and the digital instructional scenarios created to facilitate its universal execution. The curriculum presents a modern educational vision based on genuine experimentation, empirical reasoning, and the development of inquiry skills; however, the officially sanctioned digital resources depend solely on virtual simulations, entirely excluding practical hands-on experimentation. The study employs qualitative document analysis to compare the planned curriculum, as de-lineated in national policy papers and pertinent scholarly publications, with the actual education integrated inside the digital scenarios. The findings indicate significant epistemological and structural inconsistencies: the exclusive virtual model eradicates measurement uncertainty, procedural decision-making, and material interaction, thereby compromising essential competences in inquiry. This misalignment creates a pedagogical contradiction for educators, undermines curriculum adherence, and jeopardizes the coherence of the national change. The Greek instance, analyzed through the lens of international literature on inquiry-based learning, digital transformation, and curriculum governance, demonstrates how technology-driven implementation procedures can undermine or compromise well-structured curricular frameworks. The study asserts that digital instruments ought to complement, rather than supplant, genuine experimentation, and underscores the want for enhanced pedagogical supervision, disciplinary proficiency, and governance frameworks to preserve curricular integrity. The findings emphasize the necessity of anchoring digital innovation in the epistemological principles of science education, guaranteeing that modernization initiatives augment rather than diminish inquiry-based learning.
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